Birth Story

Baby #5

     Tuesday November 3rd, our baby is eighteen days past the due date according to my last period, ten days past the ultrasound due date and only a week past the conception due date.
     Tonight Shane took the older two kids an hour early to the church to get some ward clerk things done before working with his Webelos class. Nephi had mutual and EmmaLily had an Activity Day Girls talent show! My mom and I were just going to watch a movie with Elijah and Willow until they came home, when around 5:50pm my first contraction hit. It was soft but deep. I knew it could be starting for real so I began timing them. 10-20 minute intervals. Since they weren't strong or regular I warned Shane but didn't have him rush home.
     Shane and the kids came home around 9:30pm. I was talking to Shane, who was still in his Scout leader uniform, when the first REAL contraction hit. We had a family prayer and sent the kids to bed, promising to wake the girls, who wanted to watch the baby come, when I was close to giving birth.
     My mom and Shane set up the bedroom for our home birth. Dollar Tree shower curtains lined the bed above our nice sheets. I made sure to get the red ones so the gore wouldn't be too noticeable! We laid an old fitted sheet above them and lined the head of the bed with all the pillows. The tub was running with warm water. My mother grabbed the DSLR and began snapping photos of the labor process.
     My contractions were still between 6 and 20 minutes apart and very inconsistent. I called the midwife and let her know it would be tonight, but not to rush over yet because I thought it could take at least a few hours and she was attending to another birth at the center.
     I got into the shower to labor since my contractions were getting more painful. The shower wasn't much help so I climbed into the tub to labor. It felt great in comparison! The constant warmth of the water lifting my belly was great, I laid on my side to make sure most of my body was in the water.
     Now this part may be a little too much information so if you get queasy easily when it comes to bodily fluids, just skim passed it!
    A contraction would hit and I had to go to the toilet. At first it was just gas, then each time I had a contraction it would be worse gas and eventually diarrhea. After about an hour of laboring in the tub and getting in and out to use the toilet, my contractions went from inconsistent to 6 minutes, contraction, 6 minutes, contraction, 2 minutes, contraction, 2 minutes, contraction, "Uh Oh, Shane! Call the midwife NOW!" He called, then helped me out of the tub.
     I sat down on the toilet and felt solid pressure on my cervix instead of in my colon.
     "Woah! THATS NOT POOP!" I exclaimed to Shane, who had been helping me to and from the bathroom. And we rushed to the bed.
     I lay down on my left side, my choice of birthing position, and requested for Shane to begin recording on his phone.
     Shane and my mom attempted to wake the kids, who got up only to fall back to sleep immediately. Oh well, they can watch the video!
     A contraction hit and I knew the familiar feel of a solid being moving with the shape of my body into the birthing canal.
     "The baby's coming!" I exclaimed.
      My mom and Shane tried to get me to open my legs to allow the baby room to pass through. I panicked, snapped my legs shut and told them to wait, that the midwife isn't here and we should wait for her. I briefly saw panic and empathy in Shanes face and I knew he felt the same way I did. Then a sense of impending doom befell me and I knew it was just transition.
     I was able to calm myself enough to realize this was all part of the process and my body knew what to do. I saw that Shane and I were on the same page, he looked around, thinking, as we waited for the next contraction to hit. It was mere seconds away but felt an overwhelming amount of time.
     I felt her body move deeper down into the birthing canal and knew for sure that we were doing this alone. I felt a sense of peace and love overcome me and knew everything was going to be perfectly fine. I was able to muster up the energy to open my legs and allow this child passage into the world.
     Shane, looking peaceful, and beautiful, with a sense of purpose and intent, knelt near my lower body as the third and final contraction hit at 11:52pm. I felt babys head finish coming down and out. The water breaking slowly and leaking very little at a time onto the towels around me, her soft small body sliding gracefully and gently out of my own. Shane only needing to guide her into the world and place her on my body as I cried out of joy at the relief of pressure and the sight of my beautiful baby on my body.
     Her birth was quick but not too fast, and fairly gentle on my body. Everything I had been praying for. This was my easiest birth yet. I am so grateful to have been able to have a home birth in the first place, but to have the baby in my bed with only my loving husband helping to bring her into the world as my mother took beautiful photos of it all was the biggest and best blessing I could have had.
     The midwife and nurse arrived about five minutes later, they were ecstatic that everything went smoothly, declared Shane an "official" midwife, checked the baby, checked me (no tearing at all!!!), helped birth the placenta, did other medical stuff and cleaned up everything <3 p="">

The birth story in photos:

Birth Story

It was Sunday, February third. The baby was a week and a half past his first due date which was January 23rd. I had just said goodbye to some of the last guests at the baby shower that my friend had thrown me because I didn't have one yet(she thought that was why the baby hadn't come yet!). I took all the gifts into my room and was putting away and sorting things. While I was doing this I was talking to my mom and Shane when, at about 7:30pm, the first contraction hit me like a bullet! I actually had to stop and clench my sides and yelp a little. After two months of painful Braxton-Hicks contractions, I knew that this was the real thing! At church I had asked our home teachers to come by that evening to help give me a blessing. While we were sitting in the living room, trying to figure out when to go to the hospital, they came by around 8:20pm and gave me the blessing. Shortly after they left I had a bad contraction and thought we need to get to the hospital now! And Shane says to me, "Just let me know when you want to go to the hospital." So I looked at him and said, "Okay, I wanna go now."
We drive to Hoag Hospital and get there close to 9pm. The nurses check me in and get everything ready. Since we had a false alarm the week before they already had our birth plan on file, and that made things go faster and easier. The best thing about being in the hospital was the fact that they totally respected my birth plan and didn't even suggest an IV or anything that I had said I didn't want. I was even able to wear my own shirt that I had set aside to give birth in. They dimmed the lights and made it comfortable for me (as comfortable as I could get in the hospital anyway).
The nurse checked my cervix and said that the baby's head was right there and she couldn't feel the water and asked me if it had broken already. It didn't, I was sure of that! So she called the OB in. When he came in a few minutes later and checked me he said the baby was coming! I was having contractions and didn't even feel like bearing down yet, so I was a little surprised, especially since it had been less then an hour since I got to the hospital. My water still hadn't broken yet, so they did it right before I had to start pushing. I started to laugh. I think it was just sinking in that I was having a baby! Shane was sitting next to me holding my hand, kissing me, being there for me. We both started to laugh, sweet laughing. A contraction hit and they told me to push. I didn't push EmmaLily out she kind of just shot out, so I wasn't used to that. The baby didn't come out with the first contraction, so it felt like forever until the next one came! And it came at last, with one more push my sweet little baby boy came out and they put him right on my chest. He was crying but it was such a sweet little soft cry. I was still laughing. I felt so great, like a surge of energy. Of course that didn't last! but it was nice. I didn't hemorrhage like I had with my second birth. I think that had to do with the extra energy.
I love the feeling of the baby coming out. Then the placenta. Those are the best feelings of relief. Then the after pains start a bit later and that is probably the worst part of giving birth naturally. I didn't want any pain meds for the birth, but I was willing to take them afterwards!!