Hey all, Keats here. We have talked about the kiddo's birth with lots of our friends and family, but we haven't really shared it in a way that we can look back on later or a way that lets lots of people experience it. So here goes.
First let me say that the last month of pregnancy felt like 6 years. J and I were convinced that the kiddo was going to be born early (before Christmas) despite our midwives telling us many times that first time moms without medical interventions more often than not go overdue. I did start having signs of early labor in December, which made things look like he would come sooner, which only intensified the let down when he didn't. This anticipation and disappointment cycle was really wrecking us and made it hard for us to keep our spirits up. There was one thing we were looking forward to and that was Catherine Yeo coming to visit.
We woke up at 8:00am the morning of Friday January 18 to get ready to go pick up Catherine from the airport. For the first time in weeks neither of us thought about the fact that the kiddo wasn't born yet. Part of that had to do with the fact that Catherine was coming and we were so excited, but more than that it was due to the fact that we were frazzled because we thought Catherine's plane was getting in at 9:45am, but when we checked her flight it said she was getting in at 8:15am. We began running around to get ready and I stood up from using the bathroom and WHOOSH! My water had broken at the exact moment we got a text from Catherine saying she had landed. J and I just stared at each other for a minute until we realized that the kiddo was FINALLY coming!! And then we immediately started panicking because my water breaking was the one thing we were sure wasn't going to happen. J called the midwife (Eve) and let my mom know what was happening. We asked Sonny to go to the airport to pick up Catherine.
My contractions started up within an hour or so, which was a relief because apparently your water can break and contractions may not start for 12 hours 😳 My mom showed up at our house soon after followed by Sonny and Catherine bearing smoothies from Aubergine (blessings to both of you forever for getting them. I honestly don't think I've ever had a more delicious smoothie in my life). My sister Darby came up and picked up Gypsy so she could go hang out at my parents house with their dogs for a few days.
I labored at home for about 6 hours. I took a bath. Ate nachos from Chipotle (again, thank you Catherine and Sonny). Watched "The Titan Games", which made me feel like a total badass going into labor. Around 2:30 my contractions were close enough that we could go to The Birth Center (TBC). J, Catherine, my mom and I all piled into our car and off we went jamming out to my "Labor Dance Mix" on Spotify.
*Note: My mom got a kick out of the fact that there was reserved parking for botox next to the laboring mothers reserved parking.
Once we got to TBC we settled in and tried to take a nap knowing that it would be about the only time we could get some rest once this labor accelerated. Unfortunately, we couldn't nap. J and I have a hard time napping unless it is very specific conditions so napping somewhere other than our bed and during a time that we had waited for for what felt like an eternity was not gonna happen. We ended up playing Heads Up with mom and Catherine and laughed a ton. It was a really nice moment of joy between contractions.
After a while of contractions staying pretty damn mild our birth assistant Eva sent us outside to complete some exercises to help get things moving along. We did lunges up and down the halls of the building, took a brisk walk outside, and walked up and down the stairs like a million times...which only sort of worked.
We came back inside and Eva got me a snack. Eve (our midwife) came in and gave some real talk (not the last time she would need to give me a "come to Jesus" talk). She was worried that we had a "watched pot" situation and that things weren't progressing because of that. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal, but since my water was broken we needed to make sure things were moving along to prevent infection and/or a hospital transfer. She recommended that we go home and get into a labor cave with just me and J and see if being in a quiet, dark, safe space in our home would move things along. So we left and went back home to see if we could get things going so we could get this little boy here.