So Friday 10/20 I think my water breaks but it turned out to be just an excess of liquid mucus. Great. But Saturday and Sunday I start to have stronger and more frequent contractions than my usual Braxton-Hicks. Sunday night around 8p they are actually painful to the point I can’t NOT focus on them, so I begin timing to find a definite pattern of lasting 45secs-1 min, every 7 minutes. By 11 I’m calling my midwife as they are now 5 mins apart lasting a minute. I try to go to sleep through them but cannot, so we meet at 5a at my birthing center with contractions coming every 4 mins, lasting a little over a minute. We get on the birth ball, walk the stairs, & I even lay down for a bit as I find I’m 5cm but fully effaced, but I’m getting used to the levels of the contractions so better able to rest in between. Labor slows down to contractions now every 5-6 minutes. We get into the tub around 10a, & by 12 noon things haven’t really progressed past 7cm. My midwife broke my waters and whoooosh my contractions picked right up! Way more intense and they start being closer and closer. By around 12:55 I was having the strong urge to bear down and push, & pushed for about 20 mins before my little love came out in the water. He came out with his left arm by his ear so I got a little tear that required 5 little stitches, but he’s perfect! He looks just like me with his dads nose instead. So 17 hours of active labor later and my love has arrived exactly 1 week before his due date. It is SO AMAZING what our bodies are capable of if we just let go and let our bodies do the work.

Hezekiah Anthony, 6lbs 12oz, 20in long