By Victoria
Birth report from a 3rd time mother - and I'm sorry, because it's a bit long 
Friday evening I feel the first baby contractions as I am about to cuddle my (now) middle daughter aged 3.5 years. I'm 39+5 and with both my previous births, I've gone over time, so I can hardly understand if it's already happening now.
I go up and tell my husband, Jannick, that something funky is about to happen in my body, but we take a look, as we have also heard that some 3. Step births can be a bit mischievous, but we're now setting ourselves up for a possible birth anyway, so around 9pm I put my eldest to bed and Jannick goes shopping for chips, juice and dextrose tablets. The contractions at this point are 20-30 seconds long and there are 6-8 minutes between them.
I take a long, hot shower and at around 11.30pm we contact my parents, who will come and look after the girls. In the afternoon, they have driven to a summer house on Fur, so they just have a short ferry ride and a two-hour drive ahead of them. They come with the ferry at midnight, are on their way.
My contractions are starting to bite, but I can be in them - I count my breaths, and that way I can keep track of when the contractions peak and subside again. Jannick takes a nap on the sofa and I also manage to doze off between contractions. I work with contractions myself for a few hours, here they are about 45 seconds long with 5-6 minute intervals. I alternate between sitting on the pilates ball and lying on my knees over the sofa chaise longue.
Around 2 o'clock my parents arrive, and go straight downstairs and sleep with the girls. I go under the shower again for half an hour, and now it really seems that the contractions are pulling teeth, but I have very good control over my breathing, so I can still be in them. Meen I also think that now it must be time to call the midwife.
It fits that Jannick wakes up when I get upstairs, and at 02.56 we call the midwife. The phone is answered by the midwife with whom I have had almost all my consultations, and I am simply so happy that she is the one with whom I will give birth. The contractions now last about 45 seconds and are 5-6 minutes apart, and we talk a bit about whether she should go to the maternity ward and get laughing gas. I don't remember what we come up with, but she orders a taxi anyway, and will get there as soon as she can. While we wait, Jannick gets ready to inflate the birthing vessel and fill it.
Meanwhile, my mother wakes up and comes into our living room. I sit on the sofa chaise longue while Jannick inflates the tub, and here I have a few contractions, while my mother presses hard on my lower back.
It feels really good, but suddenly the contractions come a little faster than they did just before. I get down on my knees in front of the chaise longue again, and between contractions tell Jannick that I can't reach that tub. Little sister is coming soon. At first he doesn't quite understand why I say that, and tries to convince me that we can easily get it filled, but he quickly changes his mind when, in the next second, he hears me gasp my way through the first press sieve. At 03.28 I call the midwife again and say she must come NOW, but fortunately she is right on the stairs!
Jannick sits down in front of me on the sofa, and I put a cold cloth on my forehead while I gasp through a few squeezes. I am somehow completely clear in my head, and fortunately have some nice breaks in between contractions. I BATTLE SWEAT. It's so hard to gasp during contractions, instead of pushing along. My mother wakes up my father, who is a senior obstetrician, IF my little sister were to arrive before the midwife.
At 03.40 the midwife enters the door. I get to yell at her that I'm having contractions, and she tells me to just push along. When I push along on the first step, the water goes in a huge splash. It's a fucking liberation. It takes me 2 or 3 more contractions, and at 03.48 I go to meet little Freya myself.
I get up and lie on the couch where the placenta is born. I am examined (the first and only internal examination) and there are no ruptures 
. At 5-5.30, my big girls are woken up and come up to greet their new little sister, and Freya is measured and weighed. 3900 g and 50 cm pure love.
. At 5-5.30, my big girls are woken up and come up to greet their new little sister, and Freya is measured and weighed. 3900 g and 50 cm pure love.
I couldn't have wished for a better birth, and although there was a moment of doubt as to whether the midwife would make it, at no point was I uneasy or anything. The wildest experience of my life!
