I’ve been asked so many times, and finally had a chance to get it out, so I thought I would share with you the newest little guy’s birth story. Advanced warning: this is raw, real, a bit graphic, but everything remains covered. I am in no way giving advice; I am simply sharing our story.
I was a week overdue & envisioning a beautiful water birth, short & painfree at home 💛
There’s nothing like being past your due date..the pressure of everyone around you wondering when it will be, if you’re having any contractions (which generally is OF COURSE - I have been for the last month!) AND the joys of all the uncomfortableness of this last stage. I actually prefer not to tell people my actual due date in the event that I go over.
With this baby, I had a court date for a hearing that had been scheduled for nearly 4 months that I did NOT want to miss. I thought for SURE I would have this baby by then, but also didn’t get much choice in the date as it was more dependent on the backed up court dates available. Ideally, I would have blocked off the last few weeks of pregnancy & following months, but sometimes so much life is going on, that’s a lot easier said than done. Because I wanted to make sure that I was not in labor on the day of my hearing, I did not try all of the tricks up my sleeve to get labor going. You never really know how long or short it may be. If any of you have ever been “on the stand” in court, you may know how many nerves I had flowing through my body that day. Low and behold, all those nerves ended up throwing me into labor!
Always good to find the silver lining! It’s always there! Unfortunately I had a terrible migraine that lasted with me the whole labor. It did turn into more of just a headache after my amazing chiropractor paid me a visit at home during the labor. This time was the first time I hired a doula in addition to my midwife. My daughter had one at her birth & I was so impressed at their ability to ease any pain & help with so many things. The amazing girl I hired was also a photographer, so bonus! The doula, midwife and her helper had many great techniques for walking me through the process. They helped guide my husband as well. How THANKFUL I was for my “birth team!”
I had my birth tub filled & ready to go, some fun lights up, great “affirmations” to read for extra strength & fortitude, playlists made & playing, the right oils diffusing, the items I needed for pain & afterbirth all available & ready, my favorite healing after birth soup ready & everything set up the way I wanted.
What a sigh of relief that the hearing was over & my baby was on his way!
The beauty about doing a homebirth was that I didn’t need to get babysitters for my 1yo twins. I had been praying this baby came at the perfect time & I went into labor in the middle of the night. I was concerned about waking one of them up because one of them slept in my closet at the time. They ended up both still being asleep soundly in their beds when the baby was born (despite the music & noise of it all) 🙏🏼
Supposedly I have a “tilted uterus”, which makes it really hard for me to get my babies out because their head will usually not be on my cervix pushing down. For some reason when I go through labor and have contractions, it always takes one side much longer to contract because of this, making my labors very long. I think it also has to do with the fact that I’ve have multiple c-section scars internally.
I enjoyed laboring in the water, but ended up getting out & trying all sorts of different positions. About 12 hours into it, I was so discouraged to discover I was only dilated to 6.5 cm, that I laid down on the bed & decided I didn’t want to be in labor anymore 😂 My sweet husband was trying really hard to encourage me in anyway that he could, while also being patient 😅. My contractions slow down a bit, but then something amazing happened and my water broke!
I laid on the bed crying because my sheets got wet, even though I had a waterproof pad underneath them and it did not hurt the mattress. I remember fully understanding there is no logic to my crying, but all the emotions came anyways LOL. At that moment all sorts of things happened in a whirlwind. It’s amazing how I’ve gone through this so many times, and each time is so incredibly different.
Each baby comes in their own unique timing and unique way. I love the diversity in having a large family!
I remember suddenly having the urge like I was going to vomit, and I sat up abruptly and did so into a bowl or something that someone held in front of me. At that exact time, I could feel the baby’s head descending, so I began to push. My super experienced midwife was laughing and said she had never seen anyone throw up and push a baby out at the same time. Guess I have skills 😂.
The one beautiful thing about having more than 5 babies is, I have learned you can skip a few steps. Even though I was only dilated to 7 cm at that point, I was able to push, and my body stretched enough to get the baby out in that moment (I can talk about this later, but surprisingly, everything always goes back to normal & tightens up with each baby. Sometimes a little too much, lol - sorry if TMI but a lot of people wonder.) It took me a few pushes, but I got his head out. With every other baby I have birthed, that’s usually a huge relief of pressure, and the body just kind of bloops out. This was not the case this time.
This baby got stuck! Dad was all ready to catch him and was holding his head, trying to help ease him out. The midwife very firmly told him that he needed to get the baby out now, but he didn't want to pull and cause any damage. This very wise midwife, stuck her finger up in there and with a hooking motion, was able to get her finger underneath the baby's arm pit and pull him out on the next push.
This baby boy had such broad shoulders, they got stuck!
When he finally came out, I could not believe how ginormous he was! I have had a handful of babies overdue, but that didn’t necessarily make them larger. He was a whopping 10 pounds!
My midwife was is incredibly intuitive. I immediately had blood clots form in my uterus after I birthed the placenta, and she had to go up in there and fish them out. She caught it right away, and had to act very fast, which she did. It was very painful, but I had a friend that this happened to in a hospital, and she actually nearly died, and ended up being hospitalized for weeks afterwards. My midwife acted very fast, took care of the problem and I was on my way to healing and recovery! Thankfully I was also prepared with various natural tools in case of emergencies like these, and I made use of them 💛
The whole experience was so incredibly beautiful, and I was so thankful to be in my own bed and get to shower in my own shower when I was ready.
The older children were so excited to meet the new baby, and they were able to meet him as soon as he came!
I was so very thankful to experience a natural childbirth again. There’s absolutely nothing like that rush of oxytocin that you get to experience right after the baby is born, that doesn’t happen any other time in life. I don’t get to experience that when I have a birth induced by Pitocin. My headache immediately went away & I felt like I could take on the world!
A few hours after he was born, Travis completed his last interview for a dream job and got it! All in all, it was a productive 24 hours!
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