My 3rd Birth Story

In case you haven't heard my latest news - I had my third baby - a daughter on September 25th! Her name is Brynn Adelicia, and she was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 1/2 inches. I had a beautiful home birth after 8 hours of labor, and I can't wait to share it with you, so let's get started.

After being 3 weeks overdue, I was more than ready to meet my baby girl. I am a huge Packer fan, and so I got seriously upset after watching the Monday night game with some of the worst referee calls ever. I think my baby was just as angry as me about the game, and perhaps that is what motivated her to finally come out.

My labor started that night at about 4 am. I had been having contractions for weeks, but the contractions that woke me up at 4 am were much sharper and concentrated more in my lower back. I knew these were different. I started timing them at about 10 minutes apart, so I called my midwife. She lives a little over an hour away, so she wanted plenty of notice.We also then woke my mom up.(who had been waiting here with us for 4 weeks for this baby!)

Then, I hopped in the shower, and when I got out, my contractions had jumped to about 3 minutes apart! So, I called my midwife again to give her an update and she scurried over.

I jumped back in the shower, because it made most of the pain go away to just stand with the water hitting my back, swaying, and keeping my body as relaxed as possible. I heard my midwife arrive, so I decided to get out and say hi.

I sat on my stability ball for a couple hours, while my two other children woke up and had breakfast. They got just as excited as I was seeing the midwife here and knowing that the baby was coming soon! It was very comforting for me to spend time with my children and family while I labored. We had fun listening to the nature sounds CD that I also listened to through my last home birth with my other daughter.

I fueled my body a bit with some peanut butter toast and plenty of fluids, which tasted great! Then, I headed back to the shower, where the contractions got worse. My husband stayed in the bathroom with me and rubbed my back through each contraction, which helped a bit too. After awhile, I decided I wanted to be checked by the midwife, so I got out and she checked heartbeat and dilation. I was so happy to be 8 cm dilated and to hear that the baby was doing fantastic. However, the baby's head was still pretty high, so I decided to try laying in the child's pose to get the baby to come down. Through each contraction, I kept coaching myself to relax - from my fingertips to my toes - and I think that really helped to get through them without going insane.

After a while longer, I got checked again and was 10 cm and ready to push. I tried several different positions, including squatting on the birth stool, standing, laying on my side. After 30 minutes, we decided something was holding the baby up, so I layed on my back on my bed, got my knees way up and pushed as hard as I possibly could for 2 straight minutes to get her out. It was fast, furious, and outrageously painful, but it worked. Out she came and then we saw the reason for the hold up. My little stinker had her arm up and around her head, which made the pushing process much harder.

I immediately received my daughter to hold on my chest, and I was just shocked, once again, to see my little miracle for the first time! She was beautiful and perfect and had a great cry right from the get-go!

As I gazed at my beautiful daughter, I felt intense pain from the crazy pushing phase, which must have caused many abrasions "down there." It felt like a million stabbing knives and my whole body couldn't stop shaking. After about a half hour or so, (plus warm compresses, my fave music playing to calm me down, lots of deep breaths) the pain started to lessen a bit, and I was able to start nursing my baby. She latched on pretty quickly, which was another relief.

After nursing for awhile, my children came in to meet their new little sister, my midwife did the newborn exam, and then my baby and I enjoyed a nice herbal bath to soothe and heal us both. 

Now, three days later, we are both doing much better. She is a beautiful baby, sleeps well, nurses well, and is the newest joy in all of our lives. We are so blessed!

Let me leave you with a picture our birth photographer (who was also fantastic!) took right after the baby was born! Enjoy!