Quick freebirth on a Monday morning

This birth reset my internal narrative that I just have longer births and blew me away with its simplicity yet sheer epic wonder of bringing new life into the world as everyone else bustles around their usual Monday morning tasks.

After my second baby (my second straightforward home birth) a family member said "it must be so nice to have your family complete..." and it struck me in that moment that it did not feel complete actually! As my daughter turned one I could feel the presence of another baby coming in much stronger and sooner than I had anticipated.

Resistance ended up being futile and within a few months I was pregnant again. After such a long journey first time it was wild to be so blessed so quickly again.

As I do now feel this is my last baby I tried to savour every moment of this pregnancy and romanticise it as much as possible. It felt so peaceful, although it triggered some soul searching though and we started a journey to finding a "forever" home which only just seems to be coming to an end now. My proverbial plate felt very full and there were hard moments but I loved it overall.

I got some maternity photos to remember my final baby bump and documented the weeks on my Tiktok!

The final weeks

As I drew towards my birth window I could feel my body practicing with surges and low aches. Enjoying the late summer and early autumn sunshine I kept active. Lots of nesting, cleaning, sorting and days out with the girls.

37+2 we went pumpkin picking. My bump felt heavy and lots of low on/off period style aches. Small bits of plug coming away in. The days came and went, walking getting tricky with that lightening feeling.

Early hours of 38+3, a Sunday, I thought that might be the start of labour, surges from the early hours ramping up in strength. Then I fell asleep around 4:30am and it had gone off. My emotionals started rising, tiredness, low patience and run down, a bit of a sore throat and clearouts.

The day before my toddler was very clingy and wouldn't leave my side. Little did I know it was the last few hours as my littlelest! I embraced the cuddles and we watched movies.

These final days always feel like a veil between two worlds is lifting. There is nothing else quite like it.

Monday morning

I woke around 1:30am feeling slightly different than "normal", but after the previous Sunday thought nothing of it. I went to the bathroom and all normal. However I struggled to fall back asleep and over the next hour surges started, they were already quite intense and ranging from 2-4 minutes apart and lasting around 45 seconds.

At around 2:30am I went to the bathroom again and noticed some spotting. Immediately the surges seemed to intensify feeling like a radiating feeling rising over my bump. I worked to relax and envision my cervix opening but was in denial this was true labour still.

I returned to bed and just rode out the surges there whilst lying on my side. They did feel quite frequent and intense for early labour but sometimes mine start this way and then it tails off. The Freya App said I was in established labour around 3:30am but I know that's just triggered by 3 surges in 10 minutes so paid no attention. During each surge the intensity seemed strongest around 4cm above the bottom of my bump.

I alternated back and forth to the bathroom and around 4am my plug started to come away with red and brown tinges. I had some clear outs on the toilet which is normal for me in early labour. I stayed on the toilet and laboured there for a while then got back into bed.

At 4:45am I felt a strange pop sensation in one specific point on my bump. I felt a lot of pressure at that time. The toilet paper had run out in our bathroom so I headed to the main bathroom and had some dripping on the way.

I was still in denial as to how far progressed I was, despite every step and movement triggering a surge. At 5am I decided to come downstairs so as to stop bothering my husband and sleeping daughter... I expected to be in labour for another 12-20 hours so wanted him to get as much sleep as possible and I didnt want my daughter to wake. I was intending to do a full birth video but it all went so quickly.

Frustratingly when I got downstairs the toilet paper had also run out in the bathroom so I slowly went back upstairs to the main bathroom to get toilet paper, getting surges on the way. I stood in our room for a moment and my husband awoke to ask if I was ok, he had guessed I was in labour. I explained that the surges were every 1-3 minutes and felt quite intense. He was a bit shocked and during a surge he did some hip squeezes but I did not like them this time.

I moved back downstairs, toilet paper in hand, at around 5:15am. I sat on the toilet leaning over a pillow and just rode out the very intense surges at this point. I was feeling very hot and sweaty. The surges were feeling intense now at the top of my bump but I was still in complete denial I was that far along, but all indicated that I was close to the birth.

At this stage I had a panic and told myself to calm down. I was saying "thank you baby thank you body" and just letting each of the intense surges roll through me. I put on some nice frequency music to just set the tone and bring my anxiety down again.

My husband came to ask if I wanted to the birth pool about 5:30am and I finally conceded that I didn't think we had the time! I asked him to make it look pretty with candles and put some pads down in the living room as I wanted to move from the bathroom.

At around 5:50am I moved into the lounge and it was incredibly intense and I had to work hard not to tense up and fight, but instead to surrender and let it run though me.

The surges moved to a downward sensation suddenly and my breathing had no choice but to change with it! I was in a runners lunge position leaning against a soft sofa we have.

There were some gushes of water and I could feel him moving down in my pelvis. This was again intense and I was making primal noises, deep and gutteral.

His head was born at 6:01am and in the pause he turned and did the final cardinal movement so his shoulders could be safely born with the next surge. His whole body followed at 6:02 caught by his father who passed him through to my arms. I did not push at all my body took over and the fetal ejection reflex kicked in!

I stayed on the floor in shock for a while cuddling him then moved upstairs. The placenta took just over an hour to come, I latched him whilst sat on the toilet with a plastic sitz bath sitting below. Surges kicked in again and it came out simply into the bowl.

My daughter, who had shockingly slept through all that commotion beneath her bedroom woke and my husband took her to nursery. Sweetly she saw a candle still burning and said "happy birthday" and blew it out. Little did she know it was her little brothers birth day!

Travelling through the birth portal is so magical and life changing, but it all also felt just like another Monday morning! The labour going so fast was a shock as I had come to have an inner narrative that my births are just a slower build than some.

This birth was certainly not pain free but it was smooth and easeful. Surrender was the key.