Luke had two due dates: his first one (Sept 28th) and his altered one (Sept 24th). Once Sept 24th rolled around, Josh and I were getting pretty antsy. Everyone told us I would probably be late, because Luke is my first, but we were still anxious as could be. Every night that week Josh and I went for a short walk before bed.
By Friday Sept 28th, I was so ready to deliver Luke into the world. I had an appointment with our midwife Heather Shelley, and she told me that I was already 3 centimeters dilated. We came home that night went for a walk, and by 5:30 am the next morning I was in labor. I woke up with such bad pains and contractions that I couldn't sleep anymore. At 8:00 I texted Heather asking her if I should come in, and she said definitely. So because Josh and I are procrastinators, our bags were still only half-packed, so we rushed around the apartment trying to make sure that we didn't forget anything.
We finally made it to the birthing clinic in Pleasant grove a little after 9:00 am. By this time I was 4 centimeters and progressing fairly well. Since it was a Saturday, Josh and I had the clinic to ourselves, with the exception of the few midwives. They left us to do our own things until we needed them or they needed to check my vitals. We watched Once Upon a Time and read Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Whenever I had a contraction, Josh used the counter-pressure techniques we learned in a comfort measures class to ease my pain. He was my life-saver! Some people say that contractions are the worst part, and they may very well have been had it not been for my awesome partner and husband. He was always right there, and as soon as he started one of the techniques, the pain practically disappeared! Heather and the other midwives couldn't stop commenting on what perfect team we made. They said we were made for each other-like we needed to be told that. :)
By 3:00 I was fully dilated, and Heather told me that if I wanted to deliver in the pool I had to get in immediately. I did and then began the real pain. My water never actually broke. My contractions actually stopped during the pushing phase, and I couldn't feel the urge to push that they always talk about, so Heather had to break my water. After that, things progressed better. It was still a weird labor though. With the breathing techniques that I had learned in the class, I had practically breathed Luke most of the way down the birthing canal, so I really didn't have to push him very far. However, my contractions were pretty weird; they lasted a long time, but then they would stop for a full two minutes or so. Most women, once they hit this pushing phase, have pretty much nonstop contractions. So I guess I was lucky in some ways because I got breaks between mine, which I guess is pretty rare. However, the pain was enough that I pretty much thought I was going to die. I have asthma, and I was having trouble breathing, so the midwives wheeled a little oxygen tank over to the pool, and I got to puff on that whenever I wanted. I also held the one midwife's hand (and nearly dislocated it). Josh actually got in the pool with me and rubbed my back through the whole thing.
Finally, after an hour (that felt like three hours), at 4:07 pm Luke was born. They immediately handed him to me and covered him in heated towels. Josh and I got to sit cuddling in the pool and holding Luke for about 10 or 15 minutes. They suctioned his nose, and Josh cut the umbilical cord all while I was holding him. It was one of the most amazing and surreal experiences I've ever had. After a while, they took Luke over to the bed so they could get him weighed and checked out a little more thoroughly, and I got to go get cleaned up. But the cool thing was that we did it all in the same room. So we never had to leave each other. Delivering at a birthing center is not for everyone, but it certainly was amazing for our family.
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