Abbie was born on October 1 at 5:04pm. It was a lovely sunny day and her entrance could not have gone better. She was 12 agonizing days late, but once she decided she was good and ready she came in quite a hurry. Because I was so late, I was in and out of the maternity ward for non stress tests and ultrasounds before her birth. Everything looked good so we just kept waiting. In my head though, I wanted to be induced by October 3rd. Luckily it didn't come to that. After an exam from my midwife on the evening of September 30th, she found I was about 2 centimeters dilated.
We went home that evening and I was pretty certain that our baby would show up the next day. I felt a few contractions that night which weren't particularly painful, and I pretty much got a full nights sleep. I woke up in the morning to a few more contractions, but they were fairly irregular and not very intense- I wasn't sure I was really in labor but I started timing them anyway.... and they were quite sporadic (which was the case with Ollie's labor as well). I tried to stay moving and relaxed. My mom was here and I pretty much went on with my day as usual. Pete even thought about going into work, but I vetoed that idea and he happily stayed home. I found that when I stopped moving, my contractions also stopped and I wanted this baby OUT. So Pete and I went for a short walk. Once we got home, we put Ollie down for his nap and then sat down to watch TV. I had a huge contraction about half an hour later and I immediately called the midwife who came right over. She had warned me very early on in the pregnancy that second babies often come quickly. So she wanted to check my progress to see if I was about to start 'active labor' which starts around 4/5cm. Well I was at 5cm (and feeling pretty great) but it was almost rush hour (when the tunnel between here and the hospital gets backed up and crazy), so she called the hospital and we were told to head in because they just had 2 beds open up. We headed off in a hurry and got there just in time....
My contractions got really intense and a lot closer together in the car ride over. I was so glad we left when we did and it was such a better experience this time compared to the car ride when I was in labor with Ollie. (It was rush hour, Pete was driving like a maniac and I was hunched over the backseat with a barf bowl and excruciating back pain) THIS time, I sat in the front seat listening to music, swaying along and squeezing Pete's hand through the contractions. We got to the hospital and the midwife took me up to the mat ward while Pete parked. Things picked up immediately and before I knew it my contractions were extremely painful, 1 minute apart and 1 minute long. I was getting really tired and wanted an epidural or just to quit (as if that was an option, ha) but I had Pete and our amazing midwife who kept me positive and motivated. Then before I knew it I wanted to push, so I did and my water broke. Eleven minutes and a few big pushes later our baby had safely entered this world. Right away, I asked, well what is it? The midwife told Pete to check and he said "it's a girl! Wait, uhhh... yeah! It's a girl!" I smiled and laughed and picked her up and held her close to me. It was 5:04pm and Pete's parking receipt from the hospital meter said 3:39pm. I felt like a rockstar.
It took a while and a shot of pitocin, but my placenta came out on its own. Having a repeat of what happened with my placenta the first time was one of my biggest fears this time around and it turned out just fine. Better than fine. It was an amazing birth experience. Our families were at the hospital and once we were cleaned up a bit, we let them in. They knew the baby was born, but they didn't know the gender yet. Once Ollie and everyone gathered in, I held her up and said, "Ollie, meet your baby sister". Although it took us a week to decide on her name, Abbie was welcomed into this world surrounded by her family and laughter and snuggles from her proud parents and curious, sweet big brother.
