I had a natural birth with my first baby at a birth center so I knew I wanted to do natural again with my second and having had a 9 hour labor with my first, my midwife told me she expected the second to be half that time.

I didn’t have any Braxton Hicks contractions at all throughout the pregnancy... So day before my due date, I woke up as usual thinking “well he’s probably going to be over due, today is not the day” and went to have some breakfast. After eating, I suddenly felt like cleaning the whole house and after a few hours of that my back was killing me and I felt like I had to use the restroom.

It was 12:30

The moment I sat down on the toilet, I felt a strong cramp with even stronger back pain and wondered if that could be a contraction (believe it or not I forgot what they felt like) so I called my sister in law describing what I felt and she confirmed it was a contraction!

By then I had felt a few, about 5 minutes apart. I called my midwife and told her what was going on and she said call me back in 20 min to confirm they’re still consistent but then called me back and tells me she’s on her way. I call my mom in law to pick up my daughter, call my husband telling him things are happening and start prepping some towels etc.

Contractions start getting stronger and about 3 min apart by the time midwife comes with her assistants and start checking my vitals.

I labor for some time as husband sets up the birth pool. I feel contractions getting stronger and midwife asks if I want to be checked for dilation and I say no not wanting to be disappointed. They suggest me to get in the tub for some relief and midwife tells me she needs to check dilation because if I’m a 2 or less there’s no point of the tub since it’ll only make me dehydrated.

She checks and I’m at 7 😱 I was shocked because I had been laboring for less than 3 hours at that point.

In the tub I felt so much relief with the contraction but after a little while they check baby’s heart rate and it was slightly dripping so they had me get out. I start feeling like pushing but my water still hasn’t broken. We wait with a few more contractions for it to break and still nothing so she goes in and breaks it.

I give a push and nothing. Next push the head is out, and on the third push he flies out and then he’s in my arms 🙈❤️

It was 4:39

So in love with our little James !! ❤️❤️