After false labour the previous Saturday night, I was no longer convinced the baby would be earlier than his brother (born at 39 weeks), and was even trying to persuade myself he would stay in till 40 weeks. Jonathan was joking that I should consider a morning birth and I replied that I'd told the baby he could wake Mummy at 4am, and it would be nice to get the labour over by 8am.
On Thursday 5 March (39 weeks), I had a midwife appointment in the morning, where Sharon confirmed what I could feel, that the baby was engaged properly at last (in the false labour he had moved down, but come back up again the next day). That night I woke with definite contractions, which I knew would achieve something, the baby being engaged. After a couple I woke enough to get out of bed and check the time, which was 3:44am on Friday 6 March. While I ran the bath to do the official check whether the contractions would increase or lessen, my waters broke, a small puddle on the bathroom tiles. I managed to light candles and set up the mattress and path to the bathroom before getting in the bath.
My contractions continued in the bath, and Jonathan sat next to me, holding my hand through them and timing them. It didn't feel long before we decided to phone Sharon, although according to my cellphone that call was put through at 4:41am, so actually an hour into my labour. At that point, Jonathan reported that my contractions were 7 minutes apart. Although I had thought they were about 5 minutes apart, I didn't feel put out, because they were quite intense, more like my first labour where contractions had initially been 20 minutes apart, than the mild 5-minute-apart contractions of my second labour.
Jonathan went on various forays to the other end of the house for labour food, and to open up the house so Sharon could let herself in if necessary. He was careful to come back between each chore (e.g while heating the food in the microwave), to minimise the number of contractions I would spend alone, which I appreciated, even though it was still difficult to be alone for one or two contractions. I was quite willing to try the bum-in-the-air position Jonathan requested, to keep the baby in while he went up the corridor, as I realised the baby was going to come really quite soon. I knew I was at transition because while he was gone, I would feel like there was no good position to be in. In the end I settled on holding onto the bath grab-rail. Of course, by the time he got the labour food I knew that there was no chance I could actually eat anything.
Even with him back, I started to get quite scared as I knew how close to birth I was, and Sharon hadn't arrived. Then I felt the baby's head on my perineum. I asked very plaintively when she was arriving, and how long it was since he'd called her, but luckily it was literally a couple of seconds before we heard her car outside. Jonathan disappeared to help her bring things in, and before he was half way down the corridor I was calling for him to come back.
I heard her let herself in, and roll her oxygen tank down the passage. It was 5:09am. I had one rather panicky-sounding contraction before I was informed that Alexander had joined the party, having woken, he said, by a sore neck. Nothing to do with the doorbell, his mother shouting or wheels past his bedroom door. His presence gave me a reason to pull myself together a bit, although I did wail "I'm scaaared" once as my perineum stretched to let the head out in one movement. Both Sharon and Jonathan kept saying "stop pushing! Stop pushing!" but I truly was holding back as hard as I could, my body was doing the pushing all by itself. The next contraction the body came out, and Finnian was born.
Almost immediately Xander asked if he could wake Sophie to see the baby. I encouraged him and they came back in time for her to see the baby cradled in my arms, still attached by the umbilical cord. I stayed in the bath even to birth the placenta, though Sharon had wanted me to get out for it, saying the blood might scare the children (it didn't). Jonathan cut the cord, and Sharon led the children in singing "Happy Birthday" to the baby.
Then we all moved into the big bed to admire Finnian, with his blond hair and long hands and feet. After he had had a meal, he was weighed and measured: 3.25kg and 52cm, almost exactly the same size as his brother had been, though his head circumference was the more manageable 34cm of his sister.
Finnian's webpage