I’ve learned a lot this 3rd and final pregnancy. One thing being that my body definitely doesn’t carry a baby at 29 like it did at 21. 🤣

It’s so incredibly bittersweet as I loved all of my pregnancies and I will never get to create and carry another life inside me. I am incredibly blessed to have my 3 babies and I truly believe they all bring their own charm to our family.

I went in on Sunday evening at 39+5 to the OB triage because I had not felt baby move much at all. She was very active typically and all that day I got maybe 10 movements over the course of 6-7 hours after food/juice/laying down.

After being monitored and given fluids they determined her activity just wasn’t satisfactory. Also given I was 5-6cm dilated and having inconsistent contractions they wanted me to be admitted. Around 9am the next morning my midwife came in and gave me the option to go home to continue to labor or have my water broken. Of course being over the moon excited to meet our baby I opted for breaking my water. She did and I only got a trickle. Seemed odd but they thought maybe her head was blocking it from gushing completely. My MW said she’d be back in a couple hours unless I went quickly.

We spent the next several hours watching and waiting with no real big gushes of water or more intense contractions. Around 4:30pm she came back and checked me again and though it was odd that she could feel the hole in my waters but nothing was coming out. Well apparently my waters sack had a bubble of water on the outside of it (there’s a term for it but can’t remember) and that’s what she initially broke. So she went in and broke my actual waters. That was 4:30ish.

My contractions picked up intensity immediately. Then they got closer together. I had forgotten how intense they could get 😬🤣 My MW made it back to the hospital around 6:30pm. Unfortunately baby girl’s heart rate kept dropping dangerously low so once I began having the urge to push she had me reallly bare down and make progress to get baby out. 4 giant pushes and about 20 min later Clara made her splashing debut at 7:25pm.

She had her cord wrapped around her neck 4x. There was mild panic from my MW and nurses. They unwound her and placed her on my chest. They started to rub her down and she started making the sweetest squeaking noises and cries. 💜 Despite the cord situation she scored a 9 and latched like a champ!

I’m so glad I listened to my gut and went to get checked Sunday for lack of movement because she was working on hanging herself 😩 My goal was unmedicated and water birth..so I guess 1 out of 2 isn’t bad! My MW made the call to not let me in the tub due to wanting to continue to monitor baby and they don’t have waterproof monitors.

We are so blessed ❤️