Elowyn’s guess date was August 14th, and the five days we went over that day were the hardest days of my entire pregnancy. I was so anxious to meet her. I knew that babies come when babies are ready, but I was still so excited for her to come. I thought for sure she would come on August 15th, because it was a full moon, but that day came and went and still no baby!
On Saturday, August 17th, I started having contractions, but they were spread about 30 minutes apart, and not super intense. I wasn’t convinced they were actual contractions! Little did I know it, but I was in early labor. Saturday night I ate Eggplant Parmesan because they say that induces labor. I also did 100 squats and walked up and down the stairs 10x.
Sunday August 18th around 8pm I started having consistent contractions that were about 8 minutes apart. I had been having contractions all weekend, but this was the first time they were actually consistent! I tried to sleep but when I laid down they actually got worse. Around 2:00am they were consistently 3-5 minutes apart, but they weren’t as painful as I thought they should be. I definitely had to stop and breathe through them, but I could manage them just fine. I called the On-Call Midwife at my practice and she said it sounded like I was still in early labor, and to take a bath and labor at home until my contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart, lasting for one minute each.
I stayed up all night laboring and breathing through my contractions, which stayed between 3-5 minutes apart. Around 6:30am I woke up Nathan and told him that I felt like this was the real thing, and that we should get ready to go. He started packing up our food and snacks, put our other bags in the car, and took our dog to the kennel to be boarded. I called my OBGYN and scheduled a Labor Check for 10:00 to see if I had progressed or if this was still early labor.
In the car on the way to my OBGYN, my contractions slowed down to 9 minutes apart, so we prepared ourselves to be told I was only 3 or 4 cm dilated. When they checked me, I turned out to be 7-8cm dilated! The midwife said I was handling labor beautifully, and she was sending us to the hospital right away because we would have our baby in just a few hours. We were so happy!
We got to the hospital at 11:00 and everything went so beautifully after that. We decorated our room with soft lighting, a diffuser & birth affirmations, and labored peacefully together for another 2 hours. Nathan and I took Bradley Birth Classes during our pregnancy, so he was trained on how to help me relax and work with my contractions. He never left my side the entire time and helped me through every contraction! Our doctor and nurse mostly left us alone to just labor calmly together.
Around 2:00pm my contractions started to get a lot more intense to where I had to stop and moan through each one. They were coming every 2-3 minutes as well. I thought for sure I was in transition because my contractions were pretty intense and Double Peaking a lot (lasting for about two minutes each with no break between). Around 4:15 I decided to get in the bath and just float in the hot water. After a few minutes in there, my water broke. Shortly after that I got the strongest urge ever that I needed to push (it was like when you’re throwing up- you can’t control it at all, it’s just your body taking over). I was waiting to get that feeling, but it still took me by surprise and I started screaming for someone to get the doctor or nurse because I was worried she would be born in the bath with no one except Nathan and me there (which in hind site would have been okay, but the feeling just really took me by surprise. It was so strong.)
The nurse came in and was urgently making me get out of the bath and walk over to the bed- even the Dr said “calm down Linda, you’re killing the vibe. Don’t make her slip on the floor” 😂.
I fell into bed on my hands and knees and pushed for just 15 minutes and then Elowyn was born. Nathan got to catch her, which was really special! She came out Compound Presentation which means her hand came out with her head (talk about ouch!). Pushing was way more intense than labor for me, and I was extremely loud with deep primal noises the whole 15 minutes so I’m pretty sure I probably scared some other laboring women in the rooms next to me haha.
Everything about Elowyn was perfect and healthy and we got to bond skin to skin for an hour before they weighed her. After that, Nathan did skin to skin with her and she was so calm and peaceful and just stared at his face the entire time. She definitely recognized his voice from all the times he would talk to her when I was pregnant.
I could not have asked for a better labor or birth or baby. All of our preparation and learning and time spent practicing relaxation paid off and we were able to have the beautiful, unmedicated birth that we wanted! It was such an amazing experience, and so bonding for Nathan and me. We can’t wait to do it again (this time at home!).
Hey, I'm Victoria!
I'm so glad you're here, sweet mother!
My goal is to inspire you to remember your primal roots & live a WILD life in alignment with nature. On my blog I empower you to use herbs and natural remedies to keep your family healthy, teach you how to eat a nourishing, traditional foods diet, and inspire you to raise your babies consciously and respectfully.
