• Name: Angela Parker of www.grassfedmama.com

• Baby Name: Anderson

•  Weight: 8 lbs 9 oz 

• Legnth: 19.5 inches

• Birthday: 11/25/2018

• Gestation: 39 weeks

• Time of Birth: 4:08 am

•  Location of Birth: Home 

At 11:30pm on Saturday night, I got up to go to the bathroom (as you do often when you are 9 months pregnant). When I climbed back into bed, I felt a gush but I knew this wasn’t pee. It was my water!

I jumped out of bed and moved into the bathroom because this was getting messy fast. I call to Adam “My water just broke!” There was no question about it. I texted my midwife to let her know. She told me to monitor my contractions and text her back. She was actually at another birth so she was trying to see if she could do both births.

I didn’t have regular contractions for an hour. It was more like just cramps. My midwife called her backup to head to my house. At about 12:30am the back up midwife arrived and checked me. I was 4cm dilated and 70% effaced.

I historically have fast labors once they get going, so I knew this could pick up quickly.

The midwives told us to go lay down and see if we could rest (I knew that wasn’t going to happen). In just minutes, my contractions started picking up and became intense. I tried to move and rock through them, but I just wanted to get in the birth tub.

After the tub was ready, I got in and contractions picked up even more. I just couldn’t find a position that was comfortable. I would try to breathe and moan through each one, but to be honest I knew I probably looked a little frantic.

I asked for a bucket to throw up in. That always happens to me in transition, but I didn’t think I could be that far along! I just got in the tub! Next was pushing which was even more intense, but we made it through. They kept saying “he’s almost here!” And I didn’t believe them.

Believe it or not (I certainly didn’t!) I was holding my baby after about 2 hours of active labor! Anderson was 8 lbs 9 oz and 19.5 inches long. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome him to our family.

This was my third homebirth and third waterbirth. After 2 bouts of false labor at 37 weeks and the night before I went into real labor, I think this pregnancy and labor taught me that anything worth having is worth waiting for. I knew that labor would be amazing, I just had to wait for my body and the baby to start the show. Trusting the process and trusting that my body knew what to do was key.