As it gets closer and closer to baby’s due date, I find myself thinking more and more about labor and delivery. This will be my third birth, so I’ve been through this twice already, but I still have so many questions about what will happen! The thing about birth is every baby is a completely new experience.

hand and face ultrasound

I know this particularly well because my first two births were total opposites! Both times, I was planning on having a vaginal birth with an epidural. How many times did that actually happen? Zero. Instead I ended up with one C-section delivery under general anesthetic and one med-free birth. Definitely not what I expected.

When I was having my first, I didn’t have a lot of expectations of birth. I just knew I didn’t want to have a C-section if at all possible. When I was 39 weeks, I went in for a routine appointment with plans to have dinner with my husband afterwards. Instead I found myself headed straight to the hospital to have our baby! My amniotic fluid was too low and the cord was around the baby’s neck so my doctor decided we really needed to go ahead and induce. Twenty four hours later, I had still only dilated to five centimeters and nothing much seemed to be happening. So, it was decided we needed to do the one thing I didn’t want: a C-section.

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In retrospect, I could have possibly fought harder to wait longer to see if I would progress, but I’m glad I didn’t. It turns out the cord was wrapped around Finn’s neck four times and in the end a C-section was the safest thing we could do. That being said, my epidural wore off several times throughout labor and I ended up having to be put under general anesthetic for the C-section so I wasn’t even awake for my baby’s birth. And when I did finally get to meet my new baby a few hours later, I was so groggy and tired, I was more interested in sleep than bonding. My recovery was also not great all around. I had a healthy baby which was by the far the most important thing, but pretty much everything else about my birth experience was not what I would have chosen.

When I was pregnant with number two, I spent a lot of time hoping I would be able to have a Vbac. I worried about what I should do if things didn’t get started on their own. I didn’t really want to be induced and I didn’t want to have another C-section, but I really, really didn’t want to be induced, labor, and then have a C-section anyway.

Thankfully, in the end there was nothing to worry about. With Dash, when I was exactly 37 weeks, I woke up in the middle of the night with contractions that were three minutes apart and steadily growing more intense. I called the hospital and they said to come on in. By the time we got dressed, dropped off Finn with my mom, and made it to the hospital 45 minutes away, my contractions were really painful.

We got checked in and I started asking for an epidural pretty much right away. The nurse was still going through a million check-in procedures, starting my IV for strep B, and getting everything set up. When I deal with pain, I’m not a screamer or a super expressive person; I usually deal by focusing inwardly so I may not have seemed like I was having that much pain. Finally the third time I asked about an epidural, I told the nurse I was in a lot of pain. She offered to check me and it turns out I was already at a 10 and ready to push. No wonder it hurt! Of course at that point an epidural was out of the question.

Everyone went into action, the doctor came in and I only had to push for 8 minutes before my little guy was born. It was only four hours from the time I woke up with contractions until I had my baby in my arms. Thankfully he had no complications from not getting all of the Strep B antibiotics and even though he was three weeks early, his only complication was jaundice.

After all was said and done, I was so glad I hadn’t had an epidural. My recovery was so easy; I honestly felt pretty much like myself immediately. And because the whole thing was so fast, dealing with the pain of labor without an epidural was very doable.

So my first two birth stories are incredibly different from one another. The first time I wasn’t able to go into labor naturally and my body was completely not on board with pushing out a baby. The second time everything went off without a hitch with minimal help from anyone else.

But where does that leave me now? I have no idea! Of course I would love a repeat of my second, quicker, easier birth but I know there is no guarantee that will happen. Every pregnancy and every baby is different. Plus, I have gestational diabetes this time around and even though I’m being closely monitored and everything looks perfect, that does increase the risk of C-section and other interventions.

I’ve heard rumors that while second births are typically faster and easier than first births, the third time around can be a real wild card. So I’m trying to prepare myself that this birth could be even faster than last time…or it could be full of roadblocks.

Has anyone else had totally opposite birth stories? And do you think there is any truth to the third child’s birth being a total wild card?