Our Third Baby: A Surprise Gender Birth Story

You all know I LOVE a good birth story, so here is the story of my third birth to our surprise baby.

So excited to announce that four days after due, Baby Girl made her arrival. This is the story of how she came into the world, my third unmedicated vaginal delivery – a personal goal of mine. (Adding in here that I believe all births are wonderful and special and support every woman in whichever birth works for her!) An added goal this time around was to make it to the hospital in time to birth, which almost didn’t happen with my second. (I’m thinking I will share all my birth stories soon, as I LOVE a good birth story, and would like to have them written down while they’re still relatively fresh in my mind.)

It’s so interesting to me how each pregnancy, labor, and birth has felt so different. I would have never thought that the same woman could experience this journey differently each time. This time around, things started on Tuesday night, when I awoke to labor pains, a new symptom for me this pregnancy. I was up all night with contractions the night before the actual birth, so anxious to get going with this labor. Earlier in the day I had tried everything. The boys were curb walking with me to BB1’s bus stop in the morning. Long walks after school. When I was having the contractions on Tuesday night, I was POSITIVE I would have been heading into the hospital in the morning, but alas, as morning came, the contractions subsided. There’s definitely something to be said about this pre-labor stage. You’re anxiously awaiting the main event, and yet have little to no control over when it will occur. Because BB1 came unexpectedly early, and we were hoping to make it until due date with BB2, this was my first time hoping abs waiting for labor to start. A good lesson in letting go and surrendering.
We went about our day, and while putting BB2 to bed that night, the contractions returned. They quickly got stronger, so I got dressed and grabbed our bags. Matt grabbed a quick shower and we hopped in the car for the 35 minute drive to the hospital. We arrived at approximately 8:30 pm. The nurse checked me out – I was 3 cm dilated, still had some “thinning out to do,” and baby’s head still had to drop down. She said she would call the doctor but expected me to be admitted. I was a bit nervous. I had warned them if my previous quick labors, but wasn’t sure I was taken seriously. They were a bit slow to get my antibiotics (I was GBS+) and I expected this would be an issue as this hospital was especially concerned about being GBS+. They wanted me to receive antibiotics at least four hours prior to birth. I knew this would be next to impossible. After the antibiotics were administered, which took about 30 minutes, we asked if I could move to the birth room. Matt could tell that I was much farther along than the nurses realized. I was unable to talk, and just focused on breathing through my contractions. With each birth I seem to lose the ability to speak, only nodding or shaking my head if absolutely necessary. They got the birthing room ready for me, and we walked over. I don’t think we were in the room five minutes before our little girl was born. The doctor didn’t make the birth, but we didn’t need him. My eyes were still closed when I felt her born, and I opened them when I heard Matt say, “Rachel, open your eyes; it’s a girl”. 10:37 pm – there she was. She was so small but so perfect.

We stayed two nights, and unfortunately Baby Girl was quite mucousy due to the fast birth. She was spitting up and coughing and it was quite frightening to witness. We came home and I was emotional and worried about the wet diaper situation. Matt ended up calling the hospital and they the nurse informed us that she may be a few days behind the “expected schedule” in terms of diaper output. But we’re 11 days old now and she’s doing much better! We have a weight checkup tomorrow but the doctor and I both anticipate her gaining well.

After my birth with BB2, I didn’t imagine our family was complete. But we had two kids in two years and we were overwhelmed. Matt was off to basic training, and we just couldn’t imagine another baby in our lives. But driving home with Baby Girl, we knew our family was finally complete and it was just such a wholesome feeling.

We are home and taking it all in and adjusting to our life as a family of five. We have BB1’s fourth (!!) birthday coming up, and then Halloween, so lots going on – as always. Looking forward to navigating it all as a completed family of five!!

– R