Theodore Robert made a dramatic entrance just after midnight. 8lb 6oz and 20", making him our smallest baby! Loooong birth story below.
I posted last night around 9 that I was having contractions that were intense, more than a minute long and painful. I decided to lay down and try to rest in between, because they were still about 8 min apart and I figured I had a long night ahead. At about 9:30 I felt a pop and a gush and was fairly sure I hadn't peed myself. Immediately after the contractions went to about 4 min apart, but were under a minute and didn't seem to hurt as much. We called my sister around 10 to have her come stay over with the girls, and she arrived at 10:30 or so. By the time we left the house it was around 11, and we got to the hospital at about 11:30.
They checked me into triage and my midwife did an internal to verify that my water did in fact break. I was 6 cm. It was maybe 11:45 then, and I was in a ton of pain. I asked if I could get an epi because I didn't think i could handle the pain well for very long, considering how tired I was already. The nurse started prepping me for the epidural, during which I had a number of long painful contractions and all of a sudden I felt like I had to push. I told the nurse that I was feeling that I had to push, and she had my midwife come back. She said she didn't think that was possible, she has just checked me and I was at 6, but she checked again (meanwhile, my body is pushing...) and confirmed that I had an anterior lip and the baby was coming. The midwife and nurses rushed the bed into any open room they could find (there was another woman in the triage area), and barely made it before he was born. My midwife has declared it one of the top births she's attended this year, in terms of excitement.
He's sleepy but latching well when he does latch. Hopefully we can go home tomorrow. DH and I barely slept last night-we didn't get into our room until 3:30-but now I get to spend the day cuddling with a newborn
And some pictures for hanging in there for my novel