Around 9pm ish, I had some spotting. Sometimes called bloody show. Labor usually starts within 72 hours of that. I was having some contractions just like the past several days. Maybe they were a bit more uncomfortable, but still not regular or close together.
From 11 pm to midnight I timed the contractions at 11 minutes apart. I was laying in bed, resting/trying to go to sleep. Shortly after midnight they started getting unbearable in bed. I got up and the contractions got worse and went from 11 minutes apart to 8 to 5 to 2 minutes very quickly. I called the doctor's office and the answering service told me the midwife would call me back immediately.
I told Nico to get moving and felt very urgently that we had to leave right then! He had been asleep maybe 20 minutes and didn't really understand that he had to jump out of bed. So I told him again, LET's go!
The midwife called me back and I kept telling her we were on our way (I planned to leave the house immediately). She could tell I was having contractions and that they were very close together.
Nicolas gets dressed, puts our hospital bag in the car, etc. he tells his mom we are leaving for the hospital.
By this time the contractions were so intense that I would try to leave the bathroom (I was laboring on the toilet) and every time I left I got as far as the bathroom counter and turned back around to go labor through the next intense contraction on the toilet. I knew I had to put pants on and get in the car but it just wasn't happening. I'm pretty sure I was going through transition at this point. I guess my instinct was to stay where I was since I was so close to giving birth.
Nicolas comes back to get me and sees that I am actually pushing already. I had the thought that the feeling I was having was close to the 'ring of fire' and that the baby might be coming out but it didn't make it to my thinking brain yet. Nicolas asked me if we needed to call 911. I reached down and I felt her head and said yes, call. It was then that I realized I was not going to make it to the hospital.
Nicolas called 911 and the lady told him to get me off the toilet, you don't want to deliver a baby on the toilet. Nico goes to unlock door/ tell his mom except the 911 person says, don't leave her! so Nicolas told him mom to unlock the door, but he wasn't specific and so she opened the garage door and then between hearing me pushing and hearing sirens and seeing the lights come down the street she went to open the front door.
Meanwhile, I managed to get a break in contractions long enough to get off the toilet and into the tub. Let me clarify here, there was no time for a tub water birth, there was no water in the tub. This was not planned and everything happened way too fast for any of that. So I got in the tub and within a couple pushes she was born. Nicolas caught her head and guided her into my hands as she came out. Oh, and my water finally broke as her head came out....
I'm focused on if she is breathing, Nicolas can only see cord around her neck, he tells me it's wrapped, fortunately it was only wrapped around the back of her neck. I look down in relief and tell him it's fine. I unwrap the cord from her body and pick her up in my arms. The EMTs start to arrive, they see baby out, probably they heard her cry before coming in the room. Everything is suddenly a lot less urgent. The baby and mom seem to be ok and everything slows down. The EMTs start checking on how we are, someone suctioned her nose and mouth. An EMT cut the cord. We wrap her in towels. They help me out of the tub and onto a stretcher. I'm wheeled out and see Kyle taking a picture of me.
Kyle took a video, I had no idea there were so many fireman in our house.
Kyle and Genevieve heard me pushing (um, not sure how to describe that grunting/yelling) and then heard the baby cry.
Luc was crying from his room. Daddy, Daddy... He probably heard the firemen and EMTs trooping through the house. Nicolas went to talk to him and he went right back to sleep.
They loaded me and Mathilde into the ambulance and Nicolas followed us to hospital where we were admitted and checked again. I got some stitches and they weighed and checked Mathilde. Sometime around 3 am they moved us to the postpartum room where we spent the rest of the stay.
Some things we thought about after the experience:
Total time from when Nico got out of bed to when Mathilde was born was 24 minutes. The 911 call was probably 10 minutes long or so.
I could feel her head and could tell how much farther she had progressed out. I felt a ridge which I thought was bag of waters but realized later was probably a ridge of her skull bones squished together. I labored on the toilet and then pushed squatting and then on hands and knees. I'm not sure they would have let that happen at the hospital... There were no monitors hooked up to my belly, I had no IV, there were no nurses poking me or asking me 10 thousand questions. It was a pretty cool, joyful experience.
So, for anyone out there with a history of FAST labors, ignore the general 5 minutes apart for an hour rule and pay attention to bloody show and any 'uncomfortable' to slightly painful contractions. If we had gone in after bloody show we would have made it. I have to estimate labor as about 2 hours 20 minutes starting from when I decided I should time the contractions.
You have to click the link to see the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dQs_8bVx2M&feature=c4-overview&list=UUoZA1QCv7u1QJRqEfaS-RqQ
Mathilde Jolene born at home at 1:24 am July 26, 2013. 20 inches long and 7 pounds 12 ounces. We had two different weights but 12 ounces is the official.
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