Category Archives: Pregnancy and Birth

Home Sweet Homebirth

Posted by Mama Bear on January 7, 2015 1 comments

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Every child and every birth is unique. I’d been told this many times by several people but I’m one of those people that likes to plan things and birthing babies, especially on their own time, is far from predictable. Little brother was no exception.

I had been nauseous more with this pregnancy than the other two and extremely tired in the beginning but thanks to a supplement from my chiropractor the rest of the pregnancy I felt much better and had more energy than I had in my previous pregnancies. Unfortunately my first midwife from our previous homebirth was pursuing other interests so I had to choose a new midwife for this birth and around 36 weeks I had to switch midwives again due to several concerns we had with her. Thankfully after this hiccup, things with our new midwife went very well. On that note let me just say, trust your gut instinct, do your research, pray and ask questions. No matter the type of birth or something completely unrelated, it’s never too late to make changes if need be. Deep down you will know what choices you need to make for yourself and your family.

Friday, October 10th, our 3rd sons due date came and went without any sign of labor. Knowing little dude’s personality now and his name meaning peace, this is no surprise. He’s been a laid back guy from the get go. Saturday morning around 7:00am I had gotten up to use the bathroom and then laid back down. Shortly after that, my other sons were calling me to help them with breakfast so I got up again and when I did I felt a decent amount of fluid trickle out. I was thinking it was odd that I might have peed my pants since I had just gone to the bathroom. Then I realized this was probably more than a weak bladder, this was what we were waiting for! I texted my midwife to let her know and she asked if I needed anything or wanted her to come and asked what color the fluid was that was trickling out. The fluid was clear with no sign of infection or meconium so I told her I was good and that I’d let her know if things started progressing. Sometimes these things can take awhile and I preferred not to have someone sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Not much changed throughout the morning. I would have a contraction and trickle here and there but nothing more. That afternoon my midwife came by to check on me and the baby and by then I was starting to wonder why things hadn’t picked up. With our last birth things had progressed quite quickly so this was very different. Meanwhile my husband had decided to run some errands and take our other two boys with him so I could rest and since I had some pretty strong regular contractions for a bit he decided to take them to their grandparents thinking we would be having a baby by that evening. Not so though. Throughout the night I would have contractions here and there and was starting to get anxious wondering what was taking so long but my midwife was checking in periodically and said the baby’s heartbeat was good and my temp was normal so there was no cause for concern. She did suggest I take some supplements including vit c and garlic ect to help keep my immune system up which I had already started doing on my own earlier in the day as a preventative. Although my water was leaking, this was not an immediate emergency. Running straight to the hospital can actually put yourself and baby at a greater risk of infection. 90% of the time, labor will start within 48hrs of your water breaking. Plus our body will continue making amniotic fluid. Unless you are showing signs of infection or your baby is in some kind of danger there is no reason to speed up the process. It’s also best to avoid vaginal exams if possible because this pushes bacteria into the cervix, however this is usually the first thing they want to do at the hospital and with the increased risk of infection, they will have to put you on a time limit. Usually this is 12hrs-24hrs at the most.

The next morning my husband and I did start discussing what we would do if nothing progressed. As long as baby I were doing well we really had another 24hrs or so before needing to talk about making other arrangements but we wanted to plan ahead just in case. We decided to take the rest of the day while the boys were still at their grandparents to make it a day of relaxing and unwinding since I was starting to get uptight with everyone asking if anything was happening 😉 We decided to stop by our midwives assistants house to let her check everything over again and everything was still good. In fact I had a contraction while I was there and the baby’s heartbeat did not show any signs of stress. We headed to eat dinner and by this time I had several regular strong contractions in the car on the way. After dinner we got back to the house and our assistant brought by a bag of supplies and gave me some Clary Sage essential oil for my belly and diffuser. My contractions really picked up in strength after that and by then my bro in law had brought the boys back home and while getting them tucked in bed I had to stop to rock my hips and breathe a couple of times. By this time it was after 9:00pm and my birth team and I were thinking it might be time to fill up the pool. I had to stop several more times again to concentrate on my contractions and by 10:00 or 10:15pm I started feeling the urge to push and decided to get in the pool. I was having some pretty strong contractions to push but wasn’t feeling like much progress was happening. After quite awhile of this, my midwife and I decided to do a check and could feel the cervix was still partially across his head. My midwife had me get in some different positions to try to help move him down including sitting on the toilet but he still wasn’t budging much. By this time I was starting to get pretty tired and frustrated because I had been pushing for close to 1 1/2hrs at this point so I got back into the pool and leaned back instead of squatting and it actually felt like a decent position which hadn’t been comfortable for me with my two previous births. I started pushing with all my might as my midwife pushed back on the cervix. I finally could feel him progressing down although it was taking all my strength to move him. After about 15min of this, little mans head finally crowned and we could see he had his arm above his head which was probably what had taken so long for my labor to become regular since his head wasn’t completely engaged.

Although this birth was more drawn out than our previous births, I would do it the same way all over again. He was worth the wait and we loved being able to relax and enjoy his first sweet moments with him and his brothers in the familiar surroundings of our home sweet home 🙂

Lil Bub’s Birth Story

Posted by Mama Bear on August 19, 2011 2 comments

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Wow, where do I begin!? On one hand, sharing Lil Bub’s birth story feels intimate, sacred..like something I want to keep all to myself.. but on the other hand like an experience of a lifetime I want to tell everyone about. It was wonderful, intense..and honestly I’ve had a hard time knowing how to fully express what this experience was like for us in words but I’ll try my best.

I guess the best place to start would be the very beginning. I had been interested in a natural birth when I was pregnant with our first baby but because of being a first pregnancy and not knowing what to expect and a lack of confidence instilled by my doctor I chose to have him at the hospital. Now don’t get me wrong, maybe that’s where I was supposed to be and I know not all can or want to have a natural birth or birth at home but I hope more and more women who are interested in that option will not be afraid to learn about and trust their bodies and the natural process of birth.

Having a midwife with appointments at the birth center and our house was the first clue this birth experience would be very different this time. Discussions we had of the pregnancy and birth not only made sure I knew what was going on with my body and the baby and what options I had but also supported the natural ability of my body to give birth instead of interfering with the process. The environment was much more relaxing, warm and friendly and so easy to have Boo (our 1st son) with me. We didnt have to wait in a cold, boring doctors office… in fact we never had to wait at all. We were greeted right away, Boo was able to play and was as happy and comfortable being there as I was, which made the appointments even more relaxing and stress free for me 🙂

As the weeks went on I became more excited about welcoming our new son into our home. In the few months leading up to Lil Bub’s due date several of our friends had added to their families including three home births! July brought some extreme heat and that with the final weeks and days upon us I found the anticipation almost unbearable. I was sure he would come early.

Lil Bub was due July 20th, 2011 but as the morning and early afternoon of the 19th ticked by I felt I could possibly be pregnant forever! Around 3 or 4 that afternoon, as I headed to my moms to pick up Boo, I noticed my “practice contractions” seemed to have a little more oomph behind them. I got back home, made dinner and decided to spend some time out with him in his pool as I had done several times in the weeks earlier. During this time I continued to have a few strong contractions which I mentioned in passing. By the time we decided to come back inside it was almost 8:00pm. I headed to the shower while my husband bathed Boo and tucked him in bed. As I got out of the shower I announced “So maybe we better time the contractions because I just had three more in the shower!” For the next couple of hours the contractions would go from being 4 min apart to 10 min depending on whether I was up and about or sitting down. About 10:00 I decided to text my midwife and photographer to give them a heads up on what was happening. I thought I’d go to bed and try to get some rest since I figured it’d be a long night and my contractions had been slowing down while resting but I soon realized this was no longer going to be the case. After a few more contractions I heard a pop and felt a trickle of water. Since it wasn’t gushing, I wasnt sure if my water had broken or what had happened. A couple of weeks earlier our midwife had brought over the birth pool and a box of supplies which I remembered had some strips in it that would turn a certain color if you were leaking amniotic fluid. Sure enough my water had broken and it proceeded to gush out with each contraction. By this time I decided to call my midwife to let her know what was going on and since I was still laboring fine on my own told her I’d call when things got more intense.

DH had started getting the pool and room prepared and I got out the TENS unit and had him stick it to my back. I had already dimmed the lights and been rocking back and forth with my birth ball on my hands and knees and as the contractions quickly picked up I used the TENS unit to distract from the pain. At this point things had gotten intense pretty quickly so I called my midwife and photographer back about 11:15 and told them they should probably come right away. My midwife (Suzanne), doula (Nadah) and photographer (Anna) all showed up within a 1/2hr or so. By this time I was sure I had to be getting pretty far along. I was guessing I was at 7 or 8 cm but because doing a cervical check can tend to slow you down and not be necessary I didn’t have our midwife check me. Since I was still talking and comfortable between contractions Suzanne said she thought I would still be laboring for quite awhile and busied herself with preparations in the next room. Nadah, who had also been our doula with our first, arrived within the next few minutes and after chatting for a bit and another contraction I told her I felt I was pretty well dilated and she seemed to think so too with the intensity of my contractions at that point. Nadah began applying some counter pressure for the pain and she and my husband made sure I had water, food or anything else I needed. After only a few more contractions, one almost after the other, she asked me if I was feeling ready to push which I realized at the exact same time. Everything had been moving pretty quickly already but at this point it became a blur of activity, emotion and energy! Suzanne came back in our room and had me go to the bathroom and then hop in the tub. I felt a strong urge to push come on just as I was coming out of the bathroom so I quickly knelt in the tub and began pushing right away. I worked to focus my energy to push my baby out and catch my breath between pushes. I started getting pretty vocal and even a little teary at this point and hoped I wouldn’t wake up Boo who was still sound asleep in the next room. I could feel the baby making progress down the birth canal with each push but it felt like he was still a ways up there. My birth team assured me he wasn’t that far and with the next push or two I could start to feel his head crowning. All the while I had been holding tightly to DH and the birth tub as my midwife and doula applied counter pressure to my back with each push. Before I knew it Lil Bub’s head was out and I rested for just a few seconds before pushing one last time as daddy caught him and lifted him up to me.

At last he was here! It was 12:45 on his due date, not a day early or late 🙂 I was able to rest in the pool for a bit as he adjusted to life outside of the cozy place he had grown and been carried inside me the past 9 months. As we waited for the cord to quit pulsing before clamping it I delivered the placenta within a few minutes. In all this activity I had only had to push about 6 times which only lasted around 15 minutes.

After cuddling Lil Bub for awhile I handed him off to his daddy and was helped to the shower to clean up and then was able to climb in my own bed with my baby as our team cleaned and packed things back up. DH and I spent the next hour all to ourselves holding and checking him over and replaying the amazing blur that had been the last few hours.

During this time I realized Anna had done a wonderful job of blending in to the surroundings and for lack of a better phrase literally had become a fly on the wall of our room. I still don’t know how she took so many pictures but we are so glad she was able to be our photographer for Lil Bub’s birth day. At this point, I think it was about 2am, we decided to wake our other son up so he could meet his baby brother and we could get some pictures of our new family of four. After some time together we tucked him back in bed and Suzanne came back in to weigh, measure and make sure Lil Bub and I were still doing well and give us some last minute instructions and by 3:00 everyone had packed up and gone home.

Having Lil Bub at home was more wonderful than even we had expected. Everyone we knew who had home births had told us they could never imagine wanting to go back to having a hospital birth and now it totally makes sense. We are so thankful that we were able to have an experience like this, for our incredible birth team and for Gods perfect plan and protection throughout my pregnancy and birth in adding this new precious little one to our family. We couldn’t have planned it any better ourselves!

Birth experience comparisons

First birth/hospital:

Nauseous between 6-8 weeks

Craved Blueberry pancakes & doritos

Gained 35lbs

1st son Boo arrived between my LMP date and the ultrasound date.

22+ hrs of labor, 2 1/2hrs pushing, forcep delivery, 3-4th degree tear/multiple stitches

7lbs 8oz, 19 3/4in

Second birth/home:

Nauseous between 6-8 weeks

Craved pizza and chocolate pudding

Gained 25lbs

Lil Bub arrived on due date

4hr labor, 15min pushing, waterbirth delivery, 1st degree tear/no stitches

7lbs 7oz, 20 1/4in long

Here’s the blog post from our birth photographer at Third Avenue Photography.

I can’t remember where I saw this but love how it was stated.

“Do I think having a homebirth compromised the safety of my child? Absolutely not. Was there a possibility something could have gone wrong? Sure. (as it can no matter where you choose to deliver) But I trusted my midwife. She’s attended hundreds of births, dealt with emergencies and transfers, is incredibly knowledgeable, and came prepared with a kit of equipment, including oxygen, pitocin, and antibiotics — everything needed to stabilize me and my baby if something went wrong. Home birth isn’t for everyone. Many women feel safer in a hospital and more secure with that experience. But I’m not ashamed to say that a hospital experience wasn’t for me. I wanted my privacy and the comfort of my home. I wanted my family there and for the only hands to touch my baby to be hands of people who loved him. I wanted the birth of my child to be the sacred rite of passage it is”

Boo’s Birth Story

Posted by Mama Bear on January 30, 2010 None comments

J11I found out in December of 2008 that I was pregnant after taking two pregnancy tests, mainly because I didn’t believe the first one. When I went to the Dr’s office to confirm the pregnancy they were concerned because I was having a stabbing pain in my left side. When they did a sonogram they didn’t seen anything growing in the uterus so they were concerned it was an etopic pregnancy but nothing showed up in the tubes at that time either. A few weeks and a couple of sonograms later we finally were able to hear the heartbeat on New Years Eve. Other than being a little nauseous and very exhausted in the 2nd month the rest of the 1st and 2nd trimester couldn’t have been more perfect. I loved watching my growing stomach and feeling my active baby boy inside of me.

I had always been interested in having a natural birth and liked the positive things I had heard about midwives, doulas and homebirths but after touring several hospitals and a birth center, reading as much as we could about the subject and talking it over I decided to switch doctors around 18 weeks and have our baby at a different hospital. In the 3rd trimester things got a little more complicated. I had a very high sugar reading during my glucose test at 28 weeks and refused to take the second test which meant I had to have twice a week non stress tests and check my blood sugar four times a day. After this diagnosis I was afraid I was not going to be able to have as natural a birth as I wanted. As time got closer to the due date even though I had been controlling my blood sugar on my own with diet and exercise the doctor begin telling me that having gestational diabetes tended to make the baby too big and he had a higher chance of being stillborn. She said she would probably have to induce me because of it. I was afraid my desire to have a natural birth was not going to be an option.

I had given up the idea of having a doula and figured I would just have to be induced anyways so I might as well get an epidural. At around 35 weeks I decided to use the free massage coupon I had won at a materni-tea event. The massage was great and was given to me by Nadah who had many years of experience as a doula and who eased my doubts of not being able to have a natural birth. She also had some suggestions to help start labor instead of being induced and gave me some tea to help regulate my blood sugar and prepare my body for labor. I went home and talked to my husband about all we had discussed and decided we wanted to ask Nadah to attend our birth.

As we got into the last few weeks my doctor wanted to set up an induction a week before my due date. Things were going smoothly with the diabetes so we decided to ask for more time for my body to go into labor on its own. She agreed to let me go until my due date but said she was not going to let me go any longer than that under her care.

On Mon Aug 3rd, we had an appointment with Nadah to help us with some natural ways to encourage labor. When I went to see my OB that Wed my cervix was dilated 1-2 cm, I was 90% effaced & little dude was at a 1 station. My doctor said she had the feeling she would be seeing me that weekend.

Friday evening my husband and I stopped by Cabelas on the way to dinner with our family. That was the first time I had a contraction that felt much stronger than the “practice contractions” I had been having on and off. After a delicious dinner of spicy mexican food I had another strong contraction in the car. Since they were so spaced out I didn’t really think much of it at the time but through the night I would awaken to a contraction every couple of hours and by morning the were coming a little closer together. I had an NST(non-stress test) scheduled to go to at 11:00 Saturday morning and on the drive there I realized the contractions had picked up to coming about every ten minutes. Sitting in the car through them made my eyes water. I had been having light contractions during my tests in the previous weeks but the nurse that morning didn’t think I was dilated more than 2 cm so they released me. I was so relieved because I was afraid I would be stuck at the hospital for hours instead of being able to go through early labor in the comfort of my own home. I called my doula to let her know what was going on and she offered to come whenever I was ready for her but I was doing ok on my own so she promised to keep in touch throughout the day.

When I got back home my husband helped me time my contractions as I worked on relaxing and rocking my hips during the contractions. By this time it was about 3:00 in the afternoon. I couldn’t lay down or sit during a contraction so I would lay on a cushion he brought downstairs for me to try to get whatever rest I could. The contractions had picked up to being every 3-5min apart & 45-60 sec long. They were intense but not unbearable. I thought “this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be” I think you get so nervous about it because of what everyone tells you. That evening I started bleeding so after talking to our doctor and doula we decided it would be a good time to head to the hospital to get settled in before I was in transition.

Once we were at the hospital they checked my progression and announced I was already at 6cm! I was so happy I said “yay, I’m almost there!” At this point I was still laughing and talking. The nurse seemed amazed that I felt so good. Nadah made sure I stayed well hydrated and in as comfortable a position as possible to help ease the labor pains. My husband was there supporting me and making sure I was being given the best care. I was progressing very well and so at about 1:00am when I was at 8 cm the nurse said she thought I only had a couple more hours to go. We hadn’t called our families yet so DH called to let them know we were at the hospital and that we didn’t think it would be too much longer. If only we had known!

After spending some time in the Jacuzzi I got out so the nurse could check me. I seemed to have gotten stuck at 8 cm so we decided to have the doctor break my water to see if it would help things pick up again. By this time I was all things serious and finally began feeling the urge to push at about 5:00am. I was almost fully dilated except for one area of the cervix. The urge to push began to get so strong and I was so exhausted by this point that I allowed it to take over even though the nurse was working to try to get the rest of the cervix back over the baby’s head before she encouraged me to push. After doing this for an hour or so the doctor came in to check me. That’s when she realized that the baby was sunny side up which meant his head was not hitting the cervix in the right spot to help it come down as easily. This was a surprise because I had had absolutely no back labor which is common in most babies facing this way. Time had been passing in a blur at this point but somehow in all the commotion and exhaustion I noticed the sun coming in through the windows. At this point I realized that I had been doing this for quite a long time and didn’t seem to be making any progress. Later DH told me he had tried to get the blinds closed because he knew if I realized how long I’d been pushing I would get discouraged but he only got one window closed before he was needed again. I had begun feeling almost in and out of consciousness because when I would lay back between pushes I was so exhausted I would doze off. I didn’t seem to be making any progress and it had been about 2 1/2 hours of pushing by this point. I felt I just couldn’t do it anymore so I told the doctor in a desperate, teary voice “I need help” The doctor knew my hopes of having a natural birth but also knew I was about at my limit. She said she could try the vacuum but thought because of his position it probably wouldn’t work and if she tried twice with no luck she would have to take me for a c-section. That was the last thing I wanted so she suggested bringing in a doctor who was very good with forceps but that I would need to have a quick epidural/spinal block. I said “ok, I’m done”

While waiting for the other OB and the anesthesiologist they started me on oxygen because my breathing was becoming shallow and the baby’s heart rate was dropping. It felt so good to have pure oxygen filling my lungs. The epidural took almost immediately. I found it humorous that they said I would feel a little pressure because I felt a huge sense of relief at that point and even chuckled about it. The doctor placed the forceps to wait for the next contraction to turn and pull him out but as his heart rate dropped again she said never mind and tugged with all her body weight. Out came the most beautiful baby boy I had ever seen in my life! He was perfect 🙂 I was a disappointed that I couldn’t nurse him right away as I had hoped but was glad that he was finally here and doing ok.

Our firstborn was born 8/9/09 at 7:40am, 7lbs 8.4 oz, 19 3/4in long after 20+ hours of active labor. I thank God everyday for the ultimate expression of our love He’s given us! It may have not turned out exactly as I had planned but I’m glad I was able to experience natural labor. My husband was a wonderful support and encouragement throughout the whole process and I’m glad we were able to experience such a life changing event together that we will never forget!