It is Thursday and we had decided to wait on breaking the water bag until Friday but in the meantime we wanted to continue to do what we could. So we went for another long walk around 5:00 pm. Almost as soon as we left Amy's contractions started happening on a very regular basis. By the time we got home, 2 hours later, we called Diane (our midwife) who came over and told us we were officially in labor.

Amy spent a lot of time in the shower and I spent a lot of time pushing on her tailbone. I think I could do it professionally now. Around 4 am we got into the tub. Amy says that the contractions were unbearable out of the tub and that once she got into the tub it was much better (though probably still completely unbearable if it was me). We worked through transition in the tub and then around 6 am she started pushing.

I guess 2 hours spent pushing is considered a long time. After 2 hours of Amy pushing, Carter still wasn't anywhere near crowning. Diane said that the only thing keeping us from going to the hospital was 2 things. One, his heart rate never dipped even for a second. They would check it after every push and it was always perfect. The other reason was that each time Diane was about to suggest going to the hospital Amy was able to move him forward just a bit more.

I guess that babies take their first breaths when they are all the way out because the birth canal squeezes everything out of their lungs. He still had stuf fin his mouth and lungs and when he breathed in he started to choke. Diane told Amy that Carter needed to come out right then and that she need to push non-stop. Diane worked on Carter to help and as soon as the shoulders cleared he flew out and pooped all over her.