Both my longest and shortest at the same time
Everyone says your third baby can be your wildcard. Even if you’ve had two fairly calm, short, “easy” births beforehand, the third can be either really long or precipitous. You never know. And I feel like I got a little bit of both.
A little backstory—she was due the Friday spring break started. I had an inkling that I would probably go into labor sometime that week because, with all of my babies, I’ve never gone into labor on a day that I was “supposed” to be at the office. Sure enough, Saturday morning around 3:00 a.m., I woke up to contractions. They weren’t anything crazy intense, but they lasted for about 3.5 hours before they completely fizzled out…
I’ve never had labors that start and stop completely for hours. Usually, I wake up to a contraction and 8–12 hours later, we have a baby. But…wildcard baby. That’s what I did all day long—a couple hours of contractions, then a couple hours of nothing. My mom came and got the big kids before lunch, so Maxx and I got to just spend the day together, whatever it was going to look like.
By lunchtime, the contractions had gotten stronger, like my normal contractions with the others. Some I couldn’t even talk through and had to really focus during. But again…things stopped altogether.
By dinnertime, I honestly didn’t care if the baby came that day. If it wasn’t the day, I just wanted everything to stop completely so I could get some good sleep! We could try again the next day—or heck, in four days! It didn’t matter to me. I needed to be adjusted anyway! I had tried all the things to keep labor going—we went on walks, did stairs, stretched, and worked through the Miles Circuit.
Around 7:00 p.m., things had stopped again. I prayed they would just quit completely and we could try again tomorrow after I got a good night’s sleep. So I got in bed at 8:00 p.m. and went to sleep.
I woke up to a pretty strong contraction, looked at my phone, and it was only 9:15. Honestly, I was pissed. All I could think was how mad I would be if I did this all night long again because I needed to sleep and gear up for the real thing.
The contractions stayed consistent and strong after that, about five minutes apart. But again, they didn’t feel any different than they had all day—just a little more consistent. So I couldn’t decide if I should call everyone or not.
By about 10:15, I decided to call our midwife Danielle. We agreed she should go ahead and come to the house. I apologized ahead of time if she came and everything fizzled out again because I really was worried about that. After I got off the phone with Danielle, I called Bethany (our birth videographer) and told her the same thing. I thought she should come, but I was so sorry if it turned out not to be time after all.
Turns out…I’m glad I called.
Shortly after that, I knew this was real. Contractions were coming every 2–3 minutes, and my mindset shifted from, “Danielle is going to come and have to turn around and go home,” to, “I’m not sure Danielle is going to get here in time.” Around then, I remember her texting me, “Try not to get into the birth tub until I’m there.” That made me laugh a little because I knew the second I got in, this baby was coming.
I remember checking my phone a couple of times. Danielle had told me she would be at our house around 11:15. It was 11:12, and I knew she’d be there any minute. When she walked in, I felt this wave of relief wash over me. Okay. I can have this baby now.
Our midwife assist Angela walked in right after that. And I had a feeling Bethany wasn’t going to make it in time, and honestly, after laboring off and on all day, I didn’t care. I wanted this baby out, and I knew she would be there for all of our first moments together.
Danielle was unloading her gear, and I looked at her and asked if there was anything she wanted to do before I got into the tub. She did a quick blood pressure and temperature check, and then I got in.
I’m pretty sure I only had one contraction in the tub before I could feel a head. Another contraction came right behind the first, and I said something along the lines of, “The head is out, I’m so tired. Someone needs to catch this baby.”
I think everyone in the room knew I was close to having the baby—but not that it was happening right then. Maxx and Danielle both rushed over, and with the very next contraction, out came our baby!
At 11:30 p.m. in the comfort and quiet of our own home.
At one point, I remember thinking that if Bethany wasn’t going to make it for the birth, at least we could wait to find out the gender until she got there. But my umbilical cord was actually very short, and I wasn’t able to bring baby up to my chest. All I could do was hold the baby out in front of me. At the exact same time I looked down, I heard Maxx say, “It’s a GIRL!”
I was SO excited. I couldn’t believe we actually got to have another little girl.
The next few hours were pure magic. I thought I’d be more sad that the big kids weren’t home for it all, but they would’ve been asleep anyway. Getting to have that first night with just Maxx, me, and our new baby girl…it was perfect.
So yes, it was my longest and shortest birth. It might’ve been closer to 20 hours total - which pretty much doubled the time of my other two. But I also went from being asleep to having a baby in my arms in 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was intense and beautiful and exactly how our girl needed to come into this world. We only have God to thank for the perfect timing of the sweetest addition to our family.
Tatum Louise - 7lb 10oz, 20 inches long
BIRTH TEAM
Midwife Danielle Hogan - Holistic Midwifery Care
Midwife Angela Friesen - Gentle Beginnings
Birth Videographer Bethany Budge - Bethany Budge Birth Photography
