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 50th
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!!
