My son Paul was born on Saturday, June 7th, 2014 in what proved to be a very fast and exciting arrival.

In the days leading up to his birth I was very uncomfortable as I could feel him sitting very low. I was experiencing lots of pressure and many Braxton-Hicks contractions, but nothing painful or regular. I had a check up on the 5th, the day before my due date, and was found to be 1-2 cm dilated. The midwife did a membrane sweep and told me that it may or may not help get things going, but not to get my hopes up. The next evening, sad that my due date had come and almost gone with no baby, my husband, our daughter and I went out to eat at a Thai restaurant for a last meal out as a family of 3. I ordered the spiciest thing on their menu – it was a delicious noodle dish. As we walked past the hospital on our way home, I told my husband I hoped to be back the next day.

On Saturday, I was still feeling much the same, lots of pressure and lots of Braxton-Hicks when I walked. We decided to take an afternoon walk after our daughter’s nap. We picked up her cousin, since my sister had an errand to run, and walked to a nearby ice cream shop to meet some friends for a snack. While there, I started to have contractions that were slightly more painful than before, but it wasn’t enough to make me think I was in labor. After our ice cream treat, we went to a nearby park and let the kids play. I kept having more of these very mildly painful contractions, but they didn’t seem particularly regular or close together so I discounted them.

We left the park at around 5pm, I mentioned to my friends that I was having a contraction as we were leaving, and then I told them I was having another a little bit later as we were walking. I said I thought they were maybe 10m apart, so nothing to get excited about. And they replied, « It has been way less than 10m, you should start timing them!». I didn’t want to start timing and realize that they were irregular and it wasn’t the real deal. But when they kept coming, I asked my husband to start timing.
We left our friends and went to drop off our niece, with my husband timing. We realized that they were about 5m apart. I tried to call my mother as we walked home to tell her to start driving to Chicago. She lives about 2 hours away and needed to get on the road so she could come watch my daughter. Of course, despite her having sent me several texts that day for status updates, when I needed to reach her I kept getting her answering machine! I tried and tried to call for about 30m, finally reaching her as we got home.

When we got home, the contractions continued at the same interval, but were still quite mild. I was able to prepare dinner, eat with my family, give my daughter her bath and put her to bed while gently laboring. It was perfect timing, my daughter didn’t see me in any pain, and I was able to put her to bed as usual and tell her that I wouldn’t be there when she woke up in the morning. Once Alice was in bed, I set up the new baby’s things in our bedroom, putting away clothes, setting up the changing pad, diapers and other materials and doing the nesting I hadn’t done while pregnant. My husband and I did a few other things around the house, while we waited for my sister, who was acting as my doula, and my mother to arrive.

My sister got there around 8pm, at this point contractions were between 4 and 5 minutes
and still pretty mild. I could easily breath though them, and they were only a little painful at the bottom of my belly, so as long as I held my hands there I was fine. We chatted with my sister and timed the contractions. I munched on grapes my sister had brought over in between. My mom arrived around 8:30, I gave her some instructions for my daughter and we chatted a bit more. My sister noted that contractions were now between 3 and 4 minutes and we should probably head to the hospital. I had already called the midwife on call to let her know I was in labor and would be coming in at some point. So, my sister, my husband and I set out to the hospital. It is only a short distance from my house, about a 15m walk, so we decided to walk there since I was laboring so well and didn’t feel like sitting in a car.

We left the house around 9pm, I was still having mild contractions that I could easily breathe through, but I felt self-conscious for the first few blocks since we live in the middle of Chicago’s gay neighborhood and so here I was in labor, walking down the strip of gay bars at 9pm on a Saturday night…I got more than a few surprised looks! I felt relieved as we got past the busiest part of Halsted street. As we walked, my contractions increased in intensity. When we were about half way to the hospital, I started to vocalize to get through the pain. I didn’t stop walking, but I did slow down and kind of shuffled through the contractions. When we got to the corner of Halsted and Clark, I remember telling my husband and sister that I wanted an epidural, the pain was getting to be so intense that I doubted my ability to do it med-free. They tried to encourage me, and I just kept shuffling and vocalizing for the last two blocks to the hospital.

We arrived at the emergency room and I had a huge contraction at the check-in desk. They brought a wheel chair to bring me to OB triage. Sitting in that wheelchair was one of the most uncomfortable parts of my labor. Luckily, my «driver» was a very fast walker and got me through the maze of hospital corridors and up to the 5th floor triage quickly. There, I was greeted by the midwife and several nurses. I had another huge contraction at the check-in desk in OB triage. And I promptly told the midwife I couldn’t do it and wanted an epidural. She calmly told me to wait and get checked and we would see. I was escorted into a triage room, and one of the nurses handed me a cup to pee in (who knows what that was for). I went to the bathroom and started to try to pee, and at that moment my water broke all over the floor. I had another massive contraction and quickly changed into my nightgown and moved to the bed for a check. The midwife checked me and said « Um, that’s the head, we need to get you down to labor and delivery now».

My entire time at the hospital felt like quite a blur, I was in such intense labor that I had no concept of time. I was very much just in this zone, living from contraction to contraction and trying hard to calm my breathing in between. My sister was coaching me, trying to help me get hold of my breathing and relax in between contractions. As much as my time there was a blur, the next few minutes became a whirlwind of activity. The nurses were all aflutter, they wheeled me out of the room and into the elevator down to labor and delivery. My sister’s coaching started to work and I was able to regain control of my breathing on our way. We got downstairs and I was ordered to move over onto the delivery bed. The midwife asked me what position I wanted to be in, I didn’t feel like moving, so I asked to remain in a sort of seated/squat on the edge of the bed. I felt an urge to push, which really just felt like I needed to poo, and started to push with the next contraction. After that, the midwife told me that they hadn’t been able to get the baby on the monitor since everything was happening so quickly and that I needed to push and deliver the baby as quickly as possible. I asked for a drink of water, handed the can back to a nurse and then the next contraction came. I beared down in one long, hard push. Everyone in the room (about 5 nurses, the midwife, my husband and sister) were encouraging me. I could feel the baby crown, and the head emerge, at that point I thought I was done, but everyone just kept shouting so I knew I needed to keep pushing. I continued and I felt the body slither out and they placed my baby on my stomach. My husband said «I have a son», with tears in his eyes. I looked at my beautiful baby and confirmed that, we did indeed have a son as I held his little butt in my hand and felt massive, hormone-swollen balls! It was such a surprise to me after our daughter! It was an amazing feeling to meet our little man, and to have done it naturally. As soon as he was born, I felt normal again, the pain was entirely gone. I came back to my senses after being in my «zone» and asked if it was still Saturday. The nurses laughed at me, we had been in the hospital for a total of 20m – in was only 10 :01pm!

All in all, I had a wonderful experience. I am very happy and still very surprised that it went so quickly. Our son is a beautiful addition to our family and we all love him very much.

*If you made it to the end - here's a photo as a reward