I started having irregular contractions on Christmas. I was due December 27, but from Christmas night on, I was having sporadic contractions.
Around 3 pm on New Years, the contractions started coming a little more regularly, about 20-30 minutes apart. By 8 that night, they were roughly 10-15 minutes apart again. We sent our midwife a text to let her know what was going on, and she told me to take a bath and try and get some sleep. I did, and went to bed around 11. The contractions had pretty much died out again. I went to sleep and slept until 2 or so. They were roughly an hour apart. Went to the bathroom, had some bloody show, went back to bed. At 3, they started coming 10-15 minutes again and were getting difficult to work through laying down, so I got out of bed around 4. I started watching The Office to distract myself, and then suddenly the contractions were coming every 5 minutes or so. They had gotten very intense, so I woke Zach up after 3 of those. He came out and helped me through some and called Kat. Kat and her assistant showed up a little while later and they set up the birth pool. At some point, before Kat got here, Noah woke up. Zach's mom took him back in the room and put him back down to sleep. Shortly after Kat got here, she listened to LB's heartbeat and checked me- I was dilated to 6 already. The contractions started coming right on top of each other shortly after that. Around 5:30, the pool was finally ready and I climbed in. The relief was instantaneous. I was sitting in a sort of squat and was starting to feel like pushing already, and after a few contractions in the water, I started pushing without being able to stop. Everything happened pretty fast after that. Kat told me on the next contraction to reach down and see if I could feel the head. My body just took over, and I was pushing again, so I reached down and I could feel the head. Feeling the head coming out with my hand was a really incredible feeling! Another push and the head was almost all the way out. After resting for a minute, I pushed with the next contraction, and Little Bug was out! I pulled her to my chest, and Kat had to use the suction bulb to clear her airways before she would cry. She also had the cord wrapped around her body (not her neck, just her body), so Kat unwrapped that and then she cried. We still didn't know if it was a boy or girl. I think somebody asked and I looked and said its a girl! She started nursing shortly after, and after a while, I got out of the pool to deliver the placenta. After that happened and Haley nursed a whole lot more, Kat checked me over and her assistant did the newborn exam and weighed and measured her. I know at some point before she was weighed, I commented on how small she was. She's 8 pounds, 4 ounces, which is over 1 1/2 pounds smaller than Noah was- no wonder I thought she was tiny!
She's nursing well and is super adorable. Noah has a cold so he hasn't been able to get too close to her yet, but he seems ok with her right now.
From the start of active labor to birth was 2 hours and 6 minutes. It was crazy fast! All the irregular contractions had been doing something. =)
I'm sure I'm leaving some things out, but that's how I remember it right now.
Haley is named after Zach's great grandpa Hal (hence the spelling) and Marie comes from me and my grandma.
