We welcomed our seventh baby on October 12 at 3:09am. Oliver was another surprisingly big baby--he weighed in at 10lbs., 12oz. and measured 23" long! I was guessing he'd be more in the 9 1/2 pound range.
Sunday night, October 10, I lost my mucous plug. Usually to get to that point, I have many hours or even a day or two of early labor. I had a few contractions here and there Saturday and Sunday, but not as many as it normally takes to make that much progress.
I woke up at 4:30 Monday morning having contractions. They were coming about every 10 minutes and lasting over a minute each. We decided Ben should stay home and he started cleaning and getting things ready for the birth.
Once the kids woke up for the day, contractions all but stopped. I was pretty frustrated. Too much hustle and bustle for my body to focus on getting a baby out, apparently.
Late in the morning, I decided to get out of the house with Katie and run some errands. We went to the chiropractor, and he confirmed that Baby was much lower than he was when I had been in last and he did adjust my lower back/pelvis.
Then we went to Goodwill. Katie had been asking to go to Goodwill together for a few weeks and I figured this was our last chance for a while. I started noticing contractions again while we were there.
From there we went to see my midwife. I hadn't seen her in almost two weeks because I was sick the week before. I was anxious to confirm that Baby was anterior. He had been posterior at my previous appointment. I had done some Spinning Babies exercises with Ben following that appointment. My last two babies were posterior when labor started and it took so long to make progress with both of them. I was relieved to hear that Oliver was anterior and very, very low in my pelvis. We made an appointment for the following week, but Leslie told me she thought she would probably hear from me during the night.
We made a stop at the health food store to pick up our raw milk and then headed home. I started having more contractions while we were driving, and even in the store while we were getting the milk. By the time we got home, I felt pretty sure things were going to pick up in the coming hours. We got the children ready to go and they headed to my sister-in-law's house to spend the night.
Throughout the evening contractions stayed about 20 minutes apart but by 10:30 or so they were requiring focus to get through. We went to bed at 11 and I hoped to get a little sleep before things picked up since contractions were still pretty far apart. But that wasn't in the cards. I did lay down for a while but contractions were intense enough that sleeping in between was too difficult. By 1 they started getting closer together. 17 minutes, 14 minutes, 11 minutes, then 9 minutes.
At this point, I woke up Ben and told him we needed to get the tub ready. At 1:47, I decided to call the midwife. Contractions were still 10 minutes apart but they were long and strong and mentally I was in labor mode for sure. Plus I could feel them in my lower back which made me think Baby was making his way down.
I was already feeling desperate to get into the tub but knew I shouldn't until contractions were closer together. I didn't want to slow things down!
Leslie, my midwife, got to our house at around 2:15am. She came in quietly and started setting up. Not long after she got there, my contractions started getting closer together. We weren't timing them, but it was an obvious shift.
Leslie said I could get in the water. Such sweet relief.
I don't know exactly what time, but contractions started to feel more transition-y and it really felt like it was going to be time to push soon. I told Ben but I cried when I told him because it didn't feel like it had been long enough or hard enough for it to actually be almost over.
Sure enough though, I had a really powerful, long contraction and just as I started to say, "I can't do this," I felt my water break and I pushed out part of his head! The rest of his head was born during the next contraction and I was able to reach down and feel his head while I waited for another contraction. His body came out in one more push, for a total of about 3 minutes of pushing! I caught him myself, which was pretty sweet. Sitting in the tub with him in my arms was so wonderful. He cried just enough for us to know he was okay, and then he drifted off to sleep. When he woke up while we were still in the water, he just opened his little eyes and quietly looked around. I've never seen such a calm newborn!
I feel like my mindset entering this delivery was different than it has been in the past. I prayed before and throughout my labor that God would help me to embrace and lean into the pain of each contraction and really work with my body to accomplish what it was working for. God answered those prayers and I had really effective contractions the whole time.
It was such a beautiful, blissful, and dare I say, relatively easy labor and delivery. It couldn't possibly have gone better and I'm so grateful for the experience. My mom and Katie were there, and my midwife, Leslie, and her assistant, Dorcas, who have been there to help at all 6 of my home births. I can hardly imagine a different birth team! Leslie and Dorcas are so special to me after all these years.
Oliver has taken to nursing really well and is gaining weight nicely. My recovery has been wonderfully smooth thanks to my mom's help with the other children and keeping up with our busy household. And sweet Oliver is so very loved and already such an important part of our family.
I think the older I get and the more times I experience the newborn days, the more I appreciate them. They're so sweet and they go by so fast and I love them so much.
