Birth report Jonas

On 9 October at around 8 a.m. I noticed that my uterine seal had come off. I let my husband (Robert) know and we tried to get everything ready. However, we had thought (and perhaps hoped a little) that it would not start until the next day, when the big one (Felix, 2.5 years) was in daycare.
I took another baby bump photo and went to bed early with Felix so that I could go into the birth as rested as possible.

At 21:40 I was lying in bed when I realised that my waters had broken.
Suddenly I was very nervous. Five minutes ago Felix was still cuddling up to me in his sleep and now I had to somehow „free“ myself from this lovely cuddle and the birth would soon start.
Robert informed our babysitter, who arrived very quickly.

I then rang Nora and told her about the situation. Jonas had turned again in the 36th week of pregnancy and a few days before. I had the feeling that he was lying in a cephalic position again, but I wasn't quite sure.
Nora was with us at around 11pm, palpated me (he was right for an out-of-hospital birth :-)) and put the TENS unit on me (which I was able to borrow from the birthing centre). At this point I was having contractions about every 6 minutes.

So far, everything has gone in the same order as with Felix's birth, only faster. As we all assumed that the birth would be quicker than Felix's, we joked that we would be back home for breakfast (4 of us then).

Nora drove up to the birth centre. We took another quick breath, made sure everything was prepared and packed and then set off.

When we arrived at the birth centre, the atmosphere was wonderfully calm and gentle. It was nice and warm and the light was very cosy. I felt at ease straight away.
The contractions came about every 4-5 minutes and were still pleasant to breathe. The TENS unit did me a lot of good.

Nora started to get the pool ready at around 3 o'clock, but then my contractions became less frequent until at some point they only came every 15-25 minutes - so I didn't go into the pool for a while.

Shortly before 4 o'clock, the other labour room was occupied. The other woman came to the birth centre „just for the finale“. We were actually just about to try and get some sleep, which wasn't possible for me. So I went back to the Pezzi ball and turned up the volume on the headphones. After about 20 minutes, the woman must have had her baby in her arms. I was very happy for her, but also a little sad that we had to take an unexpected break.

I tried to stimulate the contractions again with nipple stimulation and gymnastic exercises, but it was never successful for long. Nora and her team gave me a very nice reception and I was given a very pleasant abdominal massage.

Robert and I set off for a short walk at around 10am. We actually wanted to get something for breakfast, but unfortunately we couldn't pay by card at the bakery. So we went back without food. During the walk I had fairly regular contractions every 5-7 minutes again, but they went away again when we were resting in the birth centre. Robert then drove home briefly at 12 noon, organised and prepared a few things and got food for us both.

He was back again at around 1pm. During this time the contractions also became more intense and I had a little difficulty finding a good position to breathe. It really was completely different to my first birth. I found positions comfortable that I would never have adopted with Felix. I often stood with my upper body bent forward and my arms stretched out against the wall.

As the contractions became more and more intense, I finally found a single bearable position: Sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning backwards during the contraction with the hedgehog ball in one hand as counter pressure. Robert always let me know after 3.5 minutes so that I could prepare myself mentally and put the blanket down and then back on again. I got very cold during the wave breaks, but incredibly warm in the meantime.

Nora's day job was over at around 2 pm. She and Antonia joined us in the room.
We got the bath ready again, even though I was undecided for a long time about what would help me more - the TENS unit or water.

I got into the bath at around 14:15/20. The warm water felt very pleasant.
I had 1 more contraction there and was surprised by the urge to push during the next one.
I immediately communicated this to everyone in the room :-).

Robert immediately took my hand and I went to the edge of the bath. I was kneeling in the bath while my upper body lay on the edge. That way I could rest during the breaks.
I was very surprised and a little overwhelmed by this moment, as I hadn't expected it.
4-5 contractions later, Jonas was born in the water at 14:37. That was my big wish - a water birth. It was already planned for Felix, but couldn't be realised in terms of time, but I was in the water a lot during the opening phase.

Looking back, the birth was surprisingly different to my first birth experience (also a dream birth), but beautiful and just right. I felt well cared for and safe at all times. Thank you so much!