Gabriel Theodore

I should start by saying with my first, I labored for 30 hours, so I really was in no rush to go anywhere when I first felt a contraction...

I woke up the morning before around 6:30am with a contraction. They carried on throughout the day with no consistency, but I could feel they were not BH. I went on with my day prepping as I had a feeling I'd probably be going into active labor sometime soonish... I went to the store, took a nap, went on a walk with my 1.5 yo daughter Madelyn, made a delicious dinner, and laid down for bed by 9pm to watch some netflix and relax. All the while I hadn't really had any sort of consistency or rhythm at all to my contractions. There was a point where I had felt nothing for a few hours. I even planned to have my mom watch my daughter in the AM so I could get a mani.

Well, as soon as I laid down for bed, the contractions became VERY intense. My partner had gone to sleep and asked me to wake him up so he could shower if we needed to go in to L&D to which I pretty much said yeah right, whatever... I started timing my contractions around 10ish which at this point were between 4-5 min. Apart. They were VERY strong and getting closer and close. I timed them for an hour and decided it was time to wake my partner up when I realized they had gotten down to 3-4min apart. All the while he's like still freaking sleeping and I'm like no babe, it's really time get up or you won't have time for a shower. This was probably at 10:45pm. He takes a quick shower as I'm trying to get everything together. All the while I can't do ANYTHING around every 3 min because the contractions are so God awful intense. I get in contact with the midwife, to which I lose cell service and think to myself Oh God, I hope she calls me back because I cannot call the hotline to have them connect me to her again. She calls me back at 11:23am and I let her know were on our way with a 40min. Drive ahead of us.

I stopped timing contractions in the car ride, but knew they were close. When my mom got in the car she realized how close they were. Probably 1-2min. We arrived at the hospital a little after 12am. I got into the room, went pee and felt like I needed to poo, but figured I should probably get checked first because I remember it feeling like I needed to poo the whole time I was in labor with my first. The contractions were comimg within a minute, for at least a minute. The nurse said to me in a very calm voice "try to remember, your uterus is a muscle, and you can control it. Just breath through the contractions. So I try to breath, but it literally felt like my body was purging everything out. And it was... As I was getting ready to lay in the bed, another ridiculosuly intense contraction hit and my water exploded all over the nurses legs. I apologized - but there was not controling my utuerus. I was observing what was going on in the room. They were setting up for the delivery before I had even been checked. All the while I'm thinking I NEED MEDICATION OR SOMETHING OMG. The pain was just incredible and unbearable. Nothing like my first.

When my midwife came in to check me, she looked around at everyone in the room and said yep she's a full 10. She said okay hon, you're ready. At that point another contraction came. I pushed one for a min. Couldn't let go of the contraction. It was just one ridiculous push and he was here. No tearing or stitches. No time for my coconut oil perinium massage. Just one long hard push and he was here at 12:24am

I am still in shock, and SO IN LOVE!!

Birth is amazing. Life is amazing.

All in all, active labor was a little over 3 hours. I literally felt like my vagina was being torn apart for the majority of the time. It was incredible. The worst pain of my life. But I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. What a gift it is to be a mom.