Had the water birth of my dreams!

My first birth was at a hospital that offered water births and the plan was to have a water birth. Long story short, I ended up with an epidural and my legs in stirrups (the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen).

A week ago I gave birth to my second baby and this time it was at a birth center. It was soooo redeeming compared to my first birth.

I woke up at 3am in a fetal position because I was in so much pain. I wasn’t really sure if I was actually in labor or I just had to use the restroom so I tried but nothing came out. I woke husband up and he went into a different room to call the midwife. He came back and told me she said to wait for a couple more contractions and I told him I just had 2 while he was on the phone. He called her back and she told us to come in.

By 4am we arrived at the Birth Center with our toddler. MIL arrived soon after to hold and play with toddler in the room. The midwife checked me as soon as we got there and I was 9cm dilated and my water was bulging out of my cervix and had not yet broken. There was another woman in labor already there but they said I was probably going to give birth before she did. As soon as the midwife was done checking me, I got in the tub and it felt absolutely incredible! The contractions were less intense in the water. I found a comfortable position bent forward on my knees and just hung my head on the side of the tub. My husband was sitting on a stool next to me. I listened to my favorite songs on a very low volume, clutched my birth comb, and held my husband’s hand through each contraction. For me, I found that silence really helped the pain not feel as bad. When my MIL first got there she was talking to my toddler very, very loudly and it genuinely made the pain worse. Luckily my husband asked her to whisper pretty fast.

In the 30 seconds between contractions I was almost dozing off because I was running on 3.5 hours of sleep. But at some point I started to feel this slight urge to bear down. I let my husband know and he grabbed the midwife. I got repositioned and my body was basically pushing on its own with the amniotic sack intact. So the midwife had to manually break my water and within 4 contractions baby was born at 5:30am.

It was also very nice not having to stay in the hospital for a couple days. By 9am we were being discharged and I got to rest in my own bed which was great.

There was definitely a point during transition where I was thinking that I wanted an epidural with the next baby, but after the whole experience I can confidently say I would do a water birth again in a heartbeat.