#fast labor

It was about 8 or 9 pm when I started having contractions, but they were pretty sporadic so I didn't think much of them at first. I was home alone with the kids, but knew my mom was ready to come up when I called and figured I would know when it was a good time to drive to the midwife. I called and chatted with my mom and told her that I was feeling like it might be soon, but not to leave yet, because I wasn't sure I should make it official. I went about my evening until about 10 I realized they were stronger, and closer together and decided to start timing them. I used an online contraction calculator, just like I did with Jackson and they were still 20 minutes apart. So I figured I had at least 18 hours left, because with Jackson I had about that much time of 20 minute apart contractions.

What I didn't think about, was how fast labor would progress if I was active. So all that procrastinating I did to get last minute preparations backfired. I spent about 3 hours and a half cleaning (including sit down and look at facebook time, and getting my stuff ready,) and suddenly they were 5 minutes apart, and strong. At that point I knew I had waited too long, and wasn't going to be able to drive myself.

I panicked for about 5 minutes.

No way my mom would get here in time. She was planning at leaving at 6 am. Then I took some deep breaths, told myself it would be okay and I could do an unassisted birth, as many women have and will continue to do, even on purpose. I Googled some delivery videos and information, I got the bathroom ready to deliver in the tub, and I prayed for everything to be okay. I called my mom and told her to leave as soon as possible. Because I had told her 14-18 hours she thought she had plenty of time, and wasn't quite ready but said she would scramble. At that point I decided to see if I could get some sleep. She got there 2 hours later. I tried to tell her it was too late, and she was going to help me deliver the baby at home, and she said "I don't think so, get your ass in the car"

So we did. I had forgotten to eat since yesterday afternoon though and made her stop at McDonalds for a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. At this point my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. The drive to Lee's Summit from Butler was horrifying. She was driving like a maniac, and all the bumps and contractions and freaked out children. Awesome.

25 minutes later (it's a 45 minute drive), we arrived, and Lisa, my amazing midwife was expecting us and was getting everything ready for delivery. Her lovely student was also there and ready to do anything I asked her. My mom hung with the kids and I got ready for delivery. I was almost ready to push within 30 minutes, and then 30 minutes after that there was a baby!

Lisa placed him on my chest immediately and I held baby for several minutes before my hand grazed his genitals and I remembered that until that moment I had no idea what the sex was. I yelled "I feel a penis!" and everyone giggled a little. We rested, Lisa fed all of us delicious pizza, and then went home a couple hours later!