Fast forward to week 39.

Patrick had been in California for spring training but was coming home every weekend. I was praying constantly that he'd be home when I went into labor so I wouldn't have to call him to fly home when it started. On Sunday, he was leaving at 2pm to go to the airport to fly back to CA. I started having contractions at exactly 2pm, but I was sure it was the real thing, so didn't want to make him miss his flight. Contractions continued for an hour, so at this point I called him (he was going through security lol) and told him to come back home.

I laid in bed and relaxed through the early contractions that were coming every 6-ish minutes. Patrick made me dinner, then I took a bath to see if things would slow down. I put on my hypnobirthing music and lit some candles and really tried to get into a relaxed mindset. Patrick and my mom started blowing up my birth pool in our living room.

I got in bed to try to sleep through the contractions. They started to get more intense and I could not get comfortable. I decided to move to sitting backwards on the toilet, laying on a pillow on the back. This position ended up being one of the more comfortable ones, and I spent a lot of time here. My doula arrived around midnight and helped with keeping me comfortable. I was looking forward to moving to the birth pool, hoping it would provide some relief, but once I got in, I found it is hard to get comfortable again. Patrick got in with me, and I leaned against him. My midwives arrived and checked in on us. Everything was good.

Things slowed down a bit, and I was able to relax for a little. I labored through the night, in a daze, moving through the house to different positions.

I got major labor shakes, which I did not expect, along with feeling nauseous through each contraction, but thankfully, no vomiting. I was having bad pain in my back and hips, so the hips squeeze was a life saver. Patrick literally squeezed my hips through every contraction for hours. Each time my midwife check our vitals, baby's heart rate was perfect, which made it so much easier to stay positive.

At one point, I got back into the birth pool and things slowed down again, so I knew I wouldn't be birthing in the pool. I had to keep moving into different positions, no matter how uncomfortable they were, to keep labor going.

At some point, I definitely started to have negative thoughts, questioning how much longer I could keep going, but I never spoke on any of them. I'm a strong believer that our words hold so much power. To everyone else, I looked like I was doing great. I really leaned in on God, connecting with my baby, and knowing that each contraction was bringing me closer, to get me through mentally.

When active labor started in the morning, Patrick, my mom and mom-in-law all were surrounding me and helping me through it. I was being massaged, squeezing their hands, having my hips squeezed, getting a hot pack held on my back and leaning on them in so many ways. I really had the best team, and had so much trust in them, which allowed me to not have to think about anything. They were constantly bring me electrolytes and snacks to keep my energy up. Patrick was trying to keep things humorous, but I was really zoned out of what was going on around me.

I ended up on our birth stool when it was time to start pushing. We were preparing for my water to break, and it would not break!! I had a bulging bag, where the water bag started to come out in front of the baby's head. It looked like a snow globe, and we could feel her head above it. I spent over an hour trying to push out my full water bag before I decided that it would be best to break it with a small needle that my midwife poked into it. As much as I wanted to avoid intervention and birth the whole bag, called an en caul birth, I was going on 20 hours of labor, and really just needed to speed things up out of exhaustion.

After breaking my water, things sped up and at 11:27am, after 21.5 hours of labor, I pushed out our baby sunny side up (something that would have significantly increased my chances of having a C section if I was in the hospital). Patrick caught her as I was on the birth stool at the corner of our bed, and brought her right to my chest. It was such a relief to finally be done. It was a level of exhaustion I've never felt before. I cried tears of joy to finally have my baby in my arms.

We all moved into the bed and I birthed my placenta soon after. Then Patrick and I enjoyed our golden hour, skin to skin with our baby in bed before doing anything else, cord and placenta still attached. Baby girl latched and started feeding. After having some time together, our midwives come back into our room and we got baby's weight (7lbs 3oz) and Patrick cut the cord. I was not prepared for the post birth cramps or the fact that I would need help just walking to the bathroom. My entire body was more sore than it had ever been. Like next level pre-season sore. Our midwives cleaned up everything!!!! Our house was back to normal, and we were left in bed with our moms taking care of us.