We welcomed our second daughter to the world on May 22, 2015 at 7:50 pm. Our newest addition is cuddly, silly and so adorable. Her big sister loves playing with her and says that her little sister is her best friend.
The Birth of our Second Daughter
We had never said for certain that we would have a homebirth. We decided that we wanted to try staying at home for the birth of our second daughter since we had really enjoyed being at home for most of the birth with our oldest daughter. With both of our daughter’s births we never had a set birth plan but rather an idea of ways we would like to try birthing with the realization that if it did not work we ultimately just wanted a healthy baby.
About a week and half before our daughter was born I was starting to have contractions. Sometimes they were mild and sometimes they were painful but it was all manageable. A few times I thought ‘this is it! I am going to have this baby’, only to find out it was just false labour an hour later. When I went to the midwife appointment on May 20th I found out that I was 3 cm dialated and that my cervix was very ‘ripe’. I knew that labour could happen soon or not for a couple of weeks as my due date was May 29th.
On Friday May 22nd my husband and I picked up our daughter from day care. As we were making dinner, I went to the washroom and my water broke at 5 pm!
Since my previous birth was quicker than normal my midwives wanted me to call them as soon as my water broke. We called the midwives and they said to call back when the contractions started. Within 20 minutes I began to feel contractions. My husband called the midwives and they said they were on their way to our house. He then called our friend who would be taking care of our 21 month old daughter while I laboured to come over. While he made the calls, I made sure our 21 month old finished her dinner and I slowly munched on mine. I enjoyed the distraction while the contractions were getting stronger.
Once our friend came over she took our daughter to the park. After she left, I turned to the midwife and said ‘I am not sure I can stay home because I am worried about my daughter’. The midwife kept telling me ‘this is your second baby and you will give birth to this baby in 2 hours.’ I clung to this phrase as I drank PowerAde and ate berries to try to fuel for the intense work out to come.
Around 6:00 pm I went into the shower. My husband stood outside the shower and pushed on my back during contractions. The contractions started to get more intense and painful. With each contraction I decided to submit to the pain and relax with each break in between. I even had a few laughs with my husband during the breaks. Since the contractions started getting more and more painful the midwife checked my cervix. She did not tell me how much my cervix had dilated and I am so glad she did not tell me. I was only 4 cm!!! I would have given up if I had heard I was not progressing because the contractions felt like I was much further along. She just kept telling me we were having this baby soon.
Eventually we went to the bedroom as I was starting to feel faint from the heat of the shower. Later I found out from my husband that it was scorching hot.
We tried a bunch of different positions while I squeezed my husband’s hand through each contraction. The contractions got so painful that I felt I needed to push but I also did not feel like the baby was low enough yet. I cried to the midwife that I was exhausted! It felt so intense. I was worried because it still felt like the baby was too high for me to push. I found out after the birth that at this point I was 7 cm dialated and was still not in transition. The midwife got me to stand up and lean on my husband. He held me through some painful contractions. All I wanted to do at this point was to quit. Then I got a flush of excitement. I remembered reading that when you feel like you can no longer handle the labouring process, that meant the baby was coming soon. I started to get excited. I just needed to make it a little longer. I just kept focusing by thinking that I wanted to meet this baby… NOW!!
Then I felt like my body was telling me it was ready to push. Within a short while of pushing, listening to my body and using all the energy I had, I met our newest addition at 7:50 pm. I could not believe that from the time my water broke it had only been 3 hours!!! My husband and I looked at our daughter while we sat in our bed loving this little beauty that lay in arms. My daughter came home from the park at 9 pm to meet her little sister. We all cuddled on our bed ready to start our new life together as a family!
