I went to my midwife appointment on March 5th around 2pm. I’d been having unusual discharge which turned out after she used the speculum to get a swab to be a yeast infection.

After the appointment (I didn’t get a cervix check or sweep done) I started having a lot of cramping around 6pm I was mid eating dinner and got a contraction and couldn’t finish my dinner. Got into the tub, my daughter joined me.

Around 630pm I messaged my doula saying I felt crampy and I’d keep her up to date on what was going on around 7 they were about 10 mins apart and gave the go ahead to my doula to come over (she had a decent drive to our house) called the midwife to let her know what was going on. She said due to our second baby coming so fast to come in in half an hour (830ish).

Doula got to our house kinda went over what the plan was. My husband was worried he’d miss the birth so he wanted to pack the kids up and fallowed the doula and I to the hospital incase labour was very fast.

Got to the hospital around then and admitted and to the room around 9. Got checked, I was at a 3.5. So enough to be admitted considering my consistent contractions. It didn’t pick up super fast but slowly got more intense and closer together but still was about a 4/10 on the pain scale and every 5 mins.

So around 11 My husband (who had been waiting in the car with sleeping kids) headed home after coming up to give me a kiss and reassure me. Things kept on going pretty slowly and around 3am I got a membrane sweep and was at a 4 (cm). Things picked up and got pretty good around a 7/10 in pain and 2 ish mins apart, I got in the shower to help with pain, had about 5 or 6 contractions in there but came out very light headed and needed to rest, as soon as I started to rest pain slowly faded and contractions slowed down again to around 10 mins apart.

The doula and I got some rest until 7 am or so. I got checked again and was around a 5. So we made a plan we started a very low dose of pitocin to keep the contractions more regular and we would increase very slowly (about 2 every half hour) and reassess at 11am.

Hubby came by to check on me around 9:30am. Contractions were starting to pick up but I was still able to talk through them and work through them. Doula came back and hubby took the kids back home.

At 11 my midwife checked me again and I was at 6. I agreed to increase pitocin and break my waters at 1pm was the best route to take. Got my hubby to come back for 1pm as I’d never had my waters broken before but I knew it would be intense. I asked to use gas and air while she checked me (I was a 7) and did a sweep and broke my water. I found this process even with the gas and air to be extremely painful. Contractions picked up right away. I had planned to just use the gas and air for the procedure but change my mind when the first one hit me like a ton of bricks. I was glad my husband was there to hold my hand. I made it about 30-45 mins (the gas and air really puts me out of it) I felt like pushing several times ( exactly how I felt with baby 2) by an hour I felt like I needed to crawl out of my skin and couldn’t handle the pain, my body was trying to push and baby was too far up the canal.

So I asked for a epidural, I wasn’t going to have him super quickly like I thought and I was exhausted from being up all night. By 230 pm I got the epidural in, which was extremely hard as the contractions were terrible (I was about a 8 at this point) and had about 4 while getting it placed, trying to keep totally still. I hugged my husband as hard as I could and tried not to cry. After 3 or 4 more contractions the pain was pretty much gone.

Hubby switch back with the doula and went home with the kids while I rested and waited for baby to descend. At 530 pm my midwife came and checked me she said I was at a 9 and baby was super low. It was almost time. We waited until 545 to call my husband. We should have called at 530. It is a 15 min drive.

By 6 I was ready to push and he just left the house. So we waited, I could feel baby descending and the urge to push was extremely strong. I just relaxed and tried not to laugh or push. During each contraction I felt baby coming, and my body slowly kicking baby out. 615 I was watching the map for my husband and saw he was almost here so I sent out my doula to meet him at the door. She ran down and he ran up. While that was happening I got onto my hands and knees (not the easiest thing to do with an epidural) and the rest of the team started to get ready. He came through the doors and I started to push.

Baby was born less then 10 mins later and about 3 contractions. A little boy.

Born in March 6 629 pm

8lbs 9oz 20inches