A big deal: The birth of Adalyn

My story starts at 36 weeks. I called midwife that morning after I had bloody show. She showed up at my house to check me and saw that I was dilated to 3 cm. An hour later, I was dilated to 4 cm. She said to call my husband (who works in North Dakota, while we lived in Billings, Montana) and tell him to head home. He made the mad dash home, only to have everything stall. We spent the next 6 weeks on “any moment” alert. My due date came and went with barely a twitch.
In Montana, you have to be delivered by 42 weeks, or you have to be admitted to the hospital. I was at 41 weeks and 5 days when my midwife and I made the decision to break my waters (yes, I walked around for 6 weeks at 4 cm dilated!). She showed up at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning to break my waters. After it was done, we hung out, I walked up and down stairs, we went for a bumpy ride and ordered pizza. At lunch, my contractions started, and were mild and about 12 minutes apart. We finished lunch and were visiting when a very strong contraction hit.
From that moment (about 2:05 p.m.) my contractions were strong and 2 minutes apart. I labored in my living room for about 35 minutes, and my midwife took me back to my bed to check me. I was already 9 cm! She told me I couldn’t push yet.  I made it through 2 more contractions before the urge to push overwhelmed me. All of a sudden I could see my baby’s head (I was standing, and she placed a mirror on the floor). I pushed through a couple more contractions, and we thought the baby was stuck. My midwife checked, and baby had her arms crossed over her chest, making it difficult to fit down the birth canal. She straightened things out, and my baby was born in just a couple of more pushes. She was 9 lbs 2 oz, and beautiful! (I am 5’2″, and weighed 110 prepregnancy, so a 9 lb baby was a big deal!)