Our Home Birth Experience

Very early on in our pregnancy, Dan and I were presented the option of having a home birth. After weighing the pros and cons, Dan and I decided to make it an option. We realized that, with our certified midwives and our close proximity to the hospital, home birth was a safe option for us.
I thoroughly enjoyed our home birth experience. It was nice to labour at home and not have to transfer to a hospital, especially since my labour was so fast.

The timeline of our labour:
3pm: I had my first contraction, which I thought was gas from the spicy food we had the night before.
3:30pm: Dan calls home, and I explain to him that I (a) have bad gas, (b) am in labour or (c) am dying. I tell him "contractions" are 5-7 minutes apart.
3:50pm: I call Dan and tell him that he needs to head home, as I am in full blown labour.
4:10pm: Dan makes it home. I tell him, he needs to put the bagels in the oven and start timing my contractions. He figures out that they are 2-3 minutes apart.
4:45pm: I tell Dan that he needs to call the midwife. He tells me that he needs to wait a bit longer before calling, since it hasn't been an hour of contractions yet.
5pm: Dan calls the midwife. They are doing a shift change and will call back in a few minutes
5:15pm: Midwife calls and she decides that she'll finish dinner and cleaning up before coming. She'll be there at 6:30. Dan runs around between contractions trying to get the house in order and ready for labour. (putting plastic sheet on bed etc.)
6:30pm: I tell Dan that I need to push. Dan tells me, "Don't you dare!"
6:40pm: Midwife (Jan) arrives and checks me. She tells me that I am fully dilated and that my water is about to burst. She calls the second midwife (Rachel), who lives in Langley to come quickly. Midwife tells me, "Try not to push."
6:58pm: Water breaks and the involuntary pushing begins. Midwife informs Dan that he may need to help deliver baby if second midwife doesn't arrive.
7:15pm: Second midwife arrives. The pushing begins! Somewhere in the next forty five minutes the midwives realize that the heart rate keeps dropping and they need to get the baby out immediately. The cord is around his neck. They do an episiotomy to get him out fast (without freezing I might add!)
8:02pm: Joel makes his arrival into the world.

It was awesome! The only cleanup we had to do was one load of laundry (which we could have thrown out if we wanted, but we are much to frugal for that). I couldn't have imagined getting into a car (or ambulance, in our case) to make our way to the hospital. It was awesome to have a baby and fall asleep in my own bed just hours later. I would do it again in a second! Okay, not the whole labour thing, but the home birth aspect!