Wilbert's birth was...well, I don't have the words for it...perfect/fast/wonderful/relaxed/easy/difficult/tiring/perfect!
Wednesday was a normal day and I didn't suspect anything was happening. I got up at 6:30 with Felix, took him to daycare, did some housework, started a huge roast beef in the slow cooker, had a nice shower, drove downtown and picked up Stephen from work, went to see the midwives (who told me I was at 3 cms, but it could be another day or two), greeted our new tenants who were moving into the rental house, picked up Felix from daycare, ate big roast beef supper, played with Felix after supper, read him stories, put him to bed.
Stephen was finally feeling as though his rental house duties were almost done and suggested we call a neighbour to come over and watch our tv while we took some time together and go for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. It was a gorgeous evening and we held hands walking around Parkdale, looking at people's houses, talking about the future, etc. We stopped in at our neighbours for a quick visit and joked about me jumping up and down to start labour. I was already planning the groceries I needed to buy the next day and the pre-baby jobs I wanted to get done. (4 days overdue and I wasn't worried anything was happening).
When we got home around 9pm we put on pj's and settled in front of the tv. As soon as I lay down I started feeling pretty crampy. I went upstairs to have a bath and in the bath I realized pretty quickly that these cramps were contractions and went downstairs in my towel to ask Stephen to start timing them. They felt pretty strong and I realized quickly that I wasn't going to bed (even though I was exhausted) and that I better quickly find some energy reserves because I had a feeling this baby was coming suddenly and quickly!
The contractions were 3 minutes apart as soon as Stephen started timing them and 30-40 seconds long. With Felix, my contractions never got longer than that so we paged the midwife and called Stephen's mom and asked her to get down here ASAP. The midwife arrived at our house and confirmed that we were indeed having a baby that night and that I was now 5 cms. She suggested we move over to the hospital while we still could (if that was still my plan). This was around 10:30pm.
Stephen then packed my hospital bag (did I mention I wasn't quite ready) and installed the infant car seat. I encouraged him to get our neighbour, Ned, to come over and hang out here until Sue arrived because the contractions were getting even stronger. We were going to walk the 3 blocks over to the hospital, but the midwife called and asked us to drive in case my water broke on the Queensway.
So Ned helped us out to the car and we were at the hospital around 11:45pm. We had to walk all around the building and go through emergency because it was so late at night and then walk all the way back through the hospital to get to the main elevators. Along the way we got some stares, one man asking if I was ok as I was leaning against the wall having a contraction and Stephen was at the vending machines getting me a water. Another lady kindly mentioned that there were wheelchairs at the front door...I may or may not have said "wheelchairs are for pussies". I knew that walking was the best thing for me and to keep labour moving along (not that I was really worried about it stopping...it was pretty strong).
We finally got up to Labour & Delivery and found our midwife. Stephen dealt with the paperwork while the midwife checked my vitals (and the baby's). The heartbeat was a bit high which worried her, but she encouraged me to drink some water and juice and that brought it down (I wonder what a Dr would have suggested at that point!) We walked the hallways a bit and then I had a warm shower and sprayed water on my belly through the contractions which helped ease the pain greatly. On the walk back from the showers to my labour room I had 3 or 4 more contractions and realized just how tired I was (it was creeping up on 1am).
Stephen suggested I lie down through a few (I was worried it would hurt more lieing down, but closing my eyes and resting up before pushing seemed like a good idea). The midwife checked me and I was 9 cms! Baby's heartbeat was good again. She called the back-up midwife and her student so they could be there for the birth. I was feeling ready to push and I had to wait for the other midwives to show up (apparently a nurse could come in to assist, but that could lead to more paperwork, etc). So...I did secret little not really pushes imagining the baby getting lower. Stephen leaned over and told me that the other midwife arrived and I was ready to go. It probably took 6-7 contractions to push the head out (at which point I apparently said "I did it!!") and they told me there was a bit more work to do, but I knew the hard part was over and I was just so relieved. Suddenly there was this squirmy slippery baby on my belly and Stephen told me it was another little boy...we were both filled with happy tears immediately. This was 2am, only 5 hours after the cramping started and 4 hours after I realized I was having a baby that night.
All of my exhaustion went away...have to love those hormones! Everyone was very interested in his weight (it hadn't crossed my mind) and I could not believe that he was just under 10 lbs! I am so glad I didn't know that going into the experience! It was a completely drug free (not even a tylenol) natural birth and only three stitches.
I really didn't want to stay in the hospital overnight and one of the wonderful things about the midwives is they can release you 2 hours after the birth. We were home by 4:30am and all snuggled into our own bed with Stephen and baby beside me...I couldn't imagine anything better.
The next morning Felix came into our room to meet his brother. He may have been more interested in the snacks on my nightstand, but he did say "I big brother now!!" which was heart-meltingly cute and gave Wilbert some gentle kisses on his head.
And so began our new life as a family of 4!
