Ben was born on August 21st at 5:43 am. He was 7lb2oz at birth, and 19 inches long. 
Background: The lentil was born in a hospital after about 8 hours of labor. I pushed for an hour with him. We had traditional medical care, and a hired doula. I went into it knowing I wanted to avoid interventions, and we were lucky enough to have everything go smoothly such that I got my wish for an intervention-free birth. He was 4 days late, and had really gotten me worked up just before the due date by providing me with a day's worth of false labor.
I still remember that bitter disappointment with each new day as I waited for the lentil to come, and I didn't want to put myself through that again with this baby. I knew that second children tended to come a little earlier and quicker, but I didn't want to put my eggs in that basket too soon and then have to face a very disappointed induction at 42 weeks. As my due date approached, women started volunteering their second child birth stories, and they usually involved either a radically early birth date or a super fast labor. (The quickest I heard was 20 minutes, where the mom went straight to the pushing stage without experiencing any labor pains. really!) It's hard to try to keep yourself on the long haul when anecdotal evidence tells you to pack your bags and get ready to birth that baby last week.
In the past few weeks I'd been having periods of cramping in the night, and one set of contractions that had been painful and regular during the day, so I felt like my body was getting ready for something. I'd lost my mucous plug at around 35 weeks when I had a horrible cold/cough, and then had been losing little bits and crumbs here and there in the week before the birth. I wasn't getting cervical checks because I felt like that was part of the massive disappointment I'd experienced with the first birth. On Monday I had a prenatal appointment with the midwives and we all sat around and talked about how it could be two days or it could be two weeks before the baby came. The baby had dropped a little and I'd lost a little weight, but those are all normal at the end of pregnancy and have no predictive value at all. We left the appointment feeling pretty well prepared to wait another week or two until the birth, and had even had a discussion about what would happen when I went past my due date.
That afternoon I took it easy, but found time to make a big batch of gazpatcho out of all the veggies our friends were bringing from their gardens. Sweets, the lentil and I had a quiet evening at home, and the lentil went to bed without any problems. Sweets was busy doing some sort of work, but he did find time to help me re-make the bed so that it was set up in case I went into labor over night. (The midwives had us put our good sheets on the bed, then a waterproof barrier over them, then old sheets on top of that in case I bled on them. That way I could have the baby in bed, then they could roll me over and change the sheets and I would have my clean happy sheets to convalesce on after the birth. Pretty sneaky, sis!) That was the last official thing we needed to do to prepare for the birth, so it felt good to get it done. I was a little cranky with sweets for not taking time to hang out with me in the evening, and I was uncomfortable and cranky from the pregnancy, so when he offered to give me a backrub I actually laughed at him and told him to go do his own thing instead.
I was up and peeing a lot in the first part of the night, and at 2:00 I noticed that the cramping that was sort of bugging me didn't go away after I peed. I started watching the clock and it was very clear that the cramps were actually contractions and they were regularly 5 minutes apart. I was able to stay in bed and breathe through them for about an hour, but at 3:00 I had to get out of bed. I wasn't sure if this was just another stint of nighttime contractions, so I decided to take a shower and see if that made a difference. Sweets woke up then, and he got out of bed to do a few things just in case this was really it (pay bills, make the lentil's lunch, etc.) I took a shower, then sweets and I sat in the living room and folded laundry, pausing every few minutes to moan (me) and note the time and duration of the moaning (sweets). It was all pretty manageable, so we just rode out the contractions together for another hour or so. We were laughing and joking through a lot of it, excited to be at this point at last. After the laundry was folded we decided that it was time to let the midwives know that I was in labor, so sweets gave them a quick call just for head's up. Right about here I moved to the birth ball and the contractions started to get a lot more intense. We knew they were intense because sweets made some dumb joke about labor and I totally snapped at him "that's NOT funny." We were getting serious. I told him to get the birthing tub ready.
Sweets spent the next bit of time filling up the tub. It was one of those things that didn't work as easily in reality as it did in theory, so it took a little futzing to fill the tub without flooding the laundry room. He put the tub in the kitchen, with a hose leading from the washing machine spigots, and filled it with hot water until it was about 2/3rds full. The water temperature was perfect, and I made my way from the birthing ball to the tub while contracting every few steps. I got into the tub at 5:15.
The birth tub was incredible. The water was perfect, just like he'd said. I felt so relaxed and supported that the next contraction came and went with nary a peep from me. I remember laying there praising the tub for its perfection, saying that this was just the break I needed from those contractions. It felt so good, I was worried I might stall out and have to get out of the tub. Not to worry, because the next contraction was so intense I could barely stand it. During the contraction I moved myself so I was on all fours, leaning against the edge of the tub with my forehead. Midcontraction I felt a huuuge pop in my midsection and I knew my waters had broken. There was a little bit of blood in the water, but otherwise the tub was still pretty clear, so we knew we didn't have to worry too much about meconium. Sweets called the midwives again, and this time I knew that they needed to come right away. Now that the sac was broken, the contractions were markedly different. They went from being manageable to being completely impossible, and I could only endure them by screaming bloody murder at the top of my voice. This is when things went from zero to sixty in about 2 seconds.
The next contractions came and went quickly. After maybe two or three contractions things changed again. Now, instead of being merely painful, there was another sensation. Now my whole body seemed to want to turn itself inside out, like there was a robot jumping on my midsection demanding I push that baby out immediately. I cried out that I needed to push and sweets was back on the phone again, asking them when they were going to get there.
It took the first midwife, Christine, 7 minutes to get from her house to our house. Those were about the longest 7 minutes of my life. During that time I was trying desperately not to push, but I couldn't help myself. The baby was crowning and it was very, very painful, but at the same time I was completely terrified and that terror overshadowed the pain. I was on all fours, and I didn't think I could reach around and catch the baby should he come out on his own, but I couldn't help but push. With each contraction I would give in to the pushing for the first half and let my body do what it wanted, then try to do that silly "who who who" breathing through the second half so I didn't push the baby out completely. I reached down and felt his head starting to come out, but I couldn't stop myself from pushing. At one point I just begged sweets to tell me to not be afraid. He jumped into that task- even though he was afraid as well, this was something he could actually do to help.
Christine came rushing in and found the birth kit we hadn't even had time to unpack. She told me to bear down with the next contraction and it felt soooo good to actually give in to the pushing sensation. With two pushes, the baby slid out like he was going down a waterslide. He was born at 5:43 am. I caught my breath and sat back down in the birth tub and was finally able to relax. The baby pinked up immediately and we were all laughing and happy again. We called for my son to come out, and he joined us in the kitchen, proudly bearing a present for his new baby brother that we'd purchased together a few weeks prior. He was completely unphased by the yelling and hubbub, and didn't seem at all disturbed by the fact that his mom was laying in a kiddy pool filled with blood and goop, holding a vernix-covered baby in her hands. The lentil and sweets together cut the cord, and then we just sat and relaxed for a few minutes until I felt I could stand and get out of the pool.
The second midwife (Sonja) came in after the cord was cut and the two midwives together helped me get cleaned up and into bed. Then we got to spend the rest of the morning as a big happy family- midwives, sweets and the lentil, and our friends who had come at the very last second to help with the lentil during the birth. We all ate a big breakfast, then the midwives examined me. Because I had such a quick birth, I had a pretty substantial tear on my perineum, but they decided that it wasn't so bad that it needed stitching and they gave me clear instructions on how to care for it for the next few weeks.
I'm writing this on Saturday, and I'm still a little sore but mostly recovered. The midwives were here this morning and they said that the perineal tear has healed up nicely. The afterpains are pretty much gone, my milk has come in, and the lentil is starting to settle into his new reality as big brother. Baby Ben is healthy and back up to his birth weight already and we're all starting to get used to our new life as a family of four.
You may not be able to see it, but the red squares have the quilting- I put little hearts, stars and moons in the squares. Since I don't quilt much, I'm not sure if this is going to be enough quilting for the blanket. I contemplated doing a bunch of stitching in the ditch to pin it all down, but I can't bear to look at it any longer. It'll have to do as is. Now I get to move on to working on christmas gifts.
