Heidi's Birth Story

Just a forewarning that although I have tried not to include too much detail, this is still a birth story and the more *sensitive* reader might find that I've provided more information than they care for :)

This was my first home birth, although I thought about it with my first pregnancy and intended a home birth for my second pregnancy before we ended up moving in the middle of it and since everything was so up in the air, it ended up not happening. I was so excited to have a home birth this time and got everything set up with my midwife as soon as I found out I was pregnant. This was by far my fastest labor and was probably my easiest, which I attribute to both being at home and because it was my third baby.
I was determined not to know the sex of the baby until the birth, but Austin was a sneak and stared at the ultrasound the whole time to find out. He was really good about not ever telling me though, even when my need to plan started over-running my desire to have it be a surprise. He never let on if the baby was a boy or a girl and always changed the subject when I brought it up.
Both of my previous labors began when my midwife stripped my membranes (separate the bag of water from where it is attached to the cervix). I was pretty certain that this labor wasn't going to start until that happened as well, so when my due date came and went, I wasn't surprised. I had an appointment with my midwife two days after my due date and she agreed to strip the membranes, although she was skeptical that it would work, since it only works about 50% of the time. Austin was also pretty skeptical and kept telling me that I didn't look "ready" like I had with the previous two pregnancies. I didn't really feel anything for the rest of the afternoon and evening and started feeling a little disappointed that I was just going to have to keep waiting for labor to start later on. We went to bed that night pretty sure that we wouldn't have a baby for awhile yet, although I was still hopeful. Surprisingly, I woke up about 12:30 with some contractions, but they were easy enough that I could just lie in bed and breathe through them and fall asleep for 20-30 minutes in between each one. At about 2:30 I was having a contraction and thought I felt some kind of little animal crawling up my leg. I freaked out and hit it away only to discover it was Austin's hand. I asked him what he was doing and he gave me some nonsense answer, so I'm pretty sure he was doing it in his sleep. He woke up when I started talking to him though and started complaining about his muscles being sore. I offered him a back rub, figuring that it might make the contractions stronger, so I rubbed his back for awhile and being up and about worked to make them stronger. At that point, we decided to get up and start preparing for the birth.We put a curtain liner over our sheets then covered that with an old sheet that we don't care about. We already had the birth pool blown up, but I asked Austin to start filling it up and I went about doing some other little tasks in between contractions. It seemed like these contractions went from not-too-hard-to-tolerate to really strong pretty quickly. I handled them the same way I did with my previous labors by leaning against something that was about hip-height (my dresser, our dining room table, or the crib depending on where I was) and rocking my hips around in circles while I breathed deeply. I kept thinking about my cervix opening up and concentrating on the necessity of the contractions to completely dilate my cervix and get ready for my baby. My deep breathing quickly changed to moaning through each contraction as they got stronger. Like it had with my previous labors, imaging holding my baby after the birth really helped to sustain me through the hardest parts. I was also really excited to find out the sex of the baby, so that helped me get through the hard parts as well. At about 5:15, we decided it was time to wake my mom up and call my midwife and Austin's parents so his mom could see the birth and his dad could come pick up Asher and Leif to take them to breakfast. Asher and Leif woke up on their own about 5:30. They were a little confused when I was having contractions and scampered off somewhere while I was having them, but then came back to talk to me or rub me in between. My mom rubbed my back during the really hard contractions and timed some of them, although their spacing and duration were pretty erratic and I didn't really care about how long they were, since I could just tell by how strong they were that I was pretty far along. I kept checking with Austin to see if I could get in the pool, but he had put water that was too hot in it assuming that labor would progress more slowly and not wanting the water to be too cold when I was ready to get in. So he stared working on cooling the water down while I rocked on a yoga ball on my knees during contractions. This labor was different that the first two since Austin was preoccupied with either the pool or with the boys and I never really used him to lean on through my toughest end contractions, which I had really enjoyed doing when the boys were born. My midwife and her student-midwife got to our house about 5:45 or so and started setting up all their birth supplies quietly. They kept all the rooms semi-dark like I had had them and made sure to turn off any unnecessary lights. My midwife checked my cervix and I was dilated to 7 cm. Austin's mom got there soon after and about the same time, the pool was ready for me to get in. I was so happy for that and felt so much relief when I got into the water. I'm not sure exactly when Austin's dad got there, but I think it was about that time, so the boys weren't as much as a distraction to Austin. He was able to rub my back while I was in the pool. It was most comfortable for me to be on my knees and lean against the side of the pool through the contractions. I think I had 4 or 5 contractions while I was in the pool and really started feeling an urge to bear down during each one. I did a little bit which made the contractions feel so much more bearable. My midwife is a little uncomfortable with waterbirths (she gave me some pretty good reasons why when we had talked about it earlier in the week) but her student-midwife was all for waterbirths and I have heard great things about them. My midwife and I had also talked earlier about her student-midwife taking the lead in helping to "deliver" the baby and I was very comfortable with this since we had formed a good relationship throughout the pregnancy. However, since I was on my knees, my midwife was concerned that they wouldn't be able to put the baby on my stomach or chest after delivery and she kept suggesting that I get up on the bed, although she was okay with whatever I chose to do. I decided that I would get on the bed, so they helped me up and Austin sat right next to me (although I was pretty oblivious to him and had to ask him later if he had been there the whole time). The student-midwife checked my cervix again to be sure that I was completely dilated and found that a small lip of the cervix was still there (this also happened in my first birth) so she pushed it back with her finger which I found as painful, if not more, than my hard contractions. Once this was done, I was ready to push. At about this time, I realized that the boys were still at our house and hadn't  quite left with their grandpa yet, so I told everyone to just keep them home since the baby would be there soon. I wasn't intending for them to see the birth since I thought it might scare them, but I figured since they were already there, they might as well meet their new sibling as soon after birth as possible. I started pushing and made quite a few grunting and moaning noises, which must have drawn the boys into our room. My midwife asked if I was okay with them there, and I figured since they didn't seem scared, it was fine. I pushed four or five times before the baby's head crowned and once or twice more to complete the birth at 6:45 a.m. after only about 4 hours of active labor. My midwife told everyone not to say anything about the sex of the baby and let us find out on our own. As the student-midwife put the baby on my stomach, Austin leaned over and whispered that we had a little girl. This moment stands out as the most exhilarating and exciting moment of the birth and will be a memory that remains with me for the rest of my life. I remember feeling so happy and triumphant in having completed the birth, but I wasn't as exhausted as I had been with the previous two births. Getting some sleep before labor started, having a shorter labor, and being comfortable at home all contributed to that. We had already decided to name our baby Heidi if she was a girl, so we immediately started calling her by name. Heidi started crying the sweetest little newborn cry and kept it up for about 10 minutes. After Austin cut the umbilical cord, I was able to pull her up to my chest. I tried to get her to nurse, but she wasn't that interested for the first little while and just kept up her fussing. Once we got her nice and warm and convinced her to nurse a bit, she was calm and happy. Austin and I got to snuggle her and spend time with her for a little over an hour as the midwives cleaned up, delivered the placenta, and took care of all the other little things like paperwork. When we were ready, they gave Heidi a newborn exam, weighed her (6 pounds 14 ounces), and measured her (20 inches). After that, they prepared an herbal bath for me and Heidi to help with healing everything. They set up a few candles in our dark bathroom, I got into the water first, which felt amazing, then my midwife placed Heidi between my legs. At first she startled, but she quickly relaxed and just floated in the water as I held the back of her head and kept her face out of the water. We stayed in for about 10 minutes, then got back into bed to snuggle and nurse for the rest of the day. It was such a relaxing experience with no one shoving medical devices or monitors at us constantly. My midwives did monitor all our stats during labor and afterward, made sure I was drinking water,and gave me suggestions, but did so very non-intrusively. I absolutely loved giving birth at home and will definitely do it again if there is a next time :)

Most of the pictures that were taken during the birth or right after are not appropriate to share on a blog or did not come out very well anyway because it was so dim in the room. Here is a picture of Heidi at a day old in her daddy's arms.