Our Birth Story

Lifestyle

It all started with a snake…

No seriously. And if there’s one thing to know about me, it’s that I hate snakes. I am terrified of them. The movie Snakes on a Plane is my absolute nightmare because it combines my two biggest fears (love to travel, hate flying).

Back to the birth story. It was Saturday evening, two days before my due date. My husband and I were enjoying an evening walk. We bought a dog leash that goes around your waist and also allows you to walk both dogs at once, hands free, and we were trying it out. We live in a somewhat rural area, and were walking down a dirt road, when my husband suddenly exclaimed and pointed. I had no idea what he was talking about so I looked at him very confused. Finally, he shouted snake and pointed again to the side of the road near the brush, which just so happened to be where our dog Zoe was heading (and pulling me😅)



I don’t think I have ever run so fast, in the other direction, in my life. I’m sure it was quite the sight to see – VERY pregnant me running, with two dogs attached, holding my water jug, in Birkenstocks because my feet were so swollen they were pretty much the only shoes that fit.

When I finally stopped running about 100 feet later and we regrouped to continue our walk home, I joked with my husband that I either peed myself from being scared or my water broke. I say joked because I was 99% sure that it was the former. Cue my surprise when we get home and I learn that it was in fact, the latter.

I started having contractions, then quickly texted the midwives to confirm that it was my water breaking and that I had lost my mucus plug. They recommended trying to get some rest because we had no idea when babe was going to make her appearance. My only thought was rest?! You expect me to rest through these contractions?! Little did I know, these were only the beginning. I slept on and off (mostly off) that night, in the guest room so Nick could get some rest because we knew this was going to be a marathon and I’d need his support.



The next morning, the midwives recommended taking a Benadryl to help me sleep because I had hardly gotten any rest. Knowing that exhaustion is the most likely reason for a birth center to hospital transfer, and wanting to avoid that, I took the pill and got a couple of hours of rest. Nick communicated with our team while I was sleeping and we decided to all meet at the birth center at 5pm on Sunday. Our doula asked if we’d like her to come to our house earlier, but we decided to labor at home, just the two of us, until it was time to go.



Nick, the dogs, and I piled into the car and off we went. And yes, the dogs came with us. We weren’t able to find anyone to take them on such short notice so they came along and were AMAZING the whole time. That car ride to the birth center was ROUGH. Breathing through contractions for an hour while in a car on winding back roads is not exactly something I ever want to do again. But we made it to the birth center, the midwives checked on baby and me, and everything looked great. It was a waiting game at this point.



We decided to try to distract ourselves with Thai food and a trip to Target. Emphasis on *try* because those contractions were not easy to ignore. Randomly we had some of the best curry and pad Thai I’ve eaten, but you wouldn’t know it based on my facial expressions. The waitresses were very concerned but we assured them I was fine. After moseying around Target and alternating between looking at sweatshirts and having a contraction in the snack aisle (mama was hungry still😅), we headed back to the birth center. We said our goodnights to the midwives and got in bed, hoping for some rest and not knowing what the night was going to bring. Because we live about an hour from the birth center, we stayed the night there instead of driving home, only to come back in the morning.



After another very restless night, I got up Monday morning around 7am. We convened with the midwives and our doula. They asked what I wanted to do that day, and I blurted out “have a baby!” because that was the only thing on my mind. We would in fact, be having a baby later that day, but still being in early labor at that point, we again needed to distract ourselves. We decided on a trip to the chiropractor, in hopes that would speed things along. Nick, our doula, and I jumped in the car, and at 9:30 we arrived at the office. After a slow adjustment, taking breaks for contractions, and a prayer from our chiropractor for a good birth (he’s truly amazing), we were back on the road. If I thought the 30 minutes to the chiropractor’s office was bad, this was horrible. The adjustment definitely did it’s job and I was now in active labor. I breathed through my contractions as best I could and we made our way back to the birth center, where the midwives were filling up the birthing pool.

Once we got there, the next 7 hours were a mix of laboring in the tub, on the bed, in a squatting position, backwards on the toilet (that one was ROUGH), walking around, snacking and staying hydrated, and asking my husband why he did this to me. My way of dealing with pain is through humor so I can remember there were some jokes about not having any more kids after this, or adopting, or straight up wondering how people have 10 kids (that one wasn’t really a joke – how?!) For me, the worst part of labor – worse than the contractions – was the back pain. It was excruciating, and the only thing that helped was someone applying constant counter pressure on my back. Nick deserves the gold medal for that, because I’m pretty sure his forearms were sore the next day from all of the pressing.



There was some self doubt on my part and a couple of moments wishing I was in a hospital with an epidural, but I am so thankful for a husband and a team that were encouraging and never doubted me. One of our midwives even said to me during one of my moments of self doubt that nobody could do this for me, and nobody was going to be able to convince me that I could do it except for myself. It was the perfect amount of tough love and exactly what I needed to hear in the moment. After regrouping, I knew what I had to do – sit backwards on the toilet to labor. It was by far the most painful position, but it also was the position that seemed to help me progress the most. The midwives said 15 minutes I needed to give it, and boy was that the longest 15 minutes of my life. But it did the trick! After that, I was finally ready to push, so we moved back to the tub. After 30 minutes of me leaning over the edge of the tub, Nick pressing as hard as he could into my back, our doula giving me sips of water between every contraction, and our midwives coaching us, it was time to meet our girl. Out she came, straight into dad’s hands and then into mom’s arms. Our midwives were quick to unwrap the cord from around her neck. Looking back on that moment now, I think about how different that moment could have been. A cord around the neck can be serious, but our midwives were calm and collected as they took care of it, which I am so grateful for because I would have instantly freaked out if they had been frantic about it.

Any moms reading this will understand the bliss of holding your baby for the first time, and how hard it is to explain. Nick and I were both on cloud nine as we stared at our little red headed girl in awe. Looking back at that moment now, what strikes me is how peaceful she was. No crying, no screaming, she came out calmly and settled right into my arms for cuddles. The other thing I remember about that moment? I was STARVING. I remember thinking there was not enough food in the world to satiate me at that point. We moved to the bed, I birthed the placenta (which was nothing after pushing out a 8lb 10oz baby), and I ate a whole box of Simple Mills crackers and a meal of butter chicken and rice.

After she took her first latch and we started our breastfeeding journey, our girl got checked out by the midwives. At that point it was 7pm and we were all exhausted. Typically when birthing at a birth center, you go home after a couple of hours (unless it’s the middle of the night) but since we lived an hour away and they’d need to come check on her in the morning anyways, we stayed the night. I was so glad they asked because the thought of taking a couple hour old baby home to the two of us very new parents was terrifying at the point. We said goodbye to our amazing doula and thanked her for her unending kind words of support, even when I was yelling/grunting through the contractions. We said goodnight to the midwives, relieved they were only a room a way in case we needed them, and we went to sleep. I remember the midwife reminding us to actually get some sleep and not just stare at our baby all night long but did I listen? Not really. We slept some, she ate some, and in the morning, it still felt surreal that our precious girl was actually here. Her and I got another check by the midwives, then we all loaded up in the car and headed home.



She slept the whole car ride. We made two pit stops – the chiropractor for her first adjustment ever (birth is hard work for babies too!) and Whole Foods because mama was hungry. Nick went into the store while I sat in the car, again just staring at her in awe. I devoured the slice of pizza he brought me, and just like that we went home ti start the next chapter of our lives, complete with our little girl.

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