Birth Day

  

Wednesday... The day started off with Beanie announcing that Baby Bear would be arriving and that he would be catching Baby with his icecream scoop. :) 

I pottered around all day, restless, irritable and experiencing lots of intense but short and irregular braxton hicks contractions. Painful enough to make me stop and sway and focus on breathing through them. Not labour but definitely working up towards it. 

The OH and the boys took apart a broken battery-operated car that The OH had picked up at the op shop. Shmoo had a great time connecting the wires up to a battery and stuck on a strip of paper with Blu Tack to make a propeller. 

After the kids were bathed and in bed, I took my midwife's advice and had a bath. The contractions were about the same intensity but becoming regular and were accompanied by some pressure and hip and leg discomfort. By about 10.30 pm I knew it was labour and we'd be having a baby some time overnight. I still suspected things were quite a while off though. 

We very slowly started getting set up, not in any hurry as the contractions weren't too bad. I chilled out on our futon, rolling off to stand or kneel during contractions. At 11.47pm, I'd just asked The OH to get the drop sheets out, when I felt a gush of fluid... my waters had broken. Things intensified immediately and The OH called our midwife. Within 10-15 minutes I'd hit transition and needed The OH's physical support. I started feeling pushy around 12.15 am and told The OH to wake the kids but only Shmoo woke enough to come out and watch.

I thought our midwives weren't going to make it and that we'd be having our 3rd unassisted birth but just as Baby Bear's head emerged, they dashed into the room. I could feel my midwife's gentle hands on my back and hear her soft, encouraging words, while our back-up midwife stayed in the background taking photos for us. At 12.27 am Baby Bear was born into his Daddy's hands. 6lb 6.5oz (2910g); our Valentine's Day baby, born on his due date. Our teeny tiniest babe and the only one to make it to 40 weeks. Another beautiful homebirth and beautiful baby boy. :D