I woke up around 1am to what would be the start of random contractions, but I was in denial so I kept playing it off and tried to fall back to sleep. Except that with each new one I could tell that they were different than baby just practicing it's stretches: I had to breathe through these. I really had wanted baby to come the 29th to match my Gramma's birthday, and to keep the birth out of December since it's already such a crazy month. Plus, I had baby prep stuff to do today!! So I kept trying to talk myself out of the fact that baby was probably coming tonight. (God must giggle at our silly plans.)
By 2ish I couldn't sleep... Partially due to the contractions, but mostly because I had so many "to dos" on my mind, should baby come. I figured I'd just get up and gather/prep some things, which woke Caleb up. He suggested I should probably let the midwife know, and by then I finally accepted the fact that babes was coming today, so I called my midwife, Mom, bestie, and sister (like 20+ times until she somehow woke up and saw the onslaught of notifications). Of course the midwife told me to go back to bed and try to rest (like that was happening) and to call back when they got worse.
Thankfully, with this baby, I actually got a few hours of sleep before contractions started, so I had a little more energy going into it. I could walk around, respond to questions, and talk in between contractions. What a difference it made in the whole experience.
We had just enough time to set up the bedroom/living room for labouring/delivery, unpack a few baby boxes, shove food into my system, move Rae into the basement so she'd sleep through it all, pull out newborn items, and put on some coffee/tea for everyone. Then we called back the midwife to say she should really head over.
My midwife arrived around 3am, but baby was too low and in the way for her to check how dilated I was. Due to my fast delivery with Rae she decided it best to just stick around. By 5am everyone had arrived at our home minus the second midwife, and at this point I was definitely in active labour, 6cm dilated, and throwing up throughout it all.
I did laps around the house, up and down the stairs, lots of trips to the bathroom, and even danced to "Baby mama" with the girls...anything to get things going faster.
At about 7:40am I made my last trip to the bathroom, only to end up going into full pushing mode on my hands and knees and was not about to be moved. They called my second midwife at this point. We had the bedroom and living room all set up to go, buuuut instead baby was about to be born in our tiny powder room bathroom with all 5 of us squeezed around. My midwife had to climb over me to get in behind with my sister to help deliver, Caleb and Mom squished side by side supporting me from the front, while Mackenzie tried snapping photos from what little she could see from outside the room. Oh, and as if on cue we could hear that my toddler was awake... Uh oh.
Of course the 2nd midwife didn't make it, and within 15mins and only a handful of pushes my water broke followed immediately by baby. I was able to grab and pull baby in front of me to which I immediately noticed it's gender... A BOY!! A FREAKING BOY!! WE HAVE A BOY!! (*cue ugly cry*). I don't know if my body was in more shock from finding out we had a boy or from giving birth 🙈 We had definitely convinced ourselves that we were having a girl (for a legit reason too), but we secretly hoped we'd be wrong, and honestly it was the best surprise ever!!
Baby Reggie had no vernix or wrinkles, so we think my due date (Dec 7) was really off. I mean... they are more like due ranges anyways.
Pre-birth I was told there was a possibility that with my antibody issue that we'd have to take myself and baby into the hospital 24hrs after birth for testing. (Which would double suck because I wanted a home birth for a reason!) But praise the Lord everything was good, we got to stay home, and all the midwive's tests came back negative for myself and baby.
It wasn't till minutes later, back on the couch getting stitches done (thanks child), that we finally announced HIS name: Reggie Easton Milton William Millar!! I know it's a mouthful, but we knew from the start that we wanted to honour our grandpas and our sweet heaven baby Easton.
Our little 6lb 8oz babe... "He's just so tiny 😍" -Me a thousand times over.
Caleb got Rae up and we introduced her to her new forever best friend/baby brother... "Can I hold baby?" -Rae a thousand times over.
The best home birth experience possible, and I give all the praise to the Lord!! (I guess my birthing crew can have a little praise too... They were pretty wonderful yet again!). Also, Caleb is now officially won over with home births, so if you need him to talk to your hubby 😉 It was just such a blessing to be in my own space for it all, and then once everything was over with...to be home!!
