At 41 weeks I was over being pregnant, way over being pregnant. 41 weeks was October 26th and throughout the day I had experienced some random, but mild contractions, I thought nothing of it since, at this point, I had convinced myself that this baby was never coming out. So I pretty much ignored the contractions and went about my day. They eventually tapered off and disappeared. By that night though, around 7:30pm they started coming back and for kicks Neal started to keep track of their frequency, they were anywhere from 10-15 minutes apart, nothing alarming, but in the back of my mind I was getting a little excited. We continued on with our nightly routine of getting the kids in bed and having chill time together. Around 11pm or so we decided that we should head to bed as the contractions were still happening, but not as frequently and if they did happen to pick back up we would need some sleep to get through the rest of the labor process. Sometime around 2am on October 27th, I was awoken by a rock-your-world contraction and by 2:45 we were rocking a steady pattern of every 3-5 minutes. Neal and I both busily went to work getting what we could ready for the kids to go stay at my parent's house. Again the contractions, tapered and got further apart so we decided to head back to bed around 3:30am. That did not work out so well, at least for me, Neal slept fine while I writhed in pain at the non stop contractions that had me nearly crawling out of my skin. After a really hard, long contraction at 5:30am we decided that it might be time to call my parents and have them head our way to pick up the kids. The kids were up shortly after my phone call to my mom, I finished packing up their stuff and by 7am my parents arrived and you guessed it.......contractions.....not so much. We went ahead with the plan and my parents took the kids back to their house, Jonah couldn't have been more excited! Neal had a doctor's appointment that morning that we decided he should go to since the action was at a standstill. So there I was, sitting. on my couch. in a childless house. with no contractions. at all. SUCK. By 9:30am I was feeling really defeated and to be honest quite silly, like I had jumped the gun on sending the kids to my parent's house and having Neal staying home from work, I was sort of starting to get a little angry. Neal got home from his appointment at 10am we went for a brisk walk, which did nothing but give me cramps in my sides! We then decided to hit up our local health food store for some Castor oil to help really get the party started. Came home took the Castor oil promptly at 12:54pm and and felt a contraction shortly after at 1:06pm. Then for some added oomph I also took alternating doses of Black and Blue Cohosh for 30 minutes (we bowled on the Wii while I took the herbs, even with contractions I am still a better bowler!) followed by a brisk walk for 30 minutes, which this time was not so brisk due to the fact that the contractions were long and steady coming anywhere between 3-5 minutes. After the walk, contractions slowed a bit and it was another round of alternating Black and Blue Cohosh. Things really got going after the herbs were finished up and by 4:30pm it was unbearable and I thought it was time to put a call into the midwife, whom after hearing me on the phone promptly started her journey to our house. She arrived a little before 6pm, my water broke shortly after that and I climbed into the birthing pool, which almost immediately made me feel a lot better. At this point my body was completely ready to birth this baby, I started pushing a little after 6pm and by 7:13pm a beautiful baby girl finally graced us with her presence. From start to finish of the true contractions that never let up at 1:06pm until she was born at 7:13pm it was 6 hours of hard labor, a far cry from the 14.5 hours with Sophie and the 16.5 hours with Jonah! The recovery has been a night and day difference from Jonah's birth, I feel great and don't feel so out of it this time, since I managed to keep most of my blood inside my body this time.
We are now adjusting to having a 3rd little one in our home and so far so good, granted Neal is still on his 2 weeks of paternity leave, so ask me again next week how things are going! Both Sophie and Jonah love Maisie and have taken to having a new little sister very well.
Our midwife came back Saturday, November 5th, for her first follow up visit to check on Maisie and I. Maisie is doing great, she is now 8lbs 12ozs from her birth weight of 8lbs 4ozs!!
yay! i love reading birth stories! glad this one was a little quicker for you, even if she was "late" :)
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