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Callum Patrick

We were planning a homebirth. On Tuesday Nov 25 I started having frequent but irregular contractions and pretty strong cramping. This lasted for about 5 hours, but the rest of the week things were pretty quiet. My husband and I joked "Let's have the baby this weekend," and arbitrarily decided on Nov 30/Dec 1.

Sunday night, Nov 30, I experienced fairly heavy bleeding. I called my midwife and she told me if it didn't go away to call her back, and if I was worried to go to the hospital. The bleeding only lasted a few minutes and stopped by itself so I decided to wait it out. Three hours later I started bleeding again, so I called my midwife and told her I was heading to the hospital to get checked out. I imagined that I'd just find out what the problem was, and if it wasn't anything serious I'd head back home.

Well, long story short, the bleeding wasn't a problem but I found out that I was already 5cm dilated! Surprise! The doctors recommended that I stay since this was my first and there was no telling how long my labor would be. They assured me that I’d be able to move around during labor and do anything I wanted, and after thinking about it and discussing it, I decided I was going to go ahead and stay. My water broke shortly afterwards.

Since I didn't feel like I was in labor, I planned to rest as much as possible (it was 4 am and I hadn't slept all night). Unfortunately, when the new shift arrived at 7 am, it was no longer okay that I wasn't experiencing active labor and the doctors who spoke to me this time tried to talk me into taking Pitocin and getting hooked up to internal monitor. I refused, but quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to rest anymore.

My midwife's apprentice drove up to be with me as a doula-- and she ended up helping me have an absolutely wonderful birth! Before she arrived, my husband and I walked the halls for nearly an hour and regular contractions started. Then I started moving on the birth ball and doing squats and all sorts of things. The doctors came back to speak to me again and by this point I was having strong, regular contractions. The doctors explained their procedures, but ultimately told me that as long as things were going well they were going to let me labor naturally.

As soon as the doctors left, the contractions picked up and became really strong. I moved and danced and squatted and breathed through the worst of it. I spent about an hour to an hour and a half in really strong labor, and soon felt the urge to push. This was not what I expected, it just felt so strange, but I quickly adapted and within 15 minutes my little boy was born. My doula caught him and handed him to me immediately. I didn't even think to look and see if it was a boy or girl, but my husband told me "I think it's Callum."

Ultimately, the location was different than planned, but everything went absolutely perfectly and actually being in the hospital helped a lot to get me on a schedule with breastfeeding.

Callum Patrick was born at 1:00 pm, at 6 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. He's been wonderful so far, and I am so happy we were able to have a natural birth and that things went so quickly and smoothly. A week postpartum, I feel absolutely wonderful.

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