So…obviously little London had different plans than I did for when she was ready to make her grand entrance into the world.

Let’s start at the beginning – my alarm normally goes off at 4:15 am, but I woke up early on Friday morning at 3:30 for some reason.  Jeff came up after school and helped me get my room ready for Monday when he got off work.  After all, we had a busy weekend planned.  I had a hair appointment on Saturday morning, we had dinner plans on Saturday evening, and this weekend we got to move back into our kitchen and master bathroom after several months because of the remodel.  It was also the weekend we were going to get the last few items for our ‘go bags’ and fill out the needed paperwork for the birth center, etc.

I wasn’t feeling great when I visited my mom on Friday after school.  My Braxton Hicks contractions seemed more annoying than they had been.  I attributed that to them being pointed out during my last appointment at the birth center.  I left my mom’s a bit early to get some sleep.

When I laid down I couldn’t sleep because of the contractions.  I knew at that point these were real, but I also knew this phase of labor could take a couple of days so I didn’t think much of it.  When Jeff came to sleep I didn’t want to keep him up so I went to the office.  Jeff checked on me a while later and I assured him that these weren’t that bad and they were sporadic so he could just go to sleep.  At around 1:00 a.m. I started using my contraction tracker app to make sure I wasn’t missing something.  I knew I was in phase 1 of labor because my contractions were between 30-45 seconds long with anywhere from 2-7 minutes between them.  They also weren’t that bad – I was thirsty the whole time (another sign that I wasn’t in active labor yet) and thinking about what I’d ask Jeff to make me for breakfast.  I knew I would need energy for the long haul so I could make it through this ‘long’ labor.

After a couple of hours of tracking the contractions and not being able to get comfortable in the office, I remembered that in my birth boot camp class they said some women like to labor sitting backwards on a toilet.  I decided to try it.  So I walked past the paint cans, drop cloths, and razor blades lining the hall from the recent remodel.  I got to the small half bathroom and positioned myself backwards on the toilet using the tank to hold.  When I did I had a really bad contraction.  And my body felt the need to push…but that was in ‘transition’ – the last phase of labor.  I hadn’t had active labor yet!  But I had learned that you trust your body.  So I pushed and my water broke.  Eeeeeeek!  

I figured it was time to wake Jeff up so he can call our midwife and get the half-finished ‘go bags’ into the car.  I banged on the wall and yelled to wake Jeff up.  He came out, still foggy from sleep, and I told him he needed to get the stuff in the car.  While he was doing that I called out again so he would come back.  He came to see what I needed and I told him, “I’m having the baby!” because my body was telling me that I had to push.  He hadn’t finished asking what I meant when I reached down to catch the head of my baby girl. With another push the rest of her was out and Jeff was very awake at that point!  He was awesome and called our midwife immediately.  She walked us through what to do until she got there.

The good news is that I knew each step of the way what was going on because of the great training from everyone at Origins and my Birth Boot Camp class.  I just didn’t realize how my body would mix some of the phases of labor and go as quickly as it did.  Little London was born at 4:24 a.m. on Saturday morning (I still hadn’t slept since waking up too early on Friday morning) weighing 7.6 pounds and measuring at 19″ long.  Poor Jeff went from being a sleepy expecting father to full on dad within less than 5 minutes.  We wouldn’t change a thing – God’s timing is perfect!

For anyone that knows me, you will appreciate this detail – Jeff was supposed to get me in bed to keep us both warm.  But I didn’t want to mess up my bed and sheets so I asked if he would get the guest room bedding and bring it to the office instead.  Once again, best husband ever, he didn’t question my pickiness and did that.  We were both extremely relieved when our midwife, Kaitlyn, got there and assured us that both baby and I were doing well.  She got there in record time and kept such a reassuring and calm demeanor for something that we were not quite prepared for.

The Lord has been so good to me through this lovely pregnancy, the crazy birth, and these past couple of days. I will now have to trust Him as I begin my journey into parenthood.

So even though it wasn’t quite the gentle water birth at a lovely birthing center like I had envisioned…it is kind of a fun story.  I guess this little girl will be rocking my world for quite some time now.