Early in the morning of June 14th, I started feeling like I was in the zone. I started having contractions, but they weren’t hard or regular, just there. Sleeping was kinda hard, I’d doze off then wake back up, then doze off, then wake back up for a contraction. I didn’t want to wake Joshua up just in case it was labor and I would need him to be awake for me later.
The contractions were getting strong enough that I didn’t feel like I wanted Joshua to go to his holy hour, but somehow I had managed to fall asleep long enough to not hear his alarm go off, so I didn’t ask him to stay home.
When he got home, I told him that I thought it was the day. So we kinda started prepping a bit. I called my midwife because the contractions were anywhere from five to ten minutes apart. As they weren’t hard, we decided to just keep in touch throughout the day.
If you’ve never read a birth story of mine before, I usually have no clue how to tell I’m in real labor and my kids tend to come within three hours from start to finish.
This was not the case with Norbert.
The midwives and their student came by at about 530pm and got set up. I was checked and at something like five centimeters. Given that I’d been having contractions for nearly 17 hours at that point, I wanted to cry. This was supposed to be an easy labor. I’d been working out and eating well throughout the whole pregnancy. I’d been doing walkdowns and squats the day before. This is baby number seven, he should have birthed himself!
So after a bit of time and a walk around the yard, the midwives left to go get a bite to eat and left me with the instruction to take a benadryl and get some sleep.
This worked.
Joshua tracked those contractions. I have no recollection of them, at all. I know I had some discomfort, but it wasn’t horrible. He was the one who made the call to the midwives to have them come back around 150am.
When they arrived I was in a bit more pain and the contractions were a lot stronger. I moved to the birth pool right before they got upstairs and had a “push now!” contractions. Then my body stopped doing anything. That is the worst feeling because I started wondering “did labor stop again!?”
Nope, I had another contraction that was also a “push now!” contraction and out he came. His head was partly out, I had come out of the birth pool enough that it would not have been safe to sit back down.
Oh, no, I did not have the energy to stand and go through another contraction! So I just pushed on and pushed him out the rest of the way.
Norbert was born at 230am on June 15th. He came out crying but calmed when he was placed on my chest.
I don’t think it will ever not amaze me how there is no pain (for me) right after the baby is out. It is crazy. The following week, oh the pains are horrible, but for the first hour after birth, it’s amazingly pain free.
I got cleaned up, Norbert has his newborn exam. He was 9 pounds even, 20 inches long with a head full of brown hair. Everything was great, his apgars were nine at birth and ten a few minutes later.
Welcome to the world, Norbert!
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