Henry Miles Winn

Born March 16th at 10:50pm ∙ 7 pounds 5 ounces ∙ 19.5 inches long

Early labor actually started Saturday night.

Nothing painful, but they were consistent enough to track ten minutes apart. Slept that night and woke up on Sunday to the same. Anticipating things would pick up, my mom came over early that morning ready to do her doula thing. At 11:30, my water broke, but things were still not moving along much at all. I lost my plug a couple hours later. Waited all day and through the night with it only picking up a little in intensity. Contractions bounced around from 10-12 minutes apart if I fell asleep or someone walked in the door to about 4-6 minutes apart when I went off by myself for some quiet. I actually slept really good that night, considering. Monday, I walked around in depends all day timing contractions waiting for them to pick up. At about 6:00 pm, after taking to my home birth group for some encouragement, I was encouraged to do the Miles Circuit, and with that, things started jumping into gear.

A little after 8pm, contractions were definitely established

and I was needing to concentrate and breath through each one. They continued getting more intense and I started vocalizing through them. I told my mom at one point “I’m in cow mode so we’re getting somewhere.” We started filling the pool around then. At about 9pm I had a couple contractions that double peaked. That’s usually transition for me, I cried, my mom helped me vocalize my emotions and I told her I didn’t want to do this anymore. At that point the tub was filled and I got in. I was struggling to find a comfortable position to work through contractions at that point. I have back labor every time, and this time it was radiating into my hips/thighs. Shortly after I got in the pool, Jennifer, Kelsey, and Teresa showed up.

Contractions seemed to slow for a bit when I first got in the pool, but picked right back up.

I started to not be able to handle sitting during a contraction, like the pressure on my tailbone was too much, so I’d push with my arms to get my butt off the bottom. I didn’t put two and two together until after but that was probably when he started dropping down into the birth canal. At one point I felt him move down and I was so relieved to know he’d be out soon.

The next contractions I started to feel pushy.

After a couple of pushing contractions, Jennifer checked to see that things were moving how they needed to be. She found that part of my cervix was being pinched between baby’s head and my pubic bone, so she held it back during a contraction so he could move passed it. That was super uncomfortable, but at that point I just wanted him out, so I’m glad she helped. It was maybe 3 contractions later that he was born.

We’re both doing great!

I’m extremely thankful for our team of midwives. Jennifer was very calming and encouraging while she was poolside. All three of them were a perfect addition to our birth space. I’m very happy with my choice in midwives.