Our little boy was born on June 4th, 2008 at 11:02am. I first started feeling irregular contractions on Sunday, June 1st around 1:45 pm. These irregular contractions lasted the rest of that afternoon and all of the next day, but would stop and start, and weren’t really getting intense at all; just annoying…

Finally, around 4am on Tuesday, June 3rd, (his due date,) they started coming stronger and more regularly. We thought that this was the day. The midwife arrived at our house at 7am, and checked me. After a day and a half of irregular contractions, and 3 hours of stronger, regular ones, I was only dilated to 1 cm, and I was only 90 % effaced. I was disappointed. After that, I totally lost track of time, so I don’t really know at what point everything happened.

I labored all that day, and all through the night. Glen was the best birthing partner I could possibly have had. He stayed with me the whole time, except when I sent him to the store. He pushed on my back for hours, and helped me to move into whatever positions I felt that I wanted to be in. At some point, he filled the birthing pool with warm water, and convinced me to try getting in it, as I was beginning to get discouraged with the seemingly never ending contractions. I felt so much better in the water that I stayed there for almost of the rest of the time. At some point, I told Glen to call Chris, our midwife, and let her know that it was time to come back over.

It seemed that I had just recently gotten in the pool that she arrived. After a few more contractions in the pool, I had to get out so that she could check my progress. I didn’t want to get out of the pool, but at this point, I had been in hard labor for over 24 hours, and I really needed to know if I was close. She checked me, and I was at a 9, with just an anterior lip in the way! That really gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going.

After several more contractions in the birthing pool, the anterior lip was still in the way. Glen suggested that we try a different position to try to get the baby to descend, and after pushing through a couple contractions that way, Chris broke my water. I got back into the birthing pool, my favorite place to labor. Soon I was in transition. I could tell because I had 3 or 4 contractions that were really ramped up. Luckily I knew that while transition is generally the most painful part of labor, it’s also the shortest, and that it meant I would soon be pushing. I’m not sure how many times I pushed, but at one point, Chris suggested I get out of the pool to try pushing in few different positions. I did that for a little bit, but was soon back in the pool again, on my hands and knees, pushing. It just felt better in there.

It seemed that every time I pushed, he would start to come out, and then he would slide back in. I finally decided that I was going to really push and get him out on the next contraction. I pushed with all my might, and the contraction stopped right as his head was half way out, which burned until the next contraction, when Chris and Glen helped the rest of him come out. A few short seconds later, I heard the little cry of my newborn son! It was such a beautiful sound!

I had to maneuver a bit to turn around, and Glen handed me our baby boy. It is so wonderful to finally have him here! He is just a perfect little boy, with an adorable face, and red hair; like his dad.

Our little girl was born April 3rd, 2011 at 2:57am. Let me start out by saying that my labor with Guy was 31 hours, so even hoping for a faster labor, I was planning on at least 18 hours. I was at work Saturday, which is my regular day to work a double shift. At 8 o’clock, 14 hours into my shift, I started getting contractions. I remembered my contractions with Guy being more painful, though, so I wasn’t sure if these were just Braxton-Hicks contractions that felt a little more intense because I’d been on my feet so long, or if it was actual labor. So, I continued working.

By then time I was giving report to the night nurse at around 10:30pm, I was pretty sure it was real labor, as the contractions had been coming every 10 minutes for the last 2 hours. I drove home, which is luckily 5 minutes away, and told Glen I thought I was in labor, but I wasn’t sure, so I was going to see if the contractions went away when I laid down, and try to get some sleep. I ate a snack, and went to bed.

Over the next hour, the contractions were stronger, and coming more frequently. I texted our midwife to let her know that I was in early labor, but told her not worry about coming over yet, and that we would call as things picked up and we needed her. She texted back, “Okay..but please call.”

I sent Glen to get our birthing tub, which was still in storage from Guy’s birth, and I took a shower. I had a dozen more contractions in the shower, and I remember thinking, “Either I’ve been in the shower for a long time, or else these contractions are getting really close together.” Glen got back around 1:30am and asked me if I thought he should get the birthing pool set-up, or try to get some sleep. I told him to try to get some sleep because things were still early, and he may not have a chance to later.

He laid down by me in bed for a little while, but couldn’t sleep, so he got up and went downstairs and started getting things ready. Around 2:30am, I called him back upstairs to help me to the bathroom, because I was feeling a little unsteady. Once on the toilet, I told him, “I think you need to call Chris,” (our midwife,) and he said, “Are you sure?” I said, “Well, let me think.” Things were feeling more intense, but I was still worried it was “just” early labor.

At that point, however, my water broke, and I started feeling like I needed to push. “Yeah, you need to call Chris. My water just broke,” I told Glen. He called her, and told her what was going on. “Sh*#. Glen, you’re going to be delivering a baby. I’m on my way.” She later apologized for the expletive. Glen finished getting the tub inflated, and started putting water in it. Then he came upstairs to help me get downstairs. I tried to get into the birthing pool, but the water was too hot, so I stepped back out.

Immediately after that I felt the absolutely overwhelming urge to push. In fact, overwhelming doesn’t even really describe how intense the sensation was to push. Glen was frantically trying to cool down the water by putting ice in it. I squatted down on my robe and told Glen, “The baby’s coming!” He then switched from getting ice to putting chux pads from the birthing kit all under and around me. I’m not sure when in all this he called Chris back, or if she’d been on the phone the whole time, but I know she was on the phone with him over the next three pushes, which is all it took for our baby to be born, right into Daddy’s waiting arms.

She was born at 2:57am. After this, I climbed into the birthing tub, and just held our little girl and waited for Chris to arrive. Chris arrived and helped with the delivery of the placenta, and did her newborn assessments, and made sure we were doing alright. We were all doing wonderfully, so she went home, we went to bed. Guy woke up and was delighted to see his new baby sister in our bed. He exclaimed, “My baby come out!” and spent the next few hours wanting to hold her, and talking about her little ears, and elbows, and fingers, which he counted. It was a perfect experience, and we are all doing very well.