I woke up around 3 with contractions 10 minutes apart. Before long they were 5 minutes apart then 3. When they were 3 minutes apart for a half an hour (we were planning a med free birth and laboring at home as long as possible was part of our plan) we called my mother in law to come over, knowing it would take her about an hour to get to us, and then us an hour to get to the hospital.
I packed my hospital bag and waxed my eyebrows (priorities!) and took a shower and shit was getting real so we decided not to wait for MIL, we woke up our neighbor to come stay with Hen and got on the road.
It took us an hour to get there, and the first 45 minutes was brutal, contractions were 3 minutes apart and sitting wasn’t a great position for me, but you know, what can you do? But then the last 15 minutes of the drive I didn’t have any contractions and I was super worried that we were the parents who cried labor. That we’d be sent home and have to do this all over again.
It turns out I was in transition i just didn’t know it. As soon as we got tot he hospital the contractions started up again with a vengeance. We got to the hospital at 6:30 am (Friday, June 14). Got to the room, and our planned med free birth be damned I pretty much begged for an epidural. They checked me and I was at 5cm, got my IV in and fluids started and said they’d do the epi as soon as the bag of fluids was in.
Meanwhile contractions were getting ridiculous. They called my midwife up “just in case” and asked if I wanted to get in the tub while we waited in the epi. I totally get now that they were humoring me- we were way too late for the epi. They started filling the tub, I did hands and knees through the next few contractions and when the tub was about half full I decided to go to the bathroom and get in.
But then another wicked contraction had me on my knees on the bathroom floor and I started to feel like I needed to push. The nurses asked me if I felt like pushing and I totally lied and said no because I was super focused on getting the epi. But those nurses are no dummies, they knew what was up. My midwife asked me to get in the bed but I couldn’t move, so she called for a bunch of towels and spread them on the floor around me. Josh was incredible, he crouched on the floor in front of me and held me and I pushed Cop out in 2 pushes on my hands and knees. I delivered our baby on the bathroom floor. I think I bit Josh. Felt like I was shitting a softball. He was born in the caul. I shit in my midwifes hand. I was fast and furious. He was born at 7:21, less than an hour after we got to the hospital.
6 pounds 4 ounces, 18 inches. Breastfeeding great. Named for Copley square in Boston. It does not look like he has club foot at all, obviously he has DS, but that’s not a surprise. We love him. Hen is besotted.



































