She’s here!! She came a week early as I thought she would and boy was I glad she did. I was so ready for her to come out by week 36. Honestly, I prepped my mind for a girl because I heard you gained more weight with them (which could be a total myth) and I sure gained plenty of weight in fluid throughout my entire body. I was completely swollen by week 38…legs and feet were looking like a balloon and I could barely bend them.

Okay, well enough of me complaining. Let me share how the day went down!

Reversing back to the day before birth, I went into my 38 week checkup appointment. As I walked through the door, all of the nurses and doctors were shocked I was still there. Yes, that’s how ready my body looked, haha. It turned out I was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced so she swept my membranes to get my body moving. I was honestly on the fence about sweeping my membranes because I’m a do-or-die 100% natural girl and this was natural, but also helping in moving the process along. Let me repeat myself though when I said I was ready by week 36…gosh was I so ready physically that I told my doctor to just go ahead and do it!

I told B after that appointment I felt like I could go into labor at any moment because of how I felt. We went out that night to one of B’s work events and I was really trying to take it easy, which is hard to do with a toddler. We successfully made it through the night and I was so happy we did. I wasn’t about to give birth at Top Golf.

One thing I should’ve mentioned above was Wilder decided 1 week before Elsie’s birth that he wanted to start waking up in the middle of the night. I don’t see my child as one of those kids that senses the baby coming and letting you know, but now I sure do think he had that sense, hah. He woke up at 2am that night and my contractions started immediately. IMMEDIATELY. I was laying in bed while B went to lay down on the floor in Wilder’s room (yes, that’s where we were with him) and started feeling cramping. I would usually wake up around 3am with stomach gas pains so I shrugged the first one off until I felt it again. Since I still wasn’t convinced it was a contraction I decided to switch positions to see if I’d feel it again. Sure enough I felt it.

I texted my sister telling her I think I’m in early labor. She of course was in Spain at this time so there was nothing she could do to help with Wilder, but I felt safe texting her before my mom because we all know our mom’s would run out of bed in the middle of the night without any explanation needed.

TMI warning so read the next paragraph if you’re not into TMI. Since the third contraction still didn’t fully convince me I decided I’d try and sit on the toilet to go to the bathroom. Well, I did. AND the the contractions still came every 10 minutes. Okay, now I was convinced and texted my mom at 3am that I needed her to come to our house just in case.

I told myself (and everyone) this baby is either going to come really quickly or take her time. I was only in labor with Wilder for about 7.5 hours from start to finish so who knew what this one would be. Well, Elsie sure took her time, but she was so easy.

I labored at home from 2 a.m. to about 7 a.m. My contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart by the time we left the house. I checked into triage and of course like last time they were shocked that I was in active labor and ready to have the baby that day. I was 5cm dilated at the time they checked me. I honestly don’t know why they don’t trust me when I say I’m in labor, haha!

We got to our room around 8:30 a.m. and boy was I happy to finally get the ball rolling. If there’s one thing you can take away from this ridiculously long story it’s to make sure you keep walking or rolling around on a birthing ball while in labor. It’ll drop the baby and get things going much quicker than you sitting. Sitting and laying down will only slow the process.

My goal was to squat through every contraction and get my water to break. I met half of my goal by squatting through a lot of them, but the other half was not met because my water never broke.

I was 7cm dilated around 1 p.m. and they said they could break my water, but again, me being a die hard natural maniac I said no. Having them break my water only messed with my natural craziness and I told myself that I’d let them break it once I was 10cm dilated. Once you’re at 10cm you’re ready to start pushing and I knew I would most likely be tired by then from walking around all day.

Around 3:30 p.m. they check me for dilation. I was at 10cm so I gave them the green light on breaking my water. My swollen feet were honestly done at this point, hah.

Mind you the craziest thing through my entire labor was my pain level. I was at a level 3 during most of it up until 9-10cm dilation…I was at a 5 during this period. I was at a freaking 5 when I was ready to push. I praise God for labor-free pain, but a part of me almost wanted it because I didn’t feel my body was ready to push by 10cm. I wanted that hard pushing urge I got with Wilder that pretty much did a lot the work for me.

I started pushing around 3:34 p.m. I had a doctor in there with my midwives just in case there was a shoulder issue. They said Wilder got a little stuck during birth, but they were quickly able to correct it with no issues so they decided it would be a good idea to have doctor in the room if it happened again. Funny enough, Elsie’s head was popping out and we were all so excited up until she went back in. SHE WENT BACK IN. The doctor was concerned it was a shoulder issue, but we came to find out she pushed herself back in with her hands. That girl still has her hands up close to her head to this day.

After about 15 minutes of pushing Elsie Capri Mayhew was born at 3:49 p.m. on a lovely Sunday, November 24th. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and was 19.25 in. long! My sweet girl was finally here. I thank God I was successfully able to do another medication-free natural birth. Our bodies are so amazing.

My favorite moment from this birth was seeing Wilder become a big brother. He absolutely LOVES his sister so much and wanted to hold her immediately upon arrival. The transition with him has been wonderful…and yes, he’s back to sleeping through the night. He stopped waking up the night after we got home from the hospital.

So very thankful for my little family of 4!