Birth story - Cat and baby boy

Background info:

My first baby was born in 4hours so I was expecting another quick birth with my second baby which is one of the reasons for choosing a home birth.

Pretty straight forward pregnancy apart from being diagnosed with gestational diabetes around 20 weeks. Due to this I was told by the hospital that I was absolutely not able to have a home birth or even use the birth centre even though I was only 0.1 over the GD range! After doing my own research I realised this was totally untrue and I was able to have my baby at home, especially as I was on no medications so did not see any heightened risks to me or baby and scans etc were all completely normal. Luckily the homebirth team were amazing and supported my decision with no questions.

Labour/birth:

38weeks and 2 days - went to pick up a birth pool and then went out walking in the woods with my family in the afternoon, started to get what I assumed was Braxton hicks about every 10 mins, very mild pains so carried on the walk. Got home around 5ish and decided to test out getting the pool up. Was still having mild cramps about every 10 mins but still thought they were Braxton hicks so continued to cook my daughters dinner and get her off to bed. Around 8pm I realised that it may actually be the start of labour as the cramps were now every 5 minutes but still quite mild. Called the homebirth team to give them the heads up just incase. They arrived at 9pm which is when everything then ramped up a level and I realised it was definitely labour 🤣 Popped on the tens machine and did my breathing along with some calming music while my partner filled up the pool (which was a right pain!) midwives sat in the kitchen and left us to it, no examinations needed. About 9.45pm decided to get into the pool as my body felt like it was starting to want to push even though it had only been 45mins of proper contractions. By 10.15pm my baby boy was born in the water after a few big pushes. The feeling of catching him and bringing him up to my chest was like no other!

A few grazes which needed some stitches but nothing major. Was back up walking around a hour after! It was an amazing calming birth and so glad I was able to have him at home ❤️