Sullivan James' Birth Story by Laura

This year at 30 years old I welcomed my third child into the world. My previous two deliveries went smoothly and were under 9 hours start to holding my beautiful babies.
We live 25 minutes from the hospital in a remote part of our community and my biggest fear for the entirety of my pregnancy was not being able to make it to the Hospital or having the baby in the car. 

At 39 weeks I went in for my routine check with prenatal hoping for some progression. My two previous pregnancies I had delivered a week early and I was desperately hoping the same for this pregnancy. 
At my appointment I found out that I was already 2 cm and I opted for a cervical sweep and stretch. My husband would be doing away for work in two weeks and i was also worried of going beyond my due date. I was worried what would I do if I went into labour at home! What would I do with my two other children ? How would I get to the hospital? What if I didn’t make it ? Obviously I was worried about all the “what if’s” 

After my appointment I felt fine. I had experienced Braxton hicks for all three pregnancy’s so nothing felt out of the ordinary and I carried about my day. Ran errands, went for a long walk, tidied the house, picked up the kids from the babysitters and started supper. 

While I was making supper the “Braxton hicks” got closer together and more uncomfortable but I still at this point didn’t think I was in labour. When my husband got home it was around 5:30 pm and we decided best to take the children to their grandparents and get to town to be on the safe side. 

We dropped the children off and made our way to the hospital. We didn’t believe it was active labour so of course my husband says “let’s go for ice cream” which he then finished eating in the hospital parking lot. 

When I finally got into the examination room we found out I was 3 cm and things were progressing, this was around 7:00 pm. 
For the next hour the baby would not stop kicking and things began to get more intense. At 8:10 the nurse came and checked my progress and at this point I’m 4 cm and the baby has dropped lower. I got changed and my husband and I walked across the hall to the delivery room. 
The entire pregnancy I had planned on getting an epidural. I had no desire to prove anything to myself or anyone. “I’m already a strong woman if I can ease this one thing why not” while in the delivery room my youngest sister came at 8:35 expecting me to have an epidural but no I was writhing around on a bed trying to cope with the intensifying contractions. 
At one point I asked the nurse “how much longer until the  anesthesiologist gets here?” and she replied “just a few more contractions , you’re doing great!” 
“Okay you can handle that, just a few more you got this” I told myself. And at the same time I also said to myself “wow there is a lot of pressure down there.. no big deal that’s normal just breath through this” and as I was saying this to myself I also realized that I had waited to long and started yelling in my head “ You waited to long Laura! That’s not just pressure the baby is coming out right now!”

I ended up rolling to my side because the baby was quite literally coming out. My sister and husband assumed I had rolled over to cry in privacy and the nurse at this point says “ she’s starting to seem a little uncomfortable, I’m just going to see how she’s progressing” and she lifts the blanket and starts panicking “ ahhhhh the heads out!” 
The other nurse comes running and just like that my baby was earth side at 8:45 pm. 

“Did you see what we have?” My husband was yelling, and to my shock and delight we had another little boy. Sullivan James 

This was a whirlwind of a delivery. Everything happened so smoothly and so quickly. Even the doctor was shocked when she showed up 5 minutes after Sullivan was born asking “what happened” to which the answer was , well she was just fine and then surprise the baby was here. 
When I think back to the experience of my delivery it was so incredible. My body knew exactly what to do and just did it on it’s own. It was the most intense and humbling experience I have ever gone through and I still feel shocked whenever I think about it. 

I’m 31 years old and when I’m not home on maternity leave with my babies I’m a teacher as well as a freelance artist. My husband and I have been married going on 8 years this summer. We met when we were 18, just little babies and have been together ever since. When I was young I was told I had endometriosis and I suffered with such debilitating periods that I was told it might be difficult for me to have children when that day came. Luckily things have gone quite smoothly and we have been blessed with three healthy kiddos, ages 6, 3 and 5 months.  We live in rural Nova Scotia and I love being outside exploring with my kids and working in my garden. 

My Instagram account is @canaanacres