Harvey's Birth Story - Mom’s Story
We were so ready to meet our second baby boy. While I tried to mentally prepare myself that I could go past my due date again, I had an intuition my whole pregnancy (wrong) that he’d arrive early. So at 40 weeks to the day I had become impatient. We had an appointment with Kate, our midwife, that morning and she said she could do a membrane sweep. I was conflicted and it was a hard decision. I felt selfish intervening, but couldn’t deny that there were logistics with work and having a toddler that made me want to see if I could progress things. I was prepared for the membrane sweep to hurt, but it was quick and painless. Kate said I was dilated to a 3, my cervix soft, and she could feel the baby’s head. That was encouraging and let me know my body was already doing what it needed to to prepare for birth.
Pre Labor
That same day after Kate left, we decided to drop off our toddler, Calvin, and dog, Blanca, at my parents’ house so we could fully relax. After doing so mid-day, we took a nap and went to a movie. During the nap, I felt low back cramps twice I assumed were from the membrane sweep. Throughout the entire second half of my pregnancy I had regular braxton hicks. During the movie, I had several and again twice I felt cramping in my low back. We got home just after 6pm and I communicated every feeling to Matthew. I didn’t want to get my hopes up that anything was happening, but with how fast Calvin’s went for a first time labor, we knew this one could go quickly and didn’t want to wait to have help. I started to feel the low back cramps with each contraction leading me to believe they may not be just braxton hicks, and decided to try to ignore them. I vacuumed the house and had Matthew swiffer the floors. He could tell I was getting a little restless and kept encouraging me to relax. At 8:30pm, I text Kate and my best friend, Carly, who planned to be at the birth. I let them know what I’d been feeling, said I would start to jot down how often I was having contractions and that I was going to try to go to sleep. It felt like deja vu with Calvin’s labor and timing. After tracking for an hour, I had 14 contractions ranging from 2 minutes apart to 8 minutes apart and I had some diarrhea. When I sent that to Kate at 9:45, she encouraged me to take an epsom salt bath and start using a contraction timer to see how long they lasted. Carly arrived just after 10pm when I was in the bath and the contractions were still so spontaneous and light we just enjoyed gabbing and catching up. Carly dozed off in the guest room as Matthew and I tracked contractions in the app and tried to nap, but I was too excited. We moved from our bedroom to the couch and the next few contractions intensified. I went to the bathroom just before midnight and became very uncomfortable when I immediately had a contraction on the toilet. Matthew woke up Carly and text Kate who then called him. I heard Kate on speaker and I said “take your time! I’m fine!” but she knew to get in the car and head over right away. I didn’t think things could move along quite so quickly from this point on.
Early Labor
Matthew, Carly and I were in the living room while Kate was on her way and the contractions went from very minor/manageable to quite intense. I had them put on a comedian so there was background noise and I soon asked for the “big guns” that I used through Calvin’s labor; combs (to squeeze) and ice packs (for my low back). I remember having the thought “you’re asking for this way too early with how much longer you have” but I couldn’t anticipate how quickly things would move from there. Kate arrived at 12:30am and sat in front of me on the couch and said “you’re in active labor, we’re going to have a baby!” and she proceeded to ask Carly to assemble the tub. I remember saying “already?” and thinking “don’t we have a while to go?” but Kate could tell by looking at me that I was progressing quickly. After a few more contractions on the couch I had to pee again and knew that moving positions would bring intensity. I somewhat jokingly asked Kate if I could pee on the couch, but she encouraged me moving would be good. While in the bathroom, I had my arms around Kate’s neck as Carly pressed an ice pack on my low back and told me she’d wipe me when I was done. What a friend! Matthew was finishing setting up the tub and came in to give me a kiss on the cheek and told me he was proud of me. After a few minutes in the bathroom, Kate said it was time to get in the tub. I got in the warm water around 1:20am and it felt really good. I was mostly in the zone in my own world, but Kate checked the baby’s heart rate and it had dropped, so she had me switch positions from leaning over the tub edge to sitting back and the baby’s heart rate went up. My water broke at 1:41am and Kate grabbed my hand to reach down and feel his head. By 1:44am and a few pushes later, Harvey Joseph was in my arms and snuggled to my chest. My labor playlist was pretty spot on through those two hours with Brandon Lake’s “Gratitude”, Kanye’s “God is”, Hillsong’s “So Will I” and Harvey entered the world to Katy Nichole’s “In Jesus Name”. Harvey was born just over an hour past his due date and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It was wildly fast, but I loved having Matthew, Carly, Kate and Michelle there to safely bring Harvey earthside.
Active Labor
The second time around was night and day. I didn’t tear, which made a huge difference in my recovery. My bleeding was much lighter and I was swimming with Harvey before he was 3 weeks old. My night sweats were still crazy and lasted a while, but not as bad as with Calvin. Within 24 hours of giving birth to Harvey, I wasn’t sore. While I still took it easy resting my body for weeks, I felt fantastic. I did do some pelvic floor physical therapy before and after which I think helped, too. Our bodies are amazing!
