Louie Anthony Birth Story

I'm so excited to finally write Louie's birth story down! There are things I really loved about the births of each of my three boys but Louie's was extra special for a few reasons...

Elias and Henry were both born on their due dates, so I was very much expecting to have another due date baby. I was even convinced I might go early, but third time was not a charm in that area. The due date came and went and in the couple of days following I started to feel like this baby would never come.

For those of you on baby watch! 😘 Today is baby T3.0's due date. I've been hoping for a three-peat of due date babies but so far it seems like it may not be happen. Feeling so full of love and joy awaiting this sweet baby's arrival in God's perfect timing though! Can't wait to meet you little one! And while I've done very little in the way of blogging and sharing about this little one, I've learned something so special about the third born. For the first born you learn about what a mother's love is really all about, for a second born you learn what it's like to watch sibling love blossom and for the third born you hold onto so much excitement to see and feel those things again! ❤️ #40weeks #babynumber3

A photo posted by Melanie Thompson (@melanieathomp) on Aug 28, 2015 at 5:18am PDT

Finally, four days after his due date I woke up super early with what felt like the beginning of labour. With Henry from first sensation to baby was less than 10 hours so I figured that early afternoon we could be meeting baby number 3! I was so excited thinking that my other kiddos could meet their new sibling before the end of the day.

When Elias and Henry woke up we all went downstairs for breakfast and I was making breakfast and breathing through some strong contractions but still bouncing around with excitement. I started packing up some things for the boys to be ready to stay overnight with my parents. As we got ourselves together for the day and packed up I felt like things were progressing well. I decided it would be best to have the boys spend some time with my parents so I could really focus on what I was doing. We packed up the boys and the hospital bags just in case and went to mom and dad's. That's when things really slowed down. Jetty was prepping for one of the tests he had coming up for his Air Traffic Control course (he had to write it two days later) so he decided to do some studying at mom's while I relaxed and waited for things to get moving. After a frustrating hour or so of nothing really happening we decided to go for a walk. On our hour long walk I think I only stopped twice to breathe through contractions. I had been hoping we would be leaving soon for the hospital but I was slowly realizing that this baby was taking his time. We decided to leave the boys and go out for a relaxing lunch,

I had a yummy meal at Cora's and had no notable contractions the whole time. I started to feel like maybe it was just a false alarm and that we would still be a few days. After lunch we went home to hang out and watch tv for the afternoon while I bounced on an exercise ball - I wasn't ready to give up and pick up the boys even though I was pretty sure that things were stopping. Through the afternoon I would have pretty strong contractions but there was so much time between each one. Finally it was supper time and I was hungry. We made a quick and easy meal and while eating and shortly after things really changed. Contractions were less than 5 minutes apart and were very strong. I was staying focused though and was able to breathe through them. I didn't really realize how much things had progressed until Jetty told me we should probably head to the hospital. He had been timing contractions and realized there was very little time between them.

Driving to the hospital was not fun but part of me was still worried that things hadn't really progressed enough. When I got to the hospital for Henry I was 5cm along and I really wanted to be at least that far along if not further this time around.

I took the stairs up to labour and delivery because I wanted to keep things moving along and a small part of me was worried things might slow down again. In hindsight that was a crazy thought because things were clearly moving along now. By the time I got checked in and answered the nurse's question, "How will we be managing pain?" with a friendly, "You're looking at it!" I was fully effaced and about 8cm dilated. I couldn't believe it.

We moved straight to the same room my other two boys were born and I continued to breathe through contractions. A few times I felt a bit overwhelmed but my nurse was awesome and she got me refocused and I was amazed at how smooth this birth was going. The Dr. who was supposed to deliver the baby made me angry the two times he came into the room with how he talked to me and approached the whole birth. The nurse could read it all over my face.

I wasn't looking forward to having him back in the room and so when I started to feel like I was ready to push the nurse helped me get through the first couple of pushes before she asked someone to call the Dr. with the speed at which I pushed Henry out I tried to slow things down this time so I wouldn't bruise up another baby. By the time the Dr. arrived though I was holding sweet Louie in my arms and I was overwhelmed with love for him.

The next day the whole family was too!