Baby #1 was born at 41w+5d at the hospital after a last minute birth center transfer while I tried not to push being driven to the hospital. My labor was 24 hours long all unmedicated...it goes without saying that I was very hopeful that round two would not be any worse than round one 😂

So, finally one Tuesday morning when I was 10 months pregnant (42w+3d to be exact) I wake up with slightly painful contractions. The day before I had been to the hospital to get a biophysical ultrasound to make sure baby was still happy and healthy and baby passed with flying colors. I decided to wait the rest of the week for the baby before agreeing to an induction but I did agree to a membrane sweep that day.

So, Tuesday I did the grocery shopping and went about my normal activities... mostly keeping my toddler entertained. The contractions consistently increased in frequency but remained mostly painless the whole day. At 6pm when my husband arrived home from work they were 3 minutes apart and 1 minute long. We ate dinner, my husband set up the birth pool, put our toddler to bed and right around that time was when the contractions started becoming too painful to walk or talk through but I was still fine in between contractions.

The midwife arrived at around 10pm, monitored the baby and I and just let me labor as I wanted to. I labored on my hands and knees or leaning on my birth ball for a while then decided to try the pool for a bit. At this time my midwife tells us that another woman is also in labor and it's getting intense and her water just broke. In all her years of practicing she had never yet had two women in labor at the same time 😂 After getting in the water I noticed my contractions starting to space out a bit so I got back out at around 12am and asked if she could check my dilation as I felt like I needed to know where I was at since I didn't feel like I had progressed much. She checked me and I was just 4cm. Knowing this I told my midwife to go deliver the other baby as I felt it would be longer for me. She wouldn't have left if I hadn't wanted her to but I was sure it was the right decision. She had a back up midwife that lived just 10 minutes from our house who could come if we needed her.

The next 3 hours I labored back and forth from our bedroom to the bathroom both in and out of the water and at about 3am the pain was getting very intense and the midwife had already delivered the other baby and was on her way back to us. When the midwife arrived I was in the water and just focusing on each contraction. At around 4am I told her that I was starting to feel the urge to push so she started getting things ready for the birth and encouraged me to start pushing if I felt like it.

Baby started to crown and in case anyone is wondering it still burns like crazy in the water too. I was trying to relax and allow my body to push the baby out but once that burning got to maximum pain I decided I didn't care anymore and I wanted the baby out and when each contraction came I pushed as hard as I could for about 3 pushes until the head was out and then one more push and at 4:54am our baby GIRL was born.

She was put right on my chest in the water and started crying immediately. I delivered the placenta in the pool also and then was helped out of the pool to my bed just a few feet away. I didn't need any stitches but did have a very small tear that healed on its own. She latched right away and didn't have any signs of being a postdates baby. She weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 20 inches long. Welcome to the world Elsbeth Florence!