My husband and I were up late the night of Dec 23. When we finally made it to bed, he started playing some of our favorite songs on his phone and holding it up to my belly for baby to listen. He rubbed my belly and him and baby both danced to the beat. She got pretty wild during some of the more upbeat ones. He begged her to come out soon because he had been so anxious to meet her for weeks. We NEVER thought she would be this stubborn and stay in there so long. He turned off the music and fell asleep around 2:30 am. About 30 minutes after that I started having contractions. I guess she danced her way into labor. 😂💃 I texted my midwife and my doula and let them know that they were starting, then tried to get some on and off sleep. My husband got up around 5 am and got ready for work. He leaned in to kiss me goodbye right as I was having a contraction, took one look at my face, and said “are you going into labor right now?!”. I nodded and he went straight to making phone calls to get the store straightened out and texted my mom. I tried timing contractions and texting my midwife and doula to keep them up to date, but they were quickly become pretty intense and started taking all my focus to get through. My mom and my doula showed up around 7:30 am and not long after my doula arrived I was in intense pain with each contraction and they were coming faster and faster. After my last birth I accepted the fact that I just don’t have the greatest “birthing hips” and I wasn’t surprised when my hips were absolutely killing me through every contraction with the pain radiating across my back and traveling down my legs. My doula stayed with me helping me through them and trying different things while my husband got everything ready in the living room. I was dying to get in the pool! As soon as he announced it was ready I went downstairs and got in. It felt SO good to get in the warm water and helped me to relax a little. My midwife showed up around 8:30 am. She suggested that I get out of the pool so she could check me and baby and see how things were going. I did NOT want to get out of that water! I reluctantly climbed out and went upstairs to lay down. She checked me and said she could easily break my water if that’s what I wanted. I remembered everything getting much more intense after my water was broken last time and had a moment of fear/panic. I told her “I can’t” and my husband immediately jumped in and started telling me yes, I could. He’s so good at paying close attention to my reactions and emotions and immediately intervening when I start having those moments of panic, doubt and fear. ❤️ I told her to go ahead and do it and I’m so happy that I did because it relieved some pressure and changed things in a way that I don’t remember happening the last time. It was good. I started making my way back downstairs but contractions were coming fast and it took a while. I was so happy to get back in that pool and felt like I could relax and get in the zone again.

Something that I told myself I would do this time was to embrace the experience and be more involved. Instead of only focusing on getting through the pain and waiting for it to be over, I wanted to focus on other aspects of the experience. I decided to move into a squatting position and see if I could feel where her head was. It was not hard to find! 😆 Once I felt where she was I got excited that she was so close to being here. I kept my fingers against her head and felt her move down with every push. At this point I had gone from screaming through every contraction to being completely silent through them. I was so focused. I definitely went back to screaming when her head came out though. 😬 I will NEVER forget how I felt the moment I reached down and put my hand on her head and felt all that hair! 😁 Both of my boys had BIG heads and once they were out, the rest of their body followed pretty quickly and easily. This time my contraction ended with her head out but her shoulders hadn’t passed through. Having never experienced this before, I got a little panicky. “She’s stuck! She’s stuck!” My midwife and doula reassured me that she wasn’t and she was fine. I calmed down and focused on breathing deep breaths. Another contraction started and my daughter was born! 💗🥰😭

My husband announced that she was here and my midwife, sounding shocked, said “She is? Grab her!” She later said she hadn’t even realized I was already pushing her out. I grabbed her and my husband helped bring her to my chest. 🥰🥰 My first birth was traumatic for me and I can’t help but let some fear from his birth creep it’s way into each birth I’ve experienced since. I don’t really have that moment of relief and happiness where I immediately hug my baby and cry. Instead I start checking baby and looking for signs/reassurance that everything is ok. “Is she breathing?” “She’s not crying.” “Is she ok?” “She got some water in her mouth!” My midwife and doula reassured me again and again that everything was fine and she was doing great. I slowly let it sink in and became relieved that it was over and everything was ok. I called out to my mom and my doula ran downstairs to get her for me. She told me later that she thought there was no way she was here already, she thought I must have wanted her for some help/comfort during labor. She came upstairs and was shocked to see me holding our sweet girl. “She’s big!” I’m pretty sure were the first words out of her mouth. 😆 I said no, she’s not! She’s tiny! Before she weighed her my midwife asked my husband and I to make guesses at what her weight would be. He said 8.5 lbs, I guessed 7! 😂😂 The shot of the look on my face when she showed me the scale and it read 9 lbs 2 oz is one of my favorites!! 😱😂

My husband cut her cord and we made our way upstairs and snuggled up in bed. Now it feels like a dream. Did I really just have a baby in my living room?! Did it seriously go that quickly and smoothly? Birth has fascinated me for a long time and I just think it is absolutely incredible what we are capable of. ❤️ My last labor was of the same intensity, but the whole process took around 20-22 hours. This time, start to finish, my labor was 6 hours long!! 🙌🙌 I’m so, so happy and grateful for how quickly and smoothly everything went. Anyone out there who is expecting now or in the future, please hear me when I say your care team is SO 👏 INCREDIBLY 👏 IMPORTANT 👏! No matter what you would like your birth to look like, please find a care team that fully supports you the way that you would like to and DESERVE to be supported! If I wouldn’t have had an amazing chiropractor working with me, a smart and knowledgeable doula to educate me on spinning babies and an AMAZING midwife looking after me for my whole pregnancy, I truly believe I would have had another 20-something hour, exhausting, excruciating labor. With every baby that I have I learn so much and the experience just gets better and better every time. I love processing and reliving those moments and I am always so curious about other people’s birth experiences, so I thought I would share my own. ❤️

Still can’t believe I have a DAUGHTER!! 💕🥰 Welcome to the world Zola Beth, our little Christmas <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glow.android.eve">Eve</a> miracle. 🎄