Thad’s Birth Story | Part 4: Setting My Deadline
I shared Thad’s birth story in installments on social media. Since not everyone is on social media, I wanted to also share the story of his birth here on my blog. This version is the narrative form version, which I wrote initially for family and friends. If you’re jumping in here on this post, you may want to go back and start with Part One.
Alternatively, I also have an overview post of my pregnancy and Thad’s birth over here on this post.
Mara was born on a Monday. Jem was born on a Tuesday. Laz was born on a Wednesday. I was born on a Friday. (Gabe was born on a Tuesday, but his birth had some complicated factors, so we don’t worry about that!).
When Mara realised the weekly progression of our birth days, she started petitioning for a Thursday birth. I didn’t promise her anything!
Personally, as we proceeded into Week 41, I was hoping for Wednesday – 24/04/2024 seemed like a pretty awesome birth date! But I also wasn’t going to be picky – any day was fine, sooner rather than later would be great!
At my non stress test on Wednesday, I asked my midwife when she went off call for the weekend. “Friday at noon,” she answered with a smile. “We’re leaving town and taking the caravan for the weekend.”
“OK, so that’s my deadline,” I joked.
I always seem to need a deadline. It’s probably my task-oriented, planner personality. Or my desire to do better than the minimum in everything.
With Mara, I had a scheduled induction for Monday morning due to concerns about her size. I went into labour Sunday night, and she was born an hour after the induction was supposed to start.
With Jem, we were careening toward NZ’s covid lockdown, which started on Wednesday night. I went into labour Tuesday morning, she was born by dinner time Tuesday night, and Gabe and I went home from the Birth Centre Wednesday morning to pack up and move to our friends’ house before lockdown began that night.
With Laz, my midwife was taking a week long holiday starting at 5pm on Thursday night. Her daughter, who goes to uni in the USA, was coming home for a visit and my midwife was excited to spend a week with all three of her girls at home. We had a scheduled non stress test for noon Thursday. I didn’t want to walk into the hospital, I didn’t want to do the test, and I wanted MY midwife at my first home birth, not a back up midwife. I went into labour early Wednesday morning and Laz was born a short few hours later at 8am.
I’ve always given birth before those deadlines. I was hoping I would hold true to that this time as well!
I told Gabe when my midwife was going off call when I got home from the hospital after a smooth non stress test Wednesday afternoon. “We have plenty of time. A lot can happen between now and Friday noon!” I announced optimistically.
“Oh, yeah.” He encouraged. “I think you’ll have this baby before then.”
I swayed through another scattered contraction and smiled wearily as I pulled out my computer to do a few random tasks on my to-do list. “I sure do hope so…” I answered.