A VERY quick birth!

When they say each birth is different and that often each birth comes quicker, they are not kidding! Aurora gave us little warning that she was ready. 

Friday was a very busy day for us. They boys were staying with my parents in the motor home, so Nathan and I went to bed at 9. We had to take the pressure washer to Everest's preschool in the morning, so we were up to the school and back home before 9. We had breakfast and by 9:30 we went back to bed for a nap. I had a few small contractions while we napped, enough to wake me up, but I fell right back to sleep. At 12:40 we got up for lunch. As we were getting lunch ready (around 1) the contractions started. They were more intense than I remember at the beginning, but they were coming every 2-3 minutes and only 30 seconds or so. Nathan kept joking that I needed to wait until he finished lunch. At 1:15 Nathan started keeping track and calling everyone. At first we were not too concerned about the midwife or anyone else getting here quickly, but within 30 minutes, I was feeling the urge to push. Nathan called everyone back and let them know, labor was progressing very quickly.

Nathan was amazing, he supported me, while getting everything ready, he made the bed, filled the pool, got all the supplies ready. We thought we would have time, we had lists of things to do when labor started, we even had a labor project- we were going to bake a birthday cake for the baby with the boys. We were lucky Nathan got the supplies ready. 
My friend Heather (our photographer) got here first, somewhere between 2:30-2:45. She started taking pictures, and helping Nathan. I barely moved from my birthing ball. Soon after Heather arrived, I knew I was ready to get into the pool and start pushing. My contractions were one on top of the other (and had been since 1:45) and they were intense. I was having a very hard time relaxing. 

Nathan talked to the midwife around 3, she could hear me in the background. At that point she told Nathan she would not make the birth because I was going to have the baby soon. She had Nathan get the trays ready for the birth. Our midwives assistant arrived around 3:15, just as I was starting to push. She had a couple minutes to finish getting some trays ready before the head came out. I pushed twice for her head and once for her shoulders. The baby was born at 3:29 pm, 2 1/2 hours after labor started. We covered the baby up with a blanket to keep it warm in the water and for the first 3-5 minutes we all kept saying "he". Heather finally said, did anyone check, I think we all assumed the other person had checked. We were surprised to find out "he" was "she". We had our Aurora. 

I have heard of people saying their babies came quickly, that the baby was delivered within an hour of going to the hospital. I always assumed they were in labor at home for a while and just waited too long to go. I never thought labor could go from light to transition in 15-20 minutes. But it did. It was quick and intense, and then it was over and we were nursing on the couch.

Welcome Aurora Elizabeth, we love you!