Three years ago, I had the quickest labor of my life. One hour and ten minutes. Compared to the 30 hours of labor with my first child, this was a cake walk. On the morning of Frost's birth, I went to my midwife for my weekly visit and she told me I was about 2cm dilated. It was one week before my due date. Lily was born one week before her due date too. You can stay dilated for a number of weeks, so I thought nothing of the midwife appointment that morning.
I had some minor contractions that evening during dinner. I really thought it was just Braxton Hicks. My labor with Lily was so much more intense, that I thought nothing of those dinner contractions. The contractions went away after dinner. Around 9pm that night, I was putting Lily to bed and contractions started suddenly, were intensely strong and close together. I yelled for Brooke to call the midwife. He was in slow motion. We both thought we were going to be in for a long night. Lily's labor was so long, we didn't know we'd be holding our second child very soon.
I went into the living room to await the arrival of our midwife Liz and her midwife in training. The contractions were very intense, but not intolerable. Brooke finished putting Lily to bed. Liz arrived at 9:45pm - about a half hour after Brooke called her. By this time, my contractions were toe curling. I couldn't talk through them. I didn't want to move. I felt intense pressure from the baby. With the next contraction, my water broke. Three contractions later, two pushes and Frost was born! 10:10pm.
It was so nice to be at home. He was so tiny and sweet. He cried for two hours after he was born. The midwife said such a quick birth that he just had to let us know what it was like to come so fast. She said in her 600 birth experiences that he was her fastest do date. We couldn't imagine having gone to a hospital. He would have been born on the way. He was smaller than Lily - 6 lbs. 14 oz. Lily was 8 lbs. 4oz. I was smaller too. With Lily I gained 50 lbs. With Frost I only gained 35lbs.
Home birth was really relaxing. To be in my "cave" with the people I love and incredible midwives was so comforting. The midwives stayed for another four hours. They cleaned up the house, made us food and simply shared the joy. We snuggled close to our son in our bed. Our daughter was asleep during the whole thing. She really wanted to cut the cord, but we couldn't wake her, so Brooke had the honors.
Frost is a very mellow guy. He goes with the flow. He has his frustrated moments, but he's very easy to calm and help. He loves to ride his bike with dad. They "off road" it in the yard and ride around the block together. He entered his first cyclocross race this year. He loves any kind of construction vehicle - anything that moves really. I love to watch him study how these things work. You can see him calculating the physics.
Frost now weighs 31 lbs!
