And baby makes 4!

CAUTION: Birth Story details...I wanted to write this down while it was still fresh. I am sure that Caleb and Diane remember more than I do!

We went to my midwife appointment yesterday morning at 8am. I was 9 days overdue and our midwife had already discussed breaking my water at this appointment. I was 5cm dilated and fully effaced. I was also strep B positive and she wanted me to get at least 1 round of anti-biotics before the baby was born. Well, the midwife had been on call all weekend so a brand new midwife walked in the office. She said that Margaret was sleeping and Anjeli was out of town. At over 41 weeks, I did not want to talk to another person about our birth "plan" (if you can call it that...hehe). Anyway, I got really sad. She left the room to get something and when we came back she said, "Margaret is here!" Seriously, HUGE answer to a pray that I didn't even specifically pray. Margaret had no doubt that she wanted to break my water and sent me over to the hospital to get my anti-biotics. She broke my water at 12:30 and realized there was Meconium in the fluid. This being the case, even the thought of a water birth wasn't an option (hospital policy). I was fine with that. She also breifly thought that the baby might be breach. Again, not awesome to hear. Around 3:00 I started feeling contractions. Once they started, they were fast and intense. I am not sure the progression from being 5cm at 12:30 and being 10 cm by about 4:30 because I only felt the contractions for about 1.5 hours before I started pushing and Margaret never really told me where I was at...I remember hearing her say "your in transition " after about an hour of feeling contractions. None of us can remember how long I pushed....somewhere between 30 min and an hour???? At 5:38 after about 2.5 hours of labor, we were able to meet baby Jay. He was not small! I did promise to never birth another child again so we will see if I change my mind. Having Margaret as the midwife and Caleb and Diane there for support was incredible. I had a bad experience getting the epidural with Ava and wanted to have a natural birth this time. Margaret did her thing and Caleb and Diane were just able to support me and it ended up that no epidural was needed (and I will be the first to admit that I probably wouldn't have survived a marathon labor without some drug intervention!). I feel great today and even though I have not slept much because of constant medical staff interruptions, I have a good amount of energy! Atlanta Medical was fabulous and the staff was amazing. I am grateful for a healthy baby boy and to be home after 24 hours.