I had been getting contractions in the evenings for a few days prior to real labor. They would come every 10-20 minutes apart but never increased in intensity or really hurt. On Monday the 29th, I started out the day feeling really cranky and out of it. I started getting contractions around 2 PM that quickly sped up to 4-6 minutes apart. They still felt like BH, so I didn't know if I was in labor or not, but I was bound and determined to get the house cleaned up and ready for birth if it was actually imminent. After dinner we eventually called my parents to come and get our three-year old DS because dealing with him was starting to get really stressful for me. Contractions still had not gotten more intense, but I was getting a lot of shooting cervical pains. I called the midwives to give them a heads up, and they told me to try to get some rest and to call when I got serious about the contractions. DH and I rented a movie, and as I relaxed, things started to peter out, although they moved farther down and felt less like BH. They continued intermittently throughout the night and finally stopped around 4 AM (my best guess since I was asleep and only woken intermittently by them). The next morning, I felt stupid that we had shipped DS off to my parents house, but my mom told me to take it easy and try to finish up my nesting. I was getting contractions once every hour or so, so I was feeling a bit discouraged. I ate some pineapple and DH and I DTD, hoping to get things moving again. We decided to go walk around the local "Towne Centre" even though it was raining to see if that would speed things up as well. I was starting to feel heavy and I felt what I was fairly certain was my first obviously real contraction right after we started walking, around 2:30. We walked around for a while and I started to feel like I needed to be at home. I felt like things were just beginning, so I tried to finish final cleaning around the house and then set up the tub. DH went out to run a couple of errands and I was all alone. I started to "get serious" about the contractions and finally realized that I needed to call the midwives around 6:45. I was really wanting to get in the tub and was waiting impatiently for it to fill up. I got some snacks together because I was suddenly ravenous and I heated up my RRL infusion and put some honey in it. I carried all of this stuff up the stairs and got the rest of my birth supplies together and got in the wonderful, wonderful tub. My contractions weren't that bad in my estimation (compared to my posterior, pit-induced, stressful, pain med free hospital birth), but boy did that water make everything much easier. I was just starting to worry that DH wouldn't make it home in time to turn the water off for me when I heard him come in. He came up and started doing a few last minute things for me when I suddenly felt pushy during a contraction. This was very confusing to me because I'd only felt really serious about this labor for a little over an hour. I wrote it off and ignored the urge as much as possible. I had DH massage my lower back and press my illia together during the next two contractions, and then he left to do something. I decided to check myself and could feel the baby's head not too far away. I was shocked and called out to him "I don't want you to panic, but I think that we're going to have to do this ourselves." He started rushing around and called the midwives to let them know and I was barely keeping the baby's head inside as I called for him to come to me. He ran in the room and saw that the head was out and I yelled for him to come and catch the body. We flipped him up on my chest and everything was perfect. He was born at approximately 7:40. The midwives showed up about 10-15 minutes later (the traffic was really bad because it was raining) and checked us both out and said everything looked wonderful.
I only really pushed for three or four contractions, which again is in stark contrast to the six hours I pushed with DS1. I didn't tear or even get a scratch. My "real" labor was only 5 1/2 hours long compared to 18 hours with DS1. It was so peaceful and empowering and I'm so grateful for how everything worked out.
I only really pushed for three or four contractions, which again is in stark contrast to the six hours I pushed with DS1. I didn't tear or even get a scratch. My "real" labor was only 5 1/2 hours long compared to 18 hours with DS1. It was so peaceful and empowering and I'm so grateful for how everything worked out.
Congrats! I love how calm you were! That is a great birth, ime...
Enjoy your babymoon! How big was he? 
! Thank you for sharing! Congratulations on your wonderful UC!
Stories like these make me hope that if I have another, it will be easier than my first. Congratulations on your new little baby! 
