Neil, Kelley, Zachary, Daphne, Xander, and Milena: 2013

This story ended up being kind of long, but if you enjoy birth stories read on!

My homebirth experience started when I first got pregnant with Xander. I had not enjoyed either of my previous births, and I wanted something different. Since I had a C-section with Daphne, I was now high risk and I had to look for someone who would do a VBAC. I knew I wanted to try to have this baby naturally because I don't like the way medications affect me, and I didn't want to have to fight a doctor every step of the way. I started looking into midwives because I felt like they would be more personable, and more in line with what I wanted. I found a midwife, but then after the first appointment I wasn't really happy, so I ended up switching. I decided to go with Sherri Price, and she was awesome. She was super supportive, helped calm all my fears of having a VBAC, and helped me have a great pregnancy! Now fast-forward to a little bit before the birth.

About a month ago, his head dropped, making it really difficult to walk. This had happened with Zachary as well, but I wasn't really expecting it this time around since they say that later babies don't usually drop until right before labor. That made me a little nervous that he would come early, but even though I had pretty consistent braxton hicks contractions, nothing else was happening. I was really grateful for this because I had both kids' birthdays to celebrate, as well as 50^th birthday parties for both my parents. I'm kind of glad that it was a busy month, otherwise I think I would have gone crazy!

About two weeks before my due date, we all ended up getting colds. This made me really nervous because I was feeling like I could go into labor any day, and I wasn't sure how well I would hold up during a natural childbirth if I didn't feel well. Also, I was terrified that I would get him sick as soon as he was born since there have been so many nasty things going around this winter. However, when I went to my appointment with Sherri that week, she gave me some things to do that made it go away really quickly. She also told me that there were signs that the baby would be coming soon, which made me excited and a little nervous as well. I really wanted to last through the weekend so I could make it to my parents' parties, and I was afraid that I would go into labor while I was up there. Everything ended up working out, and by Sunday I was super ready for this baby to come!

I woke up Monday morning a little disappointed that I hadn't gone into labor during the night, but I felt pretty good and decided to go to aerobics. I had been teaching aerobics up until about 2 weeks prior, and I think that really helped my pregnancy. I wasn't really doing much actual aerobics at this point, but it still felt good. I actually felt really good all morning, which was a definite sign that things were getting close. I cleaned the house and played with the kids, but didn't want to get too hopeful. Around 3:00 in the afternoon, my back started hurting. I though at first that I had just overdone things, but then I noticed that there was definitely a pattern. It felt different than the braxton hicks I had been having, but I still didn't think it was really happening. I went on with my day, went to the store, made dinner, and just tried to ignore them. When Neil got home about 6:00 I started timing them, and they were about 10 minutes apart. They weren't really painful or even super consistent, so I still figured it was false labor and they would go away eventually. We ate dinner and Neil played with the kids for a while, and then we put them to bed. At this point they were a little closer, so I figured I should call Sherri and give her a head's up. I told her I was having contractions, but that she didn't need to worry about coming yet. Since Zachary's labor was 18 hours long I figured I wasn't going to have this baby until at least the morning. She said she'd give her team a head's up and for me to call her back when I was ready for her to come. I also called my mom and told her what was happening, but I still wasn't sure if she needed to come down that night or not. I said I'd call her back in an hour or so and let her know what was happening.

At 9:00, Neil and I sat down to watch Castle. I sat on my birth ball and started timing contractions again. They were now coming 5 minutes apart, and by the end of the show I was starting to need some counter pressure on my back. I called my mom and had her head down, and we started to get things ready. It wasn't until I went to the bathroom and had some bloody show that I really believed that I was actually in labor and this was going to happen tonight :) I called Sherri and she said she'd head right over. I started getting excited, but really nervous too. Was I really ready to have this baby in my house, without any kind of drugs? Whether I was or not, that is what we were doing!

Since I was having a lot of back labor, Sherri had told me to crawl around on the floor for a while. I did that a bit, but soon it just felt better to stand with my back pressed against the wall. Pretty soon everyone showed up and our house was a buzz with activity. There was a team of 3 midwives there, and they brought everything in and started setting up the tub. I was super excited to get into the tub, but didn't think I'd need it for a while yet. I kind of felt in the way, so I just stood off to the side, breathing through my contractions. My mom said I probably still had a ways to go since I could still talk through the contractions, which is what I had been feeling too. Sherri showed her and Neil how to apply some counter pressure, so we just did that while they were filling up the tub. Once they got the tub filled up (I'm not sure what time it was, maybe just after 11), Sherri asked if she could check me. I didn't think I would be much more than a 4, so imagine my surprise when she said I was a 6 ½!! She said I could get in the tub any time I wanted, and I got in fairly soon after that. The warm water felt really good, but I had a hard time finding a position that was comfortable. Every time I had a contraction, 3 or 4 people would give me counter pressure, which was awesome. Neil was right there for me, offering encouragement and telling me how much he loved me and what a great job I was doing. It was really cool to have everyone around me so attentive and helpful. If I had been in the hospital, I wouldn't have received all that help and it would have been a lot harder.

I labored in the tub for a while, changing positions often, but since most of the pressure was in my back it was hard to get the support that I needed. Pretty soon (I have no idea what time it was) I started feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom. Sherri checked me again and I was at 8 cm! Things were starting to get pretty intense, and the thing that really helped was just to focus on my breathing. It was difficult to relax fully, but if I focused on breathing deeply and relaxing my shoulders, that helped a ton. I decided that if I was going to go to the bathroom, now was going to be my only chance. I sat on the toilet for a few contractions, and even though no one was right there helping me it felt a little better. The urge to push was getting stronger, however, and since I didn't want to have my baby on the toilet I needed to decide what to do. I didn't want to get back in the tub, and lying on the bed didn't sound great either, so we opted for the birthing stool. This is a really low horseshoe-shaped stool that gets you into a low squatting position. In this position, I had one person pushing on my back, two on my legs, and Sherri supporting my perineum because he was ready to come out!

A few minutes later when I started having really strong pushing urges, I wasn't fully prepared. I was still waiting to go through transition, because things hadn't been nearly as intense as I thought they would be. I was told that you know you're in transition when you think you can't possibly do it anymore, and I never really had that feeling. Even though I didn't feel like I was using my hypnobabies techniques as effectively as possible, apparently they still really helped! Anyway, my body started pushing on its own without me really helping, and that was a really weird feeling. My water broke with the first really strong push, and then things started getting super intense. I was really blessed that it had stayed intact the whole time, because it kept things relatively easy. Once it broke, though, his head came down really fast and things got pretty painful. I didn't want to push too fast because I didn't want to tear, but at the same time I wanted this baby OUT of me!! The midwives helped me slow my breathing down and focus, and I just pushed as hard as I could. It took all of 4 minutes and his head was out! One more push and out came the shoulders and then the rest of him. (It was weird feeling him slide all the way down through me). Once he came out, I just had this huge euphoric feeling that I had done it! I did something hard, and it wasn't even as hard as I thought it would be. Then I looked at him and my heart just melted. He was mine, he was here, and he was perfect!

Once he came out I was bleeding quite a bit, so they had me lay down and gave me a shot of pitocin. I had Xander on top of me the whole time, though, and I just couldn't take my eyes off him. When my bleeding slowed and the placenta came out, they helped me into my bed and there I got to stay! I did tear kind of funny, so Sherri had to stitch me up, which took a while. While she was doing that, they weighed Xander and checked him out, and then Neil got some time to bond with him. When we were all done, he nursed and promptly fell asleep. The midwives cleaned everything up, checked me one more time, and then left about 3 am. It was really nice to just be able to sleep in my own bed without nurses coming in and waking me up, and it was so much more comfortable.

In the morning, the kids woke up and the first thing they saw was their grandma asleep on the couch! They were super excited to have her there, and then they got to go see a new baby in Mom and Dad's room. They each got to hold him and look at him for a while, and then they lost interest and wanted to go play with grandma :). They actually got to go spend the week with their grandma and grandpa, and I've spent the last few days resting and bonding with my perfect little baby. The homebirth experience was exactly what I was looking for, and I'm so glad that I did it! I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for that kind of experience. Even Neil, who was very skeptical of doing it at home, thought it was awesome and the best thing we could have done. Yay for hypnobabies and homebirths!!