The Home Birth of Jess

I’d had some contractions Sunday 2-5am, and Monday 2-5am. Both times about 3 minutes apart and 40sec long. They started back up about 15min apart about 10am, at which point I’d called my midwife just because I was bummed about being almost 42 weeks and those contractions had been so consistent only to stop. They picked up after that, which I was skeptical about, but at 12:30 I called her back because they’d been at 3-4min apart and a min long for an hour and a half. Plus my cervix was now almost 4cm and the bag was bulging – some progress!She got here 2 hours later and she offered to sweep my membranes to get this going a little faster. She freely admitted it was slightly selfish since she’d love to get back to her family as it was Christmas eve. I was very agreeable because I was ready to hold my babe.

I called my sister right beforehand to see if she’d come hang out with the kids. It took her almost an hour since she’d been unprepared for that and had to collect her daughter. When she got here I was in transition, about 6cm with a really bulging bag and
wondering why I hadn’t gone with drugs. I realize later that I really start complaining about that in transition but never regret having a midwife. I had been in the tub for awhile with hot water spraying on my back, but I had to get out to the bed after asking

the midwife to break the bag. His head immediately dropped down, dilating me the rest of the way – the next contraction the urge to push started, followed by some involuntary pushes. 2 contractions later (5 min) he was out.My oldest daughter had wanted to see the baby come out, so she got called in just in time to glimpse the head and turned around and left again. My sister got the girls set with their cameras and my younger daughter looked to announce that he was a boy.

Jess Tyler was born at 4:15pm on December 24.  He weighed 7lbs 2oz, and was 20 1/4″ long.