Easter Baby birth story! (strawberrytree)

My  mom was visiting for 6 days over Easter long weekend so I was hopeful I’d go into labour while she was there so she could stay with DS1. I had gone into labour with him at 38 weeks, so when that date passed this time around I was starting to feel overdue. On Saturday night DH decided to go to a hockey game with a friend since there was no sign of baby coming. However, after DS1 was in bed I was watching a movie with my mom when I started feeling contractions a bit more regularly than I had over the past few days, so I started to time them. By the time DH got home they were 6 minutes apart, and an hour later they were 4 minutes apart consistently. We decided to head in to the hospital. I was checked and at 2cm, 70% dilated. The nurse suggested we start walking around the hospital and see if things sped up. We spent the night alternating between walking laps around the hospital (including 8 flights of stairs) and bouncing on the birth ball while watching a movie. By the time 10am rolled around, I was 100% effaced but had only progressed to 3cm. Since we live about 20 minutes away from the hospital, the nurse suggested we go home to rest and come back if contractions got stronger. I was incredibly discouraged, since my labour with DS1 was fairly quick and straightforward and everyone had been telling me throughout my pregnancy that the second one was supposed to be easier.

So we headed for home, had a quick something to eat, and DH and I both laid down for a nap. Turned out to be an epic nap- I woke up three hours later in full blown labour, with strong and consistent contractions. I spent a bit of time in the bathtub, until they were about three and a half minutes apart, when I told DH it was time to head back to the hospital. The ride back to the hospital was awful- the contractions were very quickly increasing in intensity and were now two minutes apart. I was going through transition and there was no way to change position to manage the pain, so I resorted to pulling my hair to distract myself while breathing through each contraction.

When we got back to the hospital I could barely speak through the contractions to re-register, so they sent me straight back to L&D and said they would admit me later. It was 3:40 when we arrived and I was an 8 when they checked me. My water broke minutes later at 3:45 and my doctor arrived right after that (very grateful for OBs who live a 5 minute walk from the hospital!). I felt like I had to push already, and the doctor told me to just listen to my body and do what I had to do. I got on all fours and started to push. His hand was up by his face so his arm was the first part delivered. From my vantage point it was so weird and cool (and slightly gross at points)- I could look down through my legs and watch him come out. Baby Ewan Patrick was born at 4:11 pm on April 20, Easter Sunday. He weighed 8lbs 11oz, 21 inches long, and has a head full of reddish hair.

Because he had passed some meconium in utero he had to be suctioned to make sure he hadn’t aspirated any and we weren’t able to do delayed cord clamping, but that was the only little glitch in the birth plan. They brought him right back to me and we did skin to skin for two hours before going to our recovery room, during which he nursed four (!) times. I didn’t have any tearing and since Ewan and I were both in good shape, we were allowed to go home the next day after less than 24 hours.

TL;DR: After taking a while to get past early stage of labour, a very quick NUCB and baby Ewan Patrick was born on Easter Sunday.