On February 7 at 3:00 an, my water began leaking. In Walgreens at 10:30 am, my water really broke with a gush and soon after I began to feel contractions with more regularity. By 2:30 it seemed my contractions were really regular, about 5 to 6 minutes apart. By 3:30 it seemed labor was really under way. We canned Anne and Elaine to let them know, but thought it could be several hours, even another day, before we needed to really mobilize. By 4:00 we decided that things were moving faster than we thought. We know Anne would be here by 7:00 but decided to call Elaine back and ask her to come over, so that Greg could attend to Dylan. Elaine arrived by 4:30 or so. Greg tool Dylan for a walk... Elaine timed my contractions and we discovered they were 3 minutes apart, so we paged Greg-911!-and called Linda, our midwife. Greg went next door and returned with Sarah and Livie from next door, and the rest was a blur of getting everything together to go to the hospital. Elaine drove and Greg supported me in the backseat. I was in some impossible all-fours position mashed up against Greg trying to get as far away as possible from contact with the bumpy ride.

Elaine got us there surprisingly smoothly and quickly. At Prentice we went up to the 5th floor with all out piles of stuff and got checked in. Linda was already there, and she checked me-5cm-and Liam's heartbeat fine. Then Elaine Began to deal with the tub--finding it, (nobody seemed to know where it was). finding the hose attachment (nobody could find that until it was almost too late. Elaine ended up holding our hose up to the showerhead in the bathroom to try and fill the tub, and it was taking a very long time. Finally she found the hose by looking, herself, at all the sinks in L 7& D. She found it attached to the last sink that had been used in a water birth! She labeled it for future tub users).Elaine met the logistical challenges of the tub with great calm and grace. I was barely aware that there were problems. None of the staff (except out midwife) were particularly helpful with regards to the tub, regrettably, but hopefully that will change if more people give birth this way. I guess the tub idea is still pretty new there. Meanwhile, my labor was progressing like wildfire. Over the next 1 1/2 hours I went from 5 to 9 cm. I spent most of it in the shower, standing, while Elaine tried to get the tub filled. As I barreled into transition II ended up on all fours next to the tub, which was filling, but slowly. We finally decided to stand, Greg supporting me, in the tub, even though it was only ankle deep! The next half-hour was a blur. I was checked, the tub filled, Linda told me to push and see if it felt better--it did. Actually, I had been sort of pushing through the contractions for a while, but hadn't said anything. Soon the water was deep enough to sit and be submerged, and I began pushing in earnest.

I went from making loud, uncontrollable sounds to a quieter, more intense and sustained pushing. Linda monitored the heartbeat with a handheld, underwater doptone every 15 minutes or so. In between contractions I leaned my head back on Greg's shoulder and relaxed into the warmth of the pool, Elaine held a cool washcloth to my forehead periodically, and also made sure I kept sipping ice water. She also got the music going, and took pictures! At one point Linda asked me to rate the pain's intensity of my contractions from 1 to 10, before I had gotten in the tub, I said 9. She asked me how I would rate them now that I was in the tub. I said 6.

When I started to feel the baby descend Linda brought a light over so she could see what was going on. I closed by eyes and watched the flickering behind closed lids and listened to the music--Puccini!--When the baby started to crown, Linda told me to feel his head with my hand, and I felt the small hard surface and the soft hairs floating out into the water--I also felt a jerking, painful sensation of the baby retreating and Linda felt and told me the baby had his little fist against his head and was :punching" me after each push. Ouch! But finally the fist stayed inside and the head came out and I looked down with one hand on his head and saw his head spin around so he was facing up towards us. Another couple of pushes and he slipped out into the water and into my and Linda's hands. Linda held him up briefly on the way to my chest--a boy!--and I felt the warm, slippery little body on my chest, his head against my neck and throat, Greg's arms still supporting me. The baby was quiet and still, cord still pulsing. Then gave a little cry after half a minute or so, and began to breathe, lifted his head right up, opened his eyes and looked up at me, squinting a little in the light. Someone had put a little blanket over his body to keep him warm. Linda clamped the cord and gave Greg the scissors to cut it. Greg cut the cord and then they took him over to the table to have a closer look. I had a very empty feeling when he left my arms, and then a contraction to let me know the placenta was coming. Linda insisted I move to the bed to deliver the placenta, although I wanted to stay and knew I might not make it to the bed. We climbed out of the tub nonetheless and right before we reached the bed I gave an involuntary push, warned Linda, and splat went the placenta, like a water balloon, all over the floor, the bed... I think I laughed and said "I warned you!" Julie's water socks were definitely done for, and I made a mental note to buy her a new pair. Greg wanted to save them along with the gloves he had kept from Pete's marathon run a few years back. Elaine, Linda and I nixed that idea and the shoes went in the trash.

I decided to get in the shower and clean up but after walking to the bathroom I began to feel myself faint so they wheeled me back to the bed, and sponged me off there. Then we made repeat attempts to get into a wheelchair and move upstairs, but every time I sat up I fainted, for no discernible reason. My blood loss was moderate, my temp and BP fine, I was not overheated. Just a fainted I guess. Finally they transported me upstairs on a gurney. I was too keyed up to sleep at all that night so I just held onto Liam and waited for morning.