This is the home birth story of my 6th child. If you’re not interested in hearing the details of the birth, I highly suggest you click away and catch up on the next blog post!
You’ve been warned!
So I don’t make this blog post an incredibly long one, because I definitely could, I am going to talk about my birth plan and the day of Edyth’s birth.
My Personal Birth Plan
- Have a home birth
- I wanted my husband to catch the baby so he could tell me the gender
- The least amount of intervention as possible (waters break on their own, no membrane sweeps, etc.)
- Have the most amount of peace possible
These are literally all I wanted from her birth other than for it to be a healing experience. My last 2 births were in the hospital and they were NOT a pleasant experience. I’m just going to leave it at that.
My due date was October 6th and I was fully prepared to go over my due date, but I never expected to make it to 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant. This was definitely my longest pregnancy to date!
Fun Fact: my sister was also pregnant the same time (she had her precious baby in June) and she also carried her baby to 41 weeks and 1 day! So neat!
The Day Before the Birth
For the last couple of weeks, I had experienced the annoying prodromal labor. I’ve experienced this with the previous 3 births so it wasn’t anything new to me, but still annoying to say the least. I was over it.
My midwife suggested curb walking, the miles circuit, sex…you name it, I tried it. I TRIED EVERYTHING!
Ok sorry. Calming down…
We were texting and she said she could come to my house, check me and give me a membrane sweep if I wanted. Now if you remember in my birth plan, that wasn’t what I wanted. BUT I talked it over with her and my husband. We all agreed it would be worth the try.
I had an appointment the next day, so she said she’d see me tomorrow unless I went into labor over night.
Spoiler alert…I did not.
She ended up texting me after she got home and asked if I wanted her to just break my water the next day to get the show on the road. The panic that set in at the thought of laboring without my waters intact. It made me sweat. Haha! I told my husband that I was ready to hold our baby and he was like, “Same!” I love him. He’s the best!
Birth Day
That morning (9 am) my midwife came and broke my waters. If you’ve ever experienced this, you’ll know how weird it feels, but to do it at home on your own bed was honestly funny to me. I then got up and put on a pad so I wouldn’t leak everywhere. Waters were clear, baby’s heart rate was good, blood pressure was good, I immediately dilated to a 5 from a 3 the night before (My body typically starts pushing at a 7 because of FER). We were all ready to go but nothing was happening.
I ate a good meal, went on a walk with my midwife, face timed my sister and still nothing.
It was about 1:30-1:45 when my midwifes assistant showed up. They were sitting on chairs in my bedroom and I was hanging out on my bed. I was sitting in a funky position with one leg on the bed and the other leg off. I’m guessing this position opened my pelvis up because I immediately felt the baby drop and alllll kinds of waters came out all over my bed. I was wearing a super thick pad too and that stopped NOTHING.
I laughed so hard and sent a picture of it to my sister. This was at 2:10.
I went to the bathroom and when I was sitting on the toilet, I started to experience a lot of pressure and I thought, “NOPE! Not laboring here. This hurts!”I then changed into a dress (I thought it would be easier to modestly labor at home with 5 kids in) and walked back in the room and said, “Hmmm I think I’m having consistent contractions now.”
Many women love to labor on the toilet, but not me. No thank you!!
I started swaying when my contractions started to come. Standing with my legs apart just felt the best for me during that time. This was my first birth with my midwife (who is AMAZING by the way!) and I told her that once things start to get serious 3 things happen:
- I “tuck” myself into bed
- I “moo” like a cow
- I throw up…a lot!
Within about 10 minutes, I said, “I think I need to tuck myself into bed.” At this point, I was in denial. It had only been a little while ago that I was on the phone with my sister to handing my phone off to William because I needed to focus.
Breathing through a contraction, I felt my body do a very familiar reflex. If you guessed Fetal Ejection Reflex…ding, ding, ding! You are correct!
I looked at my husband and said, “There’s no way I’m ready to push already. I’m not in enough pain.” He then said in the nicest and most loving way he could, “I think you’re a lot further along than you think you are.”
Not me thinking, “What does this man know anyways? How many kids has he had Savannah?” 5. He’s had 5 Savannah. He knows. *insert laughing emoji here*
My body pushed again and I was like, “Yep! Time to push!”
The position that felt the most natural to me, was to get on my hands and knees. When I got there, it was time to lose some food…
With about maybe 5 pushes, our sweet baby was born!
William said, “It’s a girl!” I said, “NO WAY!” Haha! Then all of our sweet kiddos ran into the room cheering!
Hands down this was one of the most precious moments of my entire life! It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
Also no “mooing” was involved. This was easily my least painful birth. I can honestly say, it was almost pain free!
Edyth Rose was born on Friday, October 14th, 2022 at 2:50 pm. That’s right. Only 40 minutes later.
I kept saying, “Oh my goodness! She is so tiny!” This is funny because she was 8lbs 13oz and 20.5″ long. My shortest baby so far, but she wasn’t really that tiny!
Talk about a fast birth! The only reason I knew the time frame was because I took a picture of my waters on the bed and the clock was in the background of the video my husband took for me of Edyth being born.
After we had skin to skin time, birthing the placenta (another favorite thing of mine to do), Mykaela cutting the umbilical cord (This was also a super special moment because my husband always cut it before), my midwife did all of the typical things like the weight, length, head circumference, getting her foot prints, etc.
The kids all got “tattoos” of Edyth’s footprint on their arms. It was truly the most precious thing. They love her so much!
To say having a home birth this time was a healing experience, would be an understatement. I truly needed this birth to be a positive birth and it was! Thank the Lord!
Hands down, I would have another home birth again (especially if I’m going to birth as quickly as I do).
If you’re local to me, I highly recommend Maggie and Megan from Harmony Health and Home Birth.
A Glimpse into Edyth’s Birthday
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