2.5-hour natural water birth

My first baby took 31 hours of labor. It was exhausting! I really hoped baby #2 would be much faster. I kept telling my friends I wanted a parking lot birth...haha. I definitely got my wish, though thankfully not in the parking lot.

My water broke at 5:30 in the morning, and I woke my husband up. We went into the birth center a couple hours later and the midwife monitored the baby’s heart rate and said she looked fine. The midwife asked if I wanted her to “check” me for dilation, and I said no; it was too painful when I was “checked” with my son. I wasn’t having contractions, so she sent us home.

My husband and I cleaned the house, went for a walk, and made lunch. We had sent my son to my aunt’s house. Still no contractions, which was honestly getting to be a bit stressful!

At 2:00, the midwife called and said we should come back to the birth center to have a castor oil smoothie to move things along. She told us all we had to bring was the champagne!

My husband and I went to the birth center and got set up in our room. The midwife brought the castor oil smoothie (which also had peanut butter and nectarine purée, etc.), and I was skeptical of the method but drank the whole enormous thing. I felt overly full and gross afterwards, so my husband and I went for a walk on the street.

At around 4:00, I started having some contractions. I was really excited because I’d been worried labor wouldn’t start on its own. (I’m no longer skeptical of that castor oil smoothie!)

I felt a burst of energy. The contractions were surprisingly close together. I told my husband to go tell the midwife, who came in. They monitored the baby’s heart rate periodically with a portable monitor while I moved into different positions around the room to being the contractions on.

The contractions got more serious after about an hour and I started having to really focus on them. I couldn’t stand up while they were happening. I got in the birth tub around 6pm and had several very strong contractions; I could feel her moving down. Then I felt like I needed to poop...which is actually not how I felt when I wanted to push with my son. But hey! A different birth.

I had a really strong contraction and I told the midwife I wanted to go home. About 5 pushes later, my daughter was here at 6:44pm. The midwife had to scramble to put gloves on to receive her. All told, my labor was 2 hours and 30 minutes...which is considered “precipitous labor”! She was ready to be here. We named her Gertrude Marie and gave her my last name since my son has my husband’s last name. Gertrude means “strength of a spear,” and I just love that.

I didn’t tear, and I was never checked for dilation. After about 6 hours at the birth center, we headed home. Gertrude is 4 weeks old now and doing great!