So on Tuesday, September 29 I had

my 39 week checkup at 39+3. My midwife checked dilation and I was 3-4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She did a membrane sweep and gave me a recipe for a “labor smoothie”. She was extremely convinced that if I did those two things (sweep + smoothie) I would go into labor that night. I was not convinced. Anyway, she did the sweep and I got super crampy and some contractions but went home and about my day. This was around noon. I went ahead and made the “labor smoothie” later that night around 7pm because my contractions had seemed to have quieted down. My midwife had been texting me all evening asking how I was feeling and if I drank the smoothie. She claimed about 80% of moms would go into labor within 24 hours of doing the sweep, smoothie and sex (I didn’t do the sex, apparently wasn’t necessary 😂). Anyway, so I put my 2 year old to bed around 8:30pm and was having some serious pressure and mild contractions but I have been having that for weeks with prodromal labor so I thought nothing of it. The pressure died down around 9pm, and I thought that was it for the night. Around 9:30pm I started having mild contractions randomly, but again they weren’t very painful at all and felt just like my prodromal labor. So I went about my evening until hubby went to bed around 10pm. I started timing my contractions then because my midwife kept texting me and asking about them and I realized they were about 5 minutes apart. Again, not very painful at all, mostly just annoying. I kept timing them and around 11pm noticed they were more like 3-4 minutes apart, but still felt mild. I decided if they were still consistent around midnight, I would head in to be checked. Well right around midnight I felt they sort of fizzled out and didn’t feel as strong so I laid down to try and get some sleep. Well around 12:30pm I felt a pop, but my water didn’t gush out. I didn’t even feel a trickle. I went to the bathroom, and lost a lot of mucus tinged with blood and then some fluid but I couldn’t tell if I just peed myself 😂 Almost immediately after that I got a very painful contraction. I went and told my hubby and said I was going to see if I got any more then call my mom to come watch my 2 year old so we could go in. Well about 2 minutes later another hit. Then another. Again, they were painful but I was still second guessing if I should call my mom. I said in 5 minutes if they were still bad, I would. They were so I called her, and thankfully she lives just 5 minutes away. She got to our house by 12:45am and and we walked out the door to head to the hospital at 12:50am. Again, my contractions were bad but I didn’t realize how bad. They were about 2 minutes apart. About 10 minutes into our drive I realized they were only about a minute apart. Then under a minute. I told my hubby to call my midwife because we were still 10-15 minutes out and I wasn’t sure if we would make it through triage. Due to covid, I was supposed to go to triage by myself and get checked and then hubby could come in if I was admitted. On the phone she was very calm and said okay we will just see what the situation is like when you get here. By now we were about 5 minutes from the hospital. I knew I wasn’t going to make it. I told hubby to pull over but my midwife knew how close we were and she said no keep going! We got off the freeway and thankfully there was no one on the road being 1am. We ran quite a few red lights haha (checking before for cars but we couldn’t wait) and on the street to the hospital I said my body was pushing. My midwife was still on the phone and kept telling me to try and hold it! I couldn’t lol. She was waiting outside of the ER entrance when we arrived with a couple of nurses. My hubby pulled up to the curb and at that moment my body really started pushing. My midwife was yelling for a gurney and I told her I could feel a head. It wasn’t crowning yet though and she said we could make it inside. My body started pushing again and baby was crowning! I said I can’t stop he’s coming! I felt his head crowning then my body pushed again and it was out. I asked if the head was out and she and my husband said yes! My body pushed again and out came his shoulders 😂 She told me to slow down but I couldn’t. She helped catch him and hand him to me. She asked if I wanted to look for his gender since we didn’t know and I got to be the one to look and say “it’s a boy!” I knew it would be ☺️ Of course when he came out there was a giant gush of fluid and blood allllll over in my van 🤦🏼‍♀️ Honestly it hurt but was so different than I expected. I feel like if I had been able to be in a more comfortable position than sitting in the car it would have been bad but somewhat manageable. Anyway, the gurney finally arrived and they helped me onto it (baby still attached by cord to the placenta) and wheeled me into the ER which was right there. About 30 (no joke!) nurses, doctors, etc. swarmed me at that point, it must have been a slow night 😂 Baby was crying and we were both fine so we waited for the placenta. I got to cut the cord because hubby had to move our car out of where he had parked which was not a parking spot lol. Oh, when I was pushing baby’s head out they were trying to get him to move the car. I was like hell no this baby is falling out! I don’t think people believed me 😂 Anyway, I cut the cord and delivered the placenta. My midwife was a badass. A jackass doctor tried to rip baby out of my arms as soon as we got to the ER. I had to yell that he was still attached to me! He wanted to send him directly to the NICU since the delivery was crazy. My midwife said “Back off, I’m the midwife. He’s crying, he’s fine, you are NOT taking him away from mama! There are NO signs of distress!” The doctor said “Well I’m a Doctor!” She said “Well I’M the midwife and I said no.” That shut him up😂 After I delivered the placenta they wheeled me up to L&D and found out I had a 1st degree tear and had to be stitched up. Honestly that was the worst part. I cried😂 After they stitched me up and did a bunch of stats on me and baby and our paperwork, they wheeled us to the recovery room. Unfortunately since I was group B strep positive and did not get my antibiotics, so we have to stay 48 hours. Also, since baby technically wasn’t born “in the hospital” he cannot go to the nursery due to being a covid risk 🤔 Which is fine with me anyway. So, we are now 13 hours into Arlen James’ first day of life and I am so in love. I wanted a natural delivery, and I got it😂 It’s actually been much smoother and less painful than my recovery with an epi with my first. Anyway, I never thought I would have a car baby yet here we are. Arlen James was born September 30 at 1:21am, weighing 8lb 4oz and 20 inches long. Happy birthday buddy!