The last few weeks of this third pregnancy were hot and I was miserable. We had a pretty mild summer for our area and it’s never easy being heavily pregnant in August, especially with a third pregnancy and two other children to keep up with, so when my due date rolled around with baby 3 I was pretty miserable at the thought of potentially going another two weeks. My first two babies were born at 40w2d and 40w4d but at 40 weeks with the third I had felt absolutely NO twinges, pangs, or signs that she was getting ready to make her arrival.

It was a hot day the morning of her due date, a Wednesday, and would turn out to be the last hot day of the summer. I had had a cervical sweep on Monday morning and was disappointed that it hadn’t worked to induce labour, but as with all other attempts at natural induction, they really only work if your body is super close to going into labour anyway (sorry to disappoint the heavily pregnant women reading this, but no amount of dates or pineapple will kickstart labour if your body and baby are not ready). Because I was so miserable, Tom took a break from work to take the kids and I for a trail walk before the day got too hot. I was uncomfortable and walking slowly. We saw a few friends on our walk but it did nothing to lift my spirits.

Wells went down for his midday nap at 1pm and I took the opportunity to lie down, hoping that I could make the day pass faster by sleeping through as much of it as I could (if someone had told me I would have a baby before dinnertime I would have had a hard time believing them). I woke up half an hour later (because good sleep isn’t a thing when you’re heavily pregnant) and felt some mild cramping. It was the first time I’d felt my uterus do anything so I didn’t want to get up in case it stopped, as I assumed it would. I laid in bed for a bit and then got up to walk to the end of the block to check the mailbox (late pregnancy is basically just going on multiple walks a day until you go into labour). There was a tee shirt in the mail box from a friend and I came home and took a selfie and posted it to Instagram around 3:30.

My cramps were coming on and off but were so inconsistent that it almost wasn’t worth timing them (some 11 minutes apart, some 18 minutes apart) but I timed them anyway because it made me feel hopeful. Suddenly at 4:30 they ramped up to a consistent 3-5 minutes apart and the intensity made me stop what I was doing and breathe through them. The “rule” my midwife gave me was to call her when contractions were 5-1-1 (5 minutes apart and 1 minute long for at least an hour) so I settled in to wait diligently for my hour of contractions. In between them Tom and I were scrambling to get things ready, filling the birth pool with nice warm water and putting waterproof liners underneath the sheets in our guest bedroom. The kids were at the kitchen counter through it all, happily helping my mom prep veggies for dinner and totally oblivious to their mama who stopped every few minutes to lean over the counter and breathe heavily through a contraction. I still didn’t call the midwife yet but I texted my doula and she sped right over, arriving just before 5pm. A few contractions later, at 5:14, my water broke and we knew that things were about to ramp up even faster. The first contraction after my water broke I felt an unbelievable amount of pressure, so I got into the birth tub for the next one, hoping the warm water would alleviate some of the pain. The next contraction was even more intense and my doula, Jane, asked if I felt the urge to push. I said no, I just felt so much pressure. During the next contraction I absolutely roared, it was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. In hindsight I was already in transition, the most painful but shortest phase of labour when the baby is moving down the birth canal and is almost ready to be pushed out. During the contraction I reached down and could feel the top of Rumi’s head, and that I was almost fully dilated. I said “she’s coming out on the next contraction!” and Tom quickly jumped into the birth pool behind me. On the next contraction I didn’t even push; my body had the Fetal Ejection Reflex (involuntary pushing) and her head came out! It was absolutely wild. Tom said he had her head (weird, lol), and Jane told me I would need to push out her body on the next contraction. When I felt the contraction rising I pushed and her body came out and Tom had her! He put her up on his own chest because I was facing away from him and couldn’t turn around.

She cried immediately and was nice and pink so we knew she was okay. Tom stayed in the water and held her to keep her warm. I was in total shock and having bad cramping as my body tried to get the placenta out; this is normal and it can take up to half an hour for the placenta to come out on it’s own. I couldn’t turn around to see my new baby without having to lift a leg over the umbilical cord so I stayed put for a while until the midwife arrived. While we waited the doula went and got my mom and the kids and brought them in to meet Rumi! It was a really fun and special moment to be able to introduce them to the new baby right in our own home, one of the many reasons I was excited about having a homebirth.

When the midwife arrived we all had a good laugh about how fast everything had gone. She cut the cord and helped me deliver the placenta (one easy push) so I could get out of the pool and rest in bed with my new baby! The midwife checked out me and Rumi, told us we were both doing well, and that was that! A few measurements and some clean-up and we were done! The midwives were on their way around 7:30pm, less than two hours after Rumi was born, leaving us to put the big kids down, eat take-out and cuddle our new baby in our own bed.

I’m so excited that for my last birth I was able to have the homebirth of my dreams! It was a wonderfully empowering and exhilarating experience and while we never planned on Tom catching the baby it was so cool that he did. I don’t think we’ll ever forget it!