As many of you already know from Facebook, we recently welcomed our fifth child into our family!  We announced that we were expecting here on the blog, so we wanted to share some of her birth story here as well.

Just like her siblings, she came on her own time…nine days past her due date.  Thankfully we were planning on a home birth and my midwife Kim put no pressure on me for an induction.  In fact, when I was past 41 weeks and brought it up, Kim said that she wasn’t even thinking about induction yet!  I had been induced for medical reasons with one of my other kids and really wanted to avoid it, but I was getting impatient.

The impatience was starting to get the better of me and saying my prayers late one night I told God that I needed Him.  I prayed with my heart and turned my frustrations over to Him.  Then I went to bed.  While sleeping, I thought I had a contraction but I was still basically asleep and didn’t really wake up from it.  Then I had a stronger one that did wake me up.  I knew it was a “real” contraction and told myself that if I had even one more it was labor starting.  It was 5:45am when I did and with just those two contractions I knew this was it.

I woke up Jason and started putting away laundry, getting out the home birth supplies, and making the bed with the waterproof pads and such.  I fully expected that labor would be fast!  Each of my labors have been shorter than the one before and my last was only five hours total from my first small contraction until delivery.  I considered trying to get more sleep so I’d have energy for what was to come, but I thought that this labor would last maybe around three hours so I’d have my baby soon.  Though I was still in early labor with contractions every 5 or 6 minutes, I called my mom and my midwife to let them know that labor started.  My mom got ready to come over, and my midwife told me to let her know when things progressed.

My full birth story would be way too long for this blog so I’ll shorten it by saying that labor definitely was not over in three hours!  The contractions got more painful and were less than five minutes apart by 9:30 in the morning.  Jason was there to support me (emotionally and physically since I was leaning on him!) and to convince me to switch positions and walk around though I spent a lot of time on the birth ball.

(Yes, those are Smurf pajama pants and I’m not embarrassed of them!)

I was shocked that labor was lasting so long but I was handling things well, breathing during contractions and trying to keep my body relaxed so the contractions would do their job.  Just before 2pm, the contractions were getting more intense and I knew things were progressing.  Despite contractions being between 3-5 minutes apart and strong, it wasn’t until just before 5pm that my water broke.  As weird as it sounds, I was excited to experience it!  For all of my other labors, a doctor had broken my bag of waters or it broke during an exam.  This was the first time I had it break on its own!  Jason called the midwife who said she was on her way.  Things intensified very quickly after that.  I was in my bathroom when my water broke and I was still there when my midwife and the birth assistant arrived.  They set up all their birth supplies and put a plastic tarp on the carpet.  Though they did check the baby’s heart rate several times, they asked if I wanted my cervix checked and I didn’t.  I loved that it was up to me and I was left to listen to my body and follow my own cues.  I was really focused on breathing and contractions were extreme.  It took so much focus and determination just to be able to breathe during the contractions!  It took me quite a while but I slowly moved from the bathroom to my room.  The birth ball was on the bed but I asked for it to be moved to the floor so I could kneel on the floor and lean on it.

I spent a while in intense labor on the floor.  My midwife Kim and Tara, the birth assistant, were terrific!  They put counter pressure just where I needed it without me even knowing I needed it.  They had water with a straw so I could stay hydrated and there were cool cloths for my face.  It was like they could anticipate what I needed without me being able to vocalize it.  I could not have gotten through the day without Jason.  He kept me calm and was there holding me and supporting me in every way.

After laboring on the floor for a while I knew I needed to be more upright for the baby to move down.  It was amazing how I just instinctively knew which position I needed to be in.  I am not normally a bath person and did not plan on being in the bath during labor but Tara suggested it and said it was like an “aqua-dural” which sounded like something I should try.  It was very difficult to get up and walk to the bathroom but with Jason’s help I slowly made it into the tub.  Again, listening to my body I knew I had to turn to one side, and after being in the tub for only a few minutes I had the urge to push.  That doesn’t really describe it accurately because it wasn’t an urge; it was my body taking over and pushing whether I wanted to or not.  It was another sensation that was new to me.  Laying flat on a hospital bed pumped full of IV fluids and other interventions, I hadn’t felt that type of urge to push before.  It gave me a surge of energy and excitement because I knew it was time!  After just one or two contractions with pushing, I felt the aptly named “ring of fire” and I knew the baby was coming.  I told Kim and she checked for the head but said she couldn’t feel it yet.  I knew this was it though and during my next contraction my body pushed again and I heard Kim say, “Woah, woah, woah, PANT!”  Since she hadn’t felt the head when she checked she didn’t expect the baby to come so quickly!  I think the best words I heard all day was when Kim then said, “Her head is out!”  I knew it was almost over and with one more push she was born and in my arms.  After almost 14 hours of labor, it had been a total of four minutes of pushing.

Jason took a few quick pictures and then went to get my mom and our sons who were downstairs.  The boys were so excited, and our oldest was even more excited that he was the one who cut the cord!  One of my favorite things about having a home birth was that our kids were able to be part of their baby sister’s first moments.  The midwife didn’t weigh the baby or put gunk in her eyes or anything right away.  We were able to bond as a family.  Jason took the baby and her brothers held her while I showered.  By then our daughters and more of our family arrived and we just felt God’s presence in the miracle of our new baby.

Around an hour and a half after the baby was born, Kim did the newborn exam.  She was 9 lbs, 5 oz and 22 inches long!  Though my first daughter was 9 days late as well, she was almost 2 lbs lighter than this baby!  After Jason washed the baby and I nursed her, Kim, Tara, and our family left so that we could get our kids to bed and try to rest.

A cute sleeping picture of our baby on her first night, though the sleeping didn’t last long!

Having a home birth was truly one of the best things I have done in my life.  It would be impossible to put the emotion of the day into words.  Kim and Tara from Sweet Child O’ Mine were fantastic!  The entire labor and delivery made me feel so empowered as a mother.  I felt in control being able to listen to my instincts and trust my body.  Something like that doesn’t just go away after your baby is born.  I’ve grown from the experience, both as a mom and as a person.  I never thought I’d be someone to have a home birth but I am so happy I did!  You feel such strength and pure joy!  The decisions you make (moving around during labor, delaying cord compression, etc) are based on what is best for you and your baby, not policy, and that gives both moms and dads more confidence as parents.  You have instant bonding time with your baby as a FAMILY without restrictions on siblings visiting and without people taking your new baby away to be cleaned, warmed up, given shots or eye ointment, or anything else.  No one interrupts your first day as a new parent by coming into your room every couple of hours questioning how often baby has nursed or had a diaper change.  It is just your family together, enjoying every moment and taking in every emotion of the experience.  Our family is now enjoying this special time with our beautiful new blessing from God!

A picture of me with each of the kids when they were newborns:

And Jason with each of them:

Seeing all of my kids together brings happy tears to my eyes.  I look at them and see God’s love for us.  They truly are gifts from above and are wonderfully made!

Here are a few pictures from our baby girl’s newborn session.  She is so precious!

God is amazing and Jason and I hope we can raise our kids to know Him and always invite Him into their lives.  We just had our daughter baptized and she is now marked as a child of God!  Thanks so much to our family and friends who joined us to celebrate such a special day!  Our baby wore the same baptism gown as her two big sisters and each of them have their names and baptism date embroidered into the gown.  Thanks to our friend Jason for taking pictures for us at the church!

Our family wants to thank everyone for the emails and Facebook messages of prayers and congratulations, and for the cards and gifts you have sent!  It is awesome to be able to celebrate our baby’s arrival with all of you!  We’ll have more pictures of our new baby and all of her siblings together soon.