Third birth the wild card?

[Juvysen]

I keep hearing this. Was your third birth a "wild card", or no?

It's making me nervous. I had never heard that until after I was pregnant this time...

[wbg]

My third birth was wonderful, blissful and awesome!!!
Could not have wished for an "easier" birth!
Wishing you a beautiful birthing journey with your third!

[1babysmom]

Hehe...I posted an almost identical question a few months back because I've always heard that the 3rd is the wild card too!

[LittleLegos]

I heard this too and wonder why... My first two were sooo similar in number of hours of active labor, pushing and even length and weight of the babies. Number of weeks pregnant too. It will be strange to have some thing very different.

[zjande]

I too was told that about my 3rd birth. I had no idea what to expect & was extremely nervous! But guess what, my 3rd birth was my craziest! At least in terms of labor length. Otherwise, it was very peaceful, awesome, & I wouldn't change a thing.

My births have gone like this (all natural births):

baby #1: 24 hr labor
#2: 7 hr labor
#3: 90 mins (!) from very 1st ctx to birth
#4: 3.5 hr labor
#5: 5 hr labor

That 5 hour one *sucked* after having such short ones previously.

You just never know about baby #3! But then, you really just never know about any birth!!

[at_the_hip]

My 3rd birth was definitely my easiest and I have great memories of it!

[ledzepplon]

My third birth was very, very similar to the second one. Definitely nothing "wild card" about it!

[ChocolateNummies]

I've been wondering too since I'm on #3 and have heard similar statements.

[makeuptalk]

I was wondering the same thing

The last 2 births I was induced but didn't use any pain medication. I can't feel the contractions so my labors are easy. My body is very weird. This time I've been feeling braxton hicks a lot. I'm 37 weeks now so I wonder what will happen. I delivered the last 2 at 37 weeks. I'm not going to use pain medication this time either but I'm anxious to see how real labor starts and what it will feel like.

[honeybee]

My third birth was amazing. It was "between" my previous two births in terms of length, and much less intense than my super-short second birth. I hesitate to call it perfect because now I'm expecting #4 and don't want to jinx this one...

Although.... I guess it was a wildcard in that my first two gestations were very near 42 weeks... and my third was born at 38.5 weeks. So, I wasn't really expecting baby for another 4 weeks. When I went into labor, I was sure I was having a girl just because baby was coming so early... but, nope, we had a third boy!

[bjorker]

Originally Posted by zjande

My births have gone like this (all natural births):

baby #1: 24 hr labor
#2: 7 hr labor
#3: 90 mins (!) from very 1st ctx to birth
#4: 3.5 hr labor
#5: 5 hr labor

Geez, I'm jealous. I had a 2+ day labor with dd, seeing this gives me hope. I'd happily settle for 5 hours.

[Juvysen]

Guess I should actually, like, be ready at 38 weeks, this time... just in case. My first was induced at 9 days overdue (for being overdue), and with my second I was *sure* I was going to go to 42 weeks, so it messed with my head when he was only 2 days past his due date... soooooooo... if this one comes at 37 or 38 weeks, that is gonna be... really really early, to me.

[2sweetboysmom]

1st labor 6.25 hours total, w/1hr pushing 7lb11oz
2nd labor 7.0 hours total, w/30min pushing 8lb7oz
3rd labor 2.25 hours total, w/2minutes involuntary pushing. 7lb9oz Kind of felt like I was a cannon and baby boy was a cannon ball. Very intense, but good, would do it again if I could choose.

[naturalmomma1]

Whew, it's good to see all the positive 3rd birth stories! I'm on my third and I hope it's at least not longer than my second, and shorter would be even better! My first was 2 days, the second was 12 hours.

[RedOakMomma]

This will be my third, too, and to be honest...the only place I've ever heard this "wild card" thing is on MDC.

I'm a big believer in biology, in my body, and not old wives tales. My body has handled birth pretty well the last two times, and I'm not expecting anything different this time. I mean, yeah, statistically there are going to be some wild card births out there, but I doubt our bodies are triggered to go wacky on #3.

[HaikuMommy]

My guess is that third births are considered "wild cards" for the simple reason that in our first two births, we tend to look for similarities (just a natural tendency). Humans look for patterns. We want to believe we've got it figured out -- that we understand how our body tends to give birth.

You wouldn't call a second birth a "wild card" just because it was different than your first birth, because you don't have enough other instances to compare it with.

Just my opinion. It's less fun to look at it this way, though!

[gillibean]

My third was actually very similar to my first. It was my second that was completely different.

[Gray's Mommy]

I am hoping for a wild card with my 3rd...first & second were long & tiring. Praying this one will be a bit shorter...

[mataji4]

Originally Posted by zjande

I too was told that about my 3rd birth. I had no idea what to expect & was extremely nervous! But guess what, my 3rd birth was my craziest! At least in terms of labor length. Otherwise, it was very peaceful, awesome, & I wouldn't change a thing.

My births have gone like this (all natural births):

baby #1: 24 hr labor
#2: 7 hr labor
#3: 90 mins (!) from very 1st ctx to birth
#4: 3.5 hr labor
#5: 5 hr labor

That 5 hour one *sucked* after having such short ones previously.

You just never know about baby #3! But then, you really just never know about any birth!!

I had a 90 minute 3rd labor too!

#1- 7 hours
#2- 6 hours
#3- 1 1/2 hours
#4- 40 hours!!!!!

My third was the shortest, and my most empowered awesome no problems fantastic birth!!! I loved his birth.

[Adamsmama]

Nope...almost identical to my 2nd. My first was the wildcard!