We hurried home to make dinner, put the girls to bed, put groceries away, do last minute cleaning, laundry and bake a birthday cake! Quickly labor progressed with more painful contractions and more back to back. I never time them, I really haven't gotten the rythm of time. I'll try next time. At first I was worried that I was having back labor again. My last two births were also back labor and both babies were born posterior. I had done everything you can think of to try to turn the baby this time and try to avoid back labor again. But God knows best. This time I was able to manage and control this stage much better through relaxation. My husband and Tricia, our good friend midwife, were with me all night. We had great conversations all night about having a self-sustaining community. I was not tired or sleepy but I'm sure they were. I was in the birth pool most of the time. This is my second time having a water tub for labor and delivery and it is just great, especially when you're having back labor. Well morning came and nothing. I starting pushing contractions about 7 am April 9th, but nothing progressed. I could feel baby's head but that was it. After 6 hours of pushing, I prayed to the Lord not to let me end up in the hospital. I admit the second stage of labor was hard because no matter what we tried, there was no progress. Again, as with my two prior births, the bag of waters was bulging. It wouldn't let the baby's head come down. It would go in and out, in and out. I wanted Tricia to rupture the bag but she had hoped for no intervention. Well, this is one of the reasons we didn't have unassisted birth because of our past experience. Finally she did break the bag. By this time I was and looked awfully drained. My husband worried that I had no strength left to push this baby out. Mostly, Tricia worried of the state of the baby, being in the birth canal for such a long time. But baby kept strong.
Immediately after she ruptured the bag, I jumped into the pool because a huge contraction
Once again, how blessed we were for another healthy and very special birth.












