Here it is...I'll warn you that it's long...but you can just look at the pics if you want 
The short version is that active labor was about two hours, three pushes and he was born. Good thing we had planned a HB! We changed his name when he was two days old 
Website: http://web.mac.com/jayandlaura/iWeb/...th/Photos.html
Caleb’s Birth
Caleb Patterson Dover 9 lbs. 2 oz., 21 inches
Born on his due date, 11/5/07 at 6:35 PM
Monday morning I woke up and almost immediately started having contractions every 15- 20 minutes. I had planned a busy day, so I went ahead with my plans thinking that if this was it then keeping busy would just help things along. Isaac and I ran errands and then went to the chiropractor and my 40 week checkup with Evelyn, my midwife. Her office was busy but we chatted n the hall and I remember her saying she was hoping for five births this week! I saw her assistant, Shannon, and everything checked out well; baby seemed in good position and heart rate was in the 140s, my BP was low and still no swelling. I made my next appointment and we headed home. I fed Isaac and while he was eating I had a few contractions I had to walk through since they were a bit uncomfortable. They were still about 15 -20 minutes apart. I was doing laps around the island in the kitchen in between eating lunch and tending to Isaac. He went down for his nap around 12:45 and I finished up a few chores and called my friend Nicki around 2:15. I told her I was probably in early labor and I thought the baby would likely be born tomorrow. But then again, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just prodromal labor. She said she’d rather get on a plane and try to get here for the birth, so she made arrangements to fly out on the next plane to Baltimore, which would arrive around 7:30pm.
I lay down for a nap at about 2:30. I got up with Isaac around 3:30 and texted Jay to let him know that possibly contractions were getting closer together. He immediately called back and wanted to know if he should come home. I told him that they were still far enough apart that I didn’t need to time them and they weren’t uncomfortable enough that I had a hard time taking care of Isaac and doing things around the house. He called back thirty minutes later and said he was coming home early.
By the time he arrived home at 4:30 I had just started timing contractions since they seemed really close together. I had also just called Evelyn and Bobbie, the doula we hired for sibling-care during the birth, to let them know what was going on. My contractions were short (20-30 seconds long) but coming every two to five minutes. Jay dropped our dog, Tahoe, off at a neighbor’s house and started filling the birth pool. I had a snack and we were both assuming that we were settling in for a long night of labor. Jay bathed Isaac and read him a few books while I walked around and timed contractions.
Jay wanted me to call Evelyn but I insisted that my contractions were too short…I kept thinking back to the Bradley class we took when pregnant with Isaac. Five minutes apart, lasting one minute for an hour. My contractions had just started being painful, were too short and I could still talk through them. I started to have some nausea and draped myself over the birth ball for a little while before deciding a shower might be nice.
5:50 I went upstairs to take a shower and Jay came up to check on me and said that he was going to call Bobbie to watch Isaac so that he could be with me. I told him it was too early, but he called both Evelyn and Bobbie to say that they should come to the house. Bobbie must have been close by because I was still in the shower when she arrived and came up to let me know she was here. She asked if I was feeling any rectal pressure and I said yes. She called Evelyn, who was already on the way but stuck in Beltway traffic. Evelyn told her to prep the birth supplies and then Bobbie handed me the phone. Evelyn wanted to know how I was, had there been any bloody show, and what kind of pressure I was feeling. I remember telling her I was “doing okay”, no bloody show yet and that “if I could just take a dump, I thought I would feel better” She said “okay, I’ll be right there”.
6:25 Bobbie went downstairs to talk to Jay get Isaac’s evening/morning routine down while I dried off. I sat down on the toilet to try to have a bowel movement and felt and heard my water break almost as soon as I sat down. I shouted. “My water just broke!” Then, “I have to PUSH!” I got off the toilet and onto my hands and knees as fast as possible and roared, “The baby is coming NOW!” As I got down on the floor I lost my mucous plug, which I was looking at with great interest since it was right in front of me on the floor and I never lost it all at once with Isaac. That was the first bloody show I had.
Jay was still feeding Isaac dinner downstairs and Bobbie came running upstairs. Luckily when I got off the toilet, I had the presence of mind to back up to the door. I remember Bobbie asking me if I wanted to get into the birth pool (which was only half full of water). I told her that there was no way I could go anywhere! I wasn’t kidding when I said the baby was coming NOW! The bathroom is too narrow for more than one person, so I was on my hands and knees with Bobbie behind me, partly in the bathroom, partly in the hallway. When she came in she threw down some towels under me. The overwhelming urge to push took over and I could feel the baby’s head descend as I screamed. There was no way to slow or stop the feeling; the baby and my body were doing it without any conscious input from me. I asked if she could see the head and then at that moment felt the head slide back up and told her so. She was supporting my perineum and on the next push the head was born as I held the head and shouted again. I remember her saying, “This kid has a lot of hair!”
At that point I had a short break in contractions and pushed up so I was supporting my upper body between the sink and the edge of the tub. Then I had to push again and got back on all fours and in the next push the body was born. As the body was being born it felt like Bobbie was lifting/pulling the body and I yelled at her to stop pulling the baby. I presume she was trying to keep the baby off the floor. I could feel tearing. He was out seconds later and she told me to hold still while she suctioned the baby’s mouth and nose and announced, “ You have a beautiful baby boy” “Another boy?” I asked, though I think I already knew it and wished she would have let me discover it for myself.
As soon as he was crying, I carried him, wrapped in a towel into the bedroom and sat on the bed to nurse him. It was the most instinctive thing to do, but honestly I was also worried what would happen if I started to bleed and Evelyn couldn’t get there for a while. I knew nursing the baby was the best thing I could do to prevent PPH.
A few moments later, I felt another contraction and stood up to deliver the placenta but it was a huge gush of blood and clots instead. Within ten more minutes, I had another contraction and delivered a healthy placenta. I tied the cord and Jay cut it.
Shortly after the birth, Shannon, one of Evelyn’s birth assistant’s, arrived and shortly after that Evelyn and Casey, another birth assistant, arrived. Evelyn assessed the situation, made sure everything was as it should be and monitored me and the baby After examining the placenta and membranes, she couldn’t determine if there was any retained placenta/membrane so she did a sweep of my uterus. Then Evelyn told me I had a second-degree tear and stitched me up; the sweep and stitches were far worse than the actual birth. Jay drained the birth pool. Casey did the newborn exam. A few hours after the birth, Evelyn asked if I was okay with getting a shot of IM Pit since my uterus was still a little boggy and I got the shot.
At some point, Jay made phone calls and family started arriving. My mom was the first to get there and then MIL, FIL, SILs etc. After a few hours of monitoring and some instructions on how to care for myself and the baby, Evelyn and Casey left.
I’m glad the labor and birth went quickly, but I wish Evelyn had been there. Things would have seemed more seamless if she had been there. I never anticipated that labor could move so quickly for me after having had a seventeen-hour labor and birth with Isaac. It was a very different experience from Isaac’s birth. I wish Jay had been able to witness the birth of our second son.
The short version is that active labor was about two hours, three pushes and he was born. Good thing we had planned a HB! We changed his name when he was two days old Website: http://web.mac.com/jayandlaura/iWeb/...th/Photos.html
Caleb’s Birth
Caleb Patterson Dover 9 lbs. 2 oz., 21 inches
Born on his due date, 11/5/07 at 6:35 PM
Monday morning I woke up and almost immediately started having contractions every 15- 20 minutes. I had planned a busy day, so I went ahead with my plans thinking that if this was it then keeping busy would just help things along. Isaac and I ran errands and then went to the chiropractor and my 40 week checkup with Evelyn, my midwife. Her office was busy but we chatted n the hall and I remember her saying she was hoping for five births this week! I saw her assistant, Shannon, and everything checked out well; baby seemed in good position and heart rate was in the 140s, my BP was low and still no swelling. I made my next appointment and we headed home. I fed Isaac and while he was eating I had a few contractions I had to walk through since they were a bit uncomfortable. They were still about 15 -20 minutes apart. I was doing laps around the island in the kitchen in between eating lunch and tending to Isaac. He went down for his nap around 12:45 and I finished up a few chores and called my friend Nicki around 2:15. I told her I was probably in early labor and I thought the baby would likely be born tomorrow. But then again, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just prodromal labor. She said she’d rather get on a plane and try to get here for the birth, so she made arrangements to fly out on the next plane to Baltimore, which would arrive around 7:30pm.
I lay down for a nap at about 2:30. I got up with Isaac around 3:30 and texted Jay to let him know that possibly contractions were getting closer together. He immediately called back and wanted to know if he should come home. I told him that they were still far enough apart that I didn’t need to time them and they weren’t uncomfortable enough that I had a hard time taking care of Isaac and doing things around the house. He called back thirty minutes later and said he was coming home early.
By the time he arrived home at 4:30 I had just started timing contractions since they seemed really close together. I had also just called Evelyn and Bobbie, the doula we hired for sibling-care during the birth, to let them know what was going on. My contractions were short (20-30 seconds long) but coming every two to five minutes. Jay dropped our dog, Tahoe, off at a neighbor’s house and started filling the birth pool. I had a snack and we were both assuming that we were settling in for a long night of labor. Jay bathed Isaac and read him a few books while I walked around and timed contractions.
Jay wanted me to call Evelyn but I insisted that my contractions were too short…I kept thinking back to the Bradley class we took when pregnant with Isaac. Five minutes apart, lasting one minute for an hour. My contractions had just started being painful, were too short and I could still talk through them. I started to have some nausea and draped myself over the birth ball for a little while before deciding a shower might be nice.
5:50 I went upstairs to take a shower and Jay came up to check on me and said that he was going to call Bobbie to watch Isaac so that he could be with me. I told him it was too early, but he called both Evelyn and Bobbie to say that they should come to the house. Bobbie must have been close by because I was still in the shower when she arrived and came up to let me know she was here. She asked if I was feeling any rectal pressure and I said yes. She called Evelyn, who was already on the way but stuck in Beltway traffic. Evelyn told her to prep the birth supplies and then Bobbie handed me the phone. Evelyn wanted to know how I was, had there been any bloody show, and what kind of pressure I was feeling. I remember telling her I was “doing okay”, no bloody show yet and that “if I could just take a dump, I thought I would feel better” She said “okay, I’ll be right there”.
6:25 Bobbie went downstairs to talk to Jay get Isaac’s evening/morning routine down while I dried off. I sat down on the toilet to try to have a bowel movement and felt and heard my water break almost as soon as I sat down. I shouted. “My water just broke!” Then, “I have to PUSH!” I got off the toilet and onto my hands and knees as fast as possible and roared, “The baby is coming NOW!” As I got down on the floor I lost my mucous plug, which I was looking at with great interest since it was right in front of me on the floor and I never lost it all at once with Isaac. That was the first bloody show I had.
Jay was still feeding Isaac dinner downstairs and Bobbie came running upstairs. Luckily when I got off the toilet, I had the presence of mind to back up to the door. I remember Bobbie asking me if I wanted to get into the birth pool (which was only half full of water). I told her that there was no way I could go anywhere! I wasn’t kidding when I said the baby was coming NOW! The bathroom is too narrow for more than one person, so I was on my hands and knees with Bobbie behind me, partly in the bathroom, partly in the hallway. When she came in she threw down some towels under me. The overwhelming urge to push took over and I could feel the baby’s head descend as I screamed. There was no way to slow or stop the feeling; the baby and my body were doing it without any conscious input from me. I asked if she could see the head and then at that moment felt the head slide back up and told her so. She was supporting my perineum and on the next push the head was born as I held the head and shouted again. I remember her saying, “This kid has a lot of hair!”
At that point I had a short break in contractions and pushed up so I was supporting my upper body between the sink and the edge of the tub. Then I had to push again and got back on all fours and in the next push the body was born. As the body was being born it felt like Bobbie was lifting/pulling the body and I yelled at her to stop pulling the baby. I presume she was trying to keep the baby off the floor. I could feel tearing. He was out seconds later and she told me to hold still while she suctioned the baby’s mouth and nose and announced, “ You have a beautiful baby boy” “Another boy?” I asked, though I think I already knew it and wished she would have let me discover it for myself.
As soon as he was crying, I carried him, wrapped in a towel into the bedroom and sat on the bed to nurse him. It was the most instinctive thing to do, but honestly I was also worried what would happen if I started to bleed and Evelyn couldn’t get there for a while. I knew nursing the baby was the best thing I could do to prevent PPH.
A few moments later, I felt another contraction and stood up to deliver the placenta but it was a huge gush of blood and clots instead. Within ten more minutes, I had another contraction and delivered a healthy placenta. I tied the cord and Jay cut it.
Shortly after the birth, Shannon, one of Evelyn’s birth assistant’s, arrived and shortly after that Evelyn and Casey, another birth assistant, arrived. Evelyn assessed the situation, made sure everything was as it should be and monitored me and the baby After examining the placenta and membranes, she couldn’t determine if there was any retained placenta/membrane so she did a sweep of my uterus. Then Evelyn told me I had a second-degree tear and stitched me up; the sweep and stitches were far worse than the actual birth. Jay drained the birth pool. Casey did the newborn exam. A few hours after the birth, Evelyn asked if I was okay with getting a shot of IM Pit since my uterus was still a little boggy and I got the shot.
At some point, Jay made phone calls and family started arriving. My mom was the first to get there and then MIL, FIL, SILs etc. After a few hours of monitoring and some instructions on how to care for myself and the baby, Evelyn and Casey left.
I’m glad the labor and birth went quickly, but I wish Evelyn had been there. Things would have seemed more seamless if she had been there. I never anticipated that labor could move so quickly for me after having had a seventeen-hour labor and birth with Isaac. It was a very different experience from Isaac’s birth. I wish Jay had been able to witness the birth of our second son.
