40 Weeks |
If someone had told me five years ago that I was
going to have a home birth, I would have thought they were crazy. But, alas,
here I am. With my first child, I chose
to birth at a free-standing birthing center. I loved the prenatal care I
received from my midwife and we were happy with our birth experience. So when
we moved to Utah and got pregnant with number 2, we wanted a similar
experience. Well, out here in Vernal, our only options were home birth with a midwife,
travel three hours to the closest birthing center, or use the local
hospital-without a midwife. Not having
to get in the car during labor was very appealing, and we found a midwife in
our area that we were comfortable with.
Thus began our journey for a home birth. My midwife has a strict nutritional
approach to pregnancy and birth. She has her clients cut out flour, sugar,
carbonation, dairy, and a few other things. She also puts us on a supplement
and prenatal tea program. It was an interesting pregnancy especially during the
holiday season.
Well, we were expecting this little one to come late
like our first who was almost two weeks past the “due date.” Our baby’s due date was slotted for January
15th and I thought I would have the baby the next weekend. I woke up at 1:45 AM on January 17th
and realized that my water had broken. I just started laughing because I
couldn’t believe that I would actually be going into labor. I wasn’t feeling
any contractions when I woke up Scott. We talked about whether we should go
ahead and call the midwife. Around 2:15 AM, we finally called and my
contractions slowly started while talking to her. She showed up at our home
maybe an hour later. My contractions
were about 2-3 min. apart. I was dilated to a 4, which I was excited to
hear. However, my labor slowed down so
everyone took a nap while I made trips back and forth to the bathroom, with
little progress. I was feeling anxious about what we were going to do with our
2 year old. He is highly sensitive so I didn’t want him to be around while I
was birthing a baby. My mother-in-law (who we had planned on taking our son)
was out of town with her daughter and 2 day old grandson. Around 5:30 AM, we
finally called Scott’s dad who was getting ready for his morning temple shift. His
dad was more than willing to help us out. He and our son are best buddies. He
got out of his temple shift and took the day off of work-what a relief! We had
him come get our son around 8:30 AM, which is when my labor finally kicked into
gear.
I spent a lot of time lying on my side on the bed
working through contractions with Scott pushing on my back. I was finally
dilated to a 5 and I decided to get in the bathtub for some relief. I love
being in the water while I labor, just wish I owned a bigger bathtub. My contractions were getting more intense
along with my back pain. I really hate the back labor. I got out of the bathtub and was still
dilated to a 5. I labored a little more on my bed then finally ended up on the
ground kneeling down and holding onto Scott. My back pain was getting worse
especially my tailbone. After awhile, the midwife checked me and I was at an 8. I then had five really intense, painful
contractions. I told Scott that I was done. My back was killing me. I started
to feel the urge to push so the midwife checked me and I was at a 10; I was so
happy to be able to start pushing. While on my knees, leaning into Scott, I
started pushing. After (for me a quick) 45 minutes our little baby emerged at
12:15 PM. We were excited to see that we had a sweet little girl. She was a
little blue probably because her short cord was draped around her neck and
wrapped around one leg, but a little oxygen took care of that. She weighed 7 lb. 4 oz. and was 19 in. long. She
is healthy and just a little angel. A little while after the birth Scott said
to me, “You did it, we had a home birth!” My response: “oh yeah, I guess we
did.” It seemed so normal to give birth at home. I didn’t feel anxious about
being at home during the whole birth experience. I am grateful that everything
went smoothly and I didn’t even have to get in the car. I am so happy that this birth was about a third of the time of my first. A couple of hours after the birth my mom and
sister made it into town. I loved having
their help. After a little rest, we had
Scott’s dad bring our son home to meet his new sister. What a sweet meeting. I
love how he says Bridget’s name. He loves his new sister.