My Fourth Natural Home Birth Story

After waiting 42 and a half weeks for our little baby to be born, Ashton Benaiah Nitz, was born to us at home on January 6th, 2015. He weighed 8 lb. 8 oz. and was 21 inches long. After I held my sweet baby for a while, unfortunately a little drama came our way...but before I get ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning.

January 5th, 9:00 pm - After feeling like I had been waiting most of my life to go into labor, I noticed I was bleeding a bit. I called my midwife, and we discussed why that may be happening: possible infection, labor or just part of my mucus plug. I decided to go and take a shower and relax. However, when I got into the shower, labor contractions really amped up. They went from being irregular (which had been happening for the last month) to coming every 2-3 minutes. My husband called the midwife again and asked her to come over, then called my mom and sister, (who would also be attending the birth) and our birth photographer. Within about a half hour or so, everyone was here, and I could not believe the time had finally come! Soon, we would meet our little baby and find out if we had a new son or daughter!

We had decided to try a water birth this time around, so I immediately wanted to get in the tub to see if it eased contractions. After a little while of trying to add and subtract water to get the right temperature, I was finally able to get in. It did feel nice to relax in there for awhile, but contractions slowed way down to about 10 minutes apart. After a little while of resting, I decided I better get out and get things rocking again. I jumped in the shower, and sure enough, contractions sped up again.

Around this time, which must have been around midnight or so, everyone was getting sleepy. Before I knew it, it was just Adam and I. I was getting so tired and just wanted to sleep. I decided to lie down on our bed and try to get through contractions while resting in between. This was incredibly painful, and while I wanted Adam to rub my back to help relieve the pain, he kept falling asleep too.

I tried alternating getting in the bath with going back in the shower. It was hard to do this as contractions were getting really strong. I knew things were getting really serious when I started shaking uncontrollably and vomiting. I just felt so tired and weak.

Finally, I got in the tub and stayed in the tub. When I felt transition was coming, I asked Adam to go wake somebody up to help me. The midwives came in, and this is where details get a little fuzzy, because I was only focused on getting through the pain.

 I remember being so incredibly tired and pained and just wanting it to be over. But, what mother in labor does NOT feel that way, right? I also remember holding someone’s hand. When I was going through my birth photographer’s pictures, I realized that I was actually holding my father’s hand. I didn’t even know he was there, so this was such a sweet surprise to realize and brought tears to my eyes.

I felt so uncomfortable in the tub trying to figure out how to get ready to push the baby out. Adam started helping support my body by holding under my arms. The midwives and my mom and sister all tried to help hold my legs, so I could push the little miracle out. I also remember calling for someone to make sure my two older children were awake and in the room, because we had decided as a family that they could be a part of this miracle. After several crazy pushes, my beautiful baby was born at 5:07 am! We named him Ashton Benaiah Nitz, and he is so loved!

Seconds after my baby was born, I got to hold him. It is the most mind-blowing feeling to touch the skin and see the child you have been carrying inside of you for almost a year.

 My two midwives were amazing. Thanks Joanna and Jeanne! Also, huge thanks to my mom, dad, and sister, Calleigh, for being so supportive and helping with my other children.

As I mentioned earlier, none of us knew whether this baby was a boy or girl. I had told everyone not to tell me until I could find out for myself. But...my husband spilled the beans while I was holding him. When I heard, "It is a boy!" I didn’t care as much how I found out. I was just too overjoyed to have a son! (For those of you who do not know, we have a 6 year old boy, 4 year old girl and another 2 year old girl) It had been so long since I held a baby son, I was completely excited and happy to have another and for my older son to now have a brother!

After the joy of the moment started to soak in, I began to realize how much pain I was still in. I still had not delivered the placenta, and after trying for a bit in the tub, I got out to try on my bed. Little did I know, I had  bled a lot in the tub.

After getting into my bed and trying with all my might to get the placenta out, it finally did come out. "The worst is over. No more pain." I thought. Not quite...

After enjoying my baby a little more and trying to get him to nurse (which he did), I suddenly felt very faint and started blacking out. Things get a little fuzzy here again, but I do remember the midwives giving me oxygen, trying to get me to eat a mashed banana and drink a special tea, and saying my blood pressure was 50 over 30. I also remember saying, "I do not feel good," over and over again. After nearly blacking out twice, my midwife decided to call 911 and get me transported to the hospital.

When the ambulance arrived, they somehow got pajamas on me, and out we went to the ambulance. It was freezing! We are talking about -25 degrees or so here! They quickly wrapped me up when they got me on the gurney outside my front door. The rest of the day was full of IVs in both arms and resting/sleeping in the Emergency room. Finally later in the day, I was transferred to an OB room.

The thing that saddened me the most was that I was not able to hold and nurse my baby as often as I had wanted. They did not even want him to be there! But there was no way I was going to spend my baby’s first day of life separated from him. I held him several times throughout the day and tried to nurse him a few times. My midwife and husband kept me company that day, which I was thankful for. By nighttime, my hemoglobin was at its lowest of 7 from losing too much blood during the delivery. Since I was able to go to the bathroom myself and walk a little bit, I convinced the doctor to let me go home, where I could get much better nutrition and rest.

Thankfully, my mom had taken our other children, and that was very helpful as I tried to gain some strength the next day or so.

I have so enjoyed snuggling up with all four of my children, seeing the love between them all, smelling the newborn smells on Ashton, and realizing how incredibly blessed I am to have these children call me Mommy.

Thank you to our wonderful birth photographer, MB Photography, for the beautiful memories she captured!

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!

Sarah's Birth Story

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your birth story with us. I am sorry to hear that you could not spend the first days of your daughter's life with her, but glad that you are both doing better now.

I gave birth this year on leap day.  It was almost a month early because of my blood pressure being high throughout my pregnancy.  I delivered baby Lucy by C Section and she is perfect.  After the delivery, I got very sick and was in the hospital for 9 days with pulmonary edema (liquid in my lungs).  Lucy came home before me and stayed with my mom.  She is healthy and I am in better health - no more oxygen tank!

Trisha's Birth Story

Thank you, Trisha, for sharing your birth story with us. I admire your strength and courage!

I was diagnosed with eclampsia while pregnant and was told the cord was wrapped around my daughter's neck. I was scared, but I tried only to think positively.They induced me. I refused any medication and endured the pain knowing I would be getting the best reward.

I never cried or screamed. I stayed calm so that when my miracle entered the world, it would be peaceful for her. And twelve years later, I still thank God every day for my daughter, my miracle.

Ashley's Birth Story

Thank you, Ashley, for this uplifting birth story! It makes me really excited again to have my second home birth!

For my first two babies my water breaking was my first sign of labor, so when I asked my midwife what I could take to prevent that she told me extra vit E. I added that into my vitamin regimen and hoped it would help. It didn't! My water broke around 1 AM and mild contractions started right away. After getting everything how I wanted it in my home I did a lot of rocking with the exercise ball on my hands and knees. Soon the contractions were coming every two minutes, not to hard, but I decided to call my midwives anyway (I waited too long last time). By 5 am the contractions had really kicked in and I started wondering why I decided to do this again.  Soon I was feeling pushy but was not fully dilated so I had to wait. It was so hard but I found that sitting on the birth stool was the only way I could handle them.

Finally I was ready to push and my baby came with only two contractions. When my baby was born I saw this full head of hair and I thought this must be a girl because my boys did not have barely any. I was so happy when I got to look and see that she was a girl! I am so thankful for my midwives (my mother-in-law and sister-in-law) and so happy and thankful for the family the Lord has blessed me with.

Dana's Birth Story

Sorry to hear about all the struggles that came with your birth, Dana, but thank you for sharing it with us!

My birth story is a sad one. I was pregnant with my first child and had a birth plan...things did not go as planned and this is why. My son got stuck in my birth canal because his shoulders were too wide. So my doctor tried to turn him and while doing so she broke his arm. So my baby was born at 10 pounds and was not breathing, had a broken arm, and withing a couple of days discovered he also suffered from acid reflux! It was a terrible time in my life but within 8 weeks my sons arm was healed and is doing great! He is still on medication for acid reflux but he is a happy healthy 9 month old and I could not ask God for a better baby!

My Middle Child's Birth Story

Thank you to Cathy, my co-blogger, for sharing her second child's birth story! Beautiful and hilarious!

I have 3 baby stories....but I want to share the story of my middle child.   It seems like the middle child gets pushed aside....I wonder why that is?  

After my first son, I was pregnant right away with my second.   I pretty much felt that because I went 20 days early with my first, my second would follow the same lead.   Ummmm, not so much. 

When I was pregnant with my second, we were in the process of buying our first home.  We were both busy with jobs, and juggling finances.   I don't remember much about being pregnant, because it was an easy, uneventful pregnancy.  

I was hoping to have him on Mother's Day.  My due date was the day before.  I remember the Rosie O'Donnell Show was offering free Kodak cameras for anyone who gave birth on that day.  Sunday came and went.   I didn't understand....I was late....I am never, ever late for anything.  

As the weather warmed, my patience was tried.   My husband got me out of the house to buy flowers.   I struggled to bend over to plant them, and I remember my fingers in pain trying just to grip the shovel.   So, I went inside to lay down.    My husband found me crying in the bed.   He, of course, asked what was wrong.    My answer:  "I AM SO SICK OF BEING PREGNANT!!!"    I didn't stop there.   I got out of the bed, and proceeded to have a tantrum....a real, honest, put all the two year olds to shame, TANTRUM.   I screamed, I hit the door, I had a red face, runny nose, and then, I proceeded to jump up and down.  And then.....my water broke.   OOPS!  

Off to the hospital I went.  I, of course, was giddy.   It was almost over.   The birth itself didn't take long at all...maybe 6 hours or so.  I do remember VH-1 running a story on Meatloaf, and to this day, think of my sweet middle child every time I hear one of his songs.  

I swear, he came out smiling.   He was so alert, looking around, calm, attentive.   At that point, I thought that good things do come to those who wait.   My middle is now 14.  He is still the same calm, laid back, smiling kid......and just a little late getting to where he needs to be.

Patricia's First Baby's Birth Story

This story is from our reader, Patricia. She is sharing one of her three birth stories. Thank you!

We had 3 children and all three deliveries were very different.  My husband was in the
Air Force for all three of our children.  Luckily, he was home for their births.

Our first:  My husband had flown that day and we were having dinner.  I got up to get

something, felt a little pop and my pants were wet down to my knees.  My water broke.

My first reaction was to get the giggles and declare I had changed my mind about having

a baby.  Fat Chance.  We called the hospital and they said to come in.  A friend was on

duty that night and told me that because my water broke, if the baby wasn't born within

24 hours, they would do a C-section.  Things did not progress much at all.  When she

went off duty, she said I would still be there when she came back on the next day.  She

was right.    I was having contractions, but they were weak and ineffective.  By the next

morning, I was tired and still only dilated to 3 cm.  The doctor tried to dilate me with his

fingers a couple of times.  Not pleasant.  They tried a patosin, but that didn't really work.

Rather than nice contractions, I went into constant, painful spasms.   What was really

frustrating, was that after I had been there over 12 hours and was still on 3 cm, a couple

came in, was in the labor room for about and hour, then delivered.  Less that 3 hours of

labor and delivery.  Not fair.    They finally decided to do a paracervical block.  When they

started, I was barely 4 cm.  I had dilated to 9 cm before they could finish.  I went to the

delivery room and had another surprise.  My contractions were so mild, I could barely

tell they were happening.  The nurse had to put her hand on my stomach and tell me I

was having one so I could push.  Thank goodness I had good strong abdominal muscles.

They did all the work.  The doctor decided at this point he wanted to do a spinal block.  I

knew they weren't done if you had back problems so I lied and said I had an injury. The

baby wasn't delivery properly and it was discovered she was transverse.  The doctor

grabbed her head to try to rotate her  around.  All he managed to do was scratch her head. 

They had me roll to my side and push and that moved her around.   I was finally able to

push her out, no thanks to my uterus.  In the process, I popped many blood vessels in my

eyes and strained my throat.  I had black and blue eyeballs and a hoarse voice fore over

a week.  She was worth it.   Afterwards, I was starved.  I hadn't eaten for over 24 hours. 

The hospital kitchen was closed and the base was 20 miles from the nearest town.  My

husband went to base ops on the flightline and brought back a cheeseburger and a

creamsicle milkshake.  I don't think anything has ever tasted so good.  A note on the

stitches after the episiotomy.  My husband stopped counting at about 125.  I think the

doctor got a bit carried away when he cut me.


A note on the doctor.  He was everyone's least favorite person.  He was rude, had terrible
bedside manner, and didn't listen to his patients.  He tended to do spinals on all his patients
whether they needed them or not.  That stopped the year after I had our daughter when
he had one go up instead of down and he almost lost the mother and baby.  My brother and
his wife came up to see us a few months later.  My sister-in-law is a nurse and was looking
through the baby book.  When she came to the entry with the doctor's name, she said "That can't be THE Dr. L....P...."  Afraid so.  He had done his residency where she was doing her
training during nursing school.  He was fired because he was such an obnoxious person.

Tamra's Birth Story

This story is from another of our readers, Tamra. Thank you for sharing your heartache, and I hope that through it others will be blessed.

I was traumatized by the birth of my first child. It was a series of things I will never do with my second birth. My water broke before I had any contractions. When I rang my Doctor she said to come in and then they decided to induce me because they were worried about infection. So 4 hours later the contractions were coming hard. I really wanted a natural birth but gave in and got the IV drugs (never do it again) I was so drugged I could barely get my eyes to stay open yet was aware of everything around me, I just couldnt get the energy to speak or say what I wanted. I was pushing when the lights went out as there was a storm outside. They come back after a few minutes but it didnt matter to me my eyes were closed anyway. My son arrived and I opened my eyes enough to see him briefly before they took him away and then the Dr did somehting I'll never understand. She removed the placenta instead of waiting for it to come out. It was change of shift the nurses were busy I said 'Am I still suppose to be having contractions' they said 'oh yeah thats normal'. I said 'I'm in agony' but they ignored me put my son on my arm and left. I was in so much pain I couldnt even hold my son in my arm or look at him my husband had to ome and get him. I pressed the buzzer for help twice and no one came by then I felt a gush betweeen my  legs and knew something was wrong pushed the buzzer again when they finally came I could hardly speak. I said I'm in agony. It was worse then the birth itself, far worse. Then nurse had a look and started rushing everywhere, my room was filled with people there was blood going all over the floor. I looked over at my husband holding my baby and thought that was it I was dying. I was weak for longer then 6 weeks I think they should have given me a transfusion. In the end I was happy to be alive and my son was healthy, but I will always be upset I never got the joy of those first few hours with my son of nursing him and seeing him open his eyes for the first time. You can't ever get that moment back.


Tamra

Two Beautiful Birth Stories

From your fellow reader, Alesia.
I have two kids, hence two birth stories.

With my daughter, I was really frustrated with my OB.  My daughter was due on the 16th of February, and starting at a month before that, my OB kept telling me that he thought I was going to have her early.  So every week I would go to the doctor, and he would say, "I don't think we'll see you next week, I think we'll see you sooner."  So four weeks of this came and went, my due date came and went, and I went into my appointment feeling terrible.  My hands and ankles were swelling and I was huge (I gained close to 50 pounds that pregnancy and weighed 115 pounds before I was pregnant).  I was also suffering from a sinus infection, so when my doctor asked if I wanted to be induced since he was heading out of town at the end of the week, I said yes.  I was a first-time mom and was scared of having anyone but the OB I knew deliver me, even if I wasn't real happy with him.  I was also scarred by my mom's experience.  She never went into labor on her own with any of her four kids.  Her doctor let her go three weeks over her due date with me (her first) and she almost died because they left her in labor for 33 hours before they did a forceps extraction, and then she hemorrhaged really badly, so after that they just induced her with the rest of her kids.  I wondered if I would be the same way since I wasn't going into labor and it was past my due date.  So the next day, I went to the hospital, they broke my water, and started me on pitocin.  I had thought about doing a natural birth, especially since my sister-in-law had had three kids naturally, but the contractions were pretty intense, so I decided to get an epidural.  After that, I slept through most of labor (except when the blood pressure cuff would go off every 15 minutes) and then only had to push for about half an hour before my daughter was born.  I had a pretty easy recovery except for the episiotomy, but breastfeeding was terrible.  It got better and I am glad I stuck with it.

My son was due the same date as my daughter, so their due dates were exactly two years apart.  I had planned on a scheduled induction because of my mom's experiences and my own with being induced the first time around, so I was pretty surprised when I woke up in the middle of the night with really bad upper back pain about two weeks before my due date.  I had gone downstairs to sleep on the couch so I wouldn't wake up my husband, and I was feeling better and just about ready to go back to bed when I went to the bathroom and my water broke.  I went upstairs to tell my husband and he said, "I guess this means that I can't go back to bed, huh?" and he packed while I sat on the toilet.  A friend came to sleep on my couch so we didn't have to wake up my daughter, and we headed to the hospital, where I stood in the hall having contractions while they filled out computer forms (so much for pre-registering).  It felt like forever to me but it probably wasn't that long.  So then they put me in bed and my contractions were coming fast and hard.  I was group B strep positive, so they were trying to get both doses of antibiotics into me, but my labor was going really fast.  I got an epidural and my labor stopped, so they waited a little while and then put me on pitocin and my son was born a little while later.  I only pushed 2 or 3 times before he was born, and even though I tore in two places, I healed much better than with the episiotomy.  I had heard that pitocin-induced labors are terrible compared to natural labors, but having done both, my pitocin-induced contractions were actually easier to deal with because they started out so slow and mild.  My natural labor contractions became very intense very quickly.  But either way, I got a healthy baby out of the deal.  Now that I know a little more, I have decided just to let my body go into labor naturally.  I have found out that I'm not like my mom and that I will go into labor on my own, so I think that's the better option because then you have the best chance that your baby will be ready to be born (unless there are complications, but that's a whole different ball game).  I think the biggest things I've learned are that things don't really go according to plan (at least the didn't for me) and in the end, it doesn't matter as much as I thought because I have two wonderful kids.

My Second Baby's Birth Story

I will kick off this week of birth stories with my last child's birth. My second child, my daughter Kailana, was born at home in a beautiful natural birth.
Enjoy!

My daughter, Kailana Alese, was born on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. She was due on Dec. 3rd, and I had been in early labor since late in the night of Dec. 5th. I woke up before midnight on the 5th with a bit stronger contractions than I had been having, but I shook it off as nothing much and went back to sleep. At around 2 am, I called my midwife and told her that I had now been having contractions for about an hour every 3-4 minutes. She said that she was finishing up at another birth 2 hours away, but that she and her apprentice would be at our house in 2 hours. I decided to clean the house some more, walk around, and rest a little. It was so peaceful to be up walking around the house with my husband in the quiet of the night. At around 3:30 am, my contractions started slowing down all of a sudden and then went back to around every 10 minutes not much more painful than Braxton Hicks contractions. Oooooooh! I was mad! What was going on???

So, my midwife and her apprentice arrived a bit after 4 am, and we talked about everything that had happened. She suggested that I go to bed, and perhaps the contractions would pick up again. Well, we woke up at 8 am, and the contractions were not picking up. She asked me if I wanted her to check if I was dilated, and I did. I was a tight 2 cm, and my cervix was quite thick yet. Not good. I felt bad that I had called them and dragged them here through a snow storm in the middle of the night for nothing. I felt bad that I still wasn't going to have my baby yet. But, the midwives were so reassuring that I had done the right thing, that they wanted me to call again right away if I wanted, and that they understood how emotional I must feel about seeing them leave and still not having a baby in my arms. They just had so much compassion and love for our family and situation. It really gave me strength and encouragement!

For the next 5 days, I continued having quite regular contractions, but they were not getting any stronger...so we waited....and I grew impatient...people kept asking if we had the baby yet, and I was starting to lose my cool.

Then, Friday night, as I was sitting on my birthing ball, trying to open up my pelvis and let gravity work, I felt a little wetness down there (if you know what I mean). Sure enough, when I went to the bathroom, it was a little damp. I thought maybe my water was breaking, but I didn't want to get hopes up. So, we went to bed. I woke up at about 2:30 am, and my contractions were a lot stronger than what they had been. I started timing them, and they were about 3-4 minutes apart again. So, I decided to call the midwife again. She said she would be there asap, and I got pretty excited! Here we go again...

A few minutes after talking to my midwife, the contractions really picked up, and I was down on my hands and knees swaying and breathing. This is it!!

The midwives arrived, and I spent the next 7 hours or so sitting on my birthing ball swaying my hips side to side, breathing through each contraction. This was definitely not like my last child's birth! This time, I was in the comfort of my own home, in my pajamas, reading a book between contractions, hanging out with my sister, (who had been waiting for the birth for two weeks and was very supportive the whole time) watching the sunrise, listening to my CD of birds and nature sounds, chatting with my son when he woke up, and just feeling strong, peaceful, and comfortable in my surroundings. My midwives went to sleep to give me as much space as I wanted to just do my own thing. I moved in and out of different rooms, had my morning protein shake, didn't have to worry about new nurses always coming and going, monitors and IV's stuck on and in me. I felt so at ease, even though it was still quite painful.

At around 10 am, my midwife checked me for the first time, and I was at 7 cm. Yay!!! Contractions were getting worse and worse, and she said that if I wanted them to break my water, just to let her know. I waited awhile longer, and then they broke my water. I sat on the birthing stool trying to see if that is how I wanted to start pushing, but it was uncomfortable to me. So, I moved back into the shower, and through all the pain, ended up on the floor of the shower ready to push.

I moved out back to the birthing stool - not comfortable, and onto my side on my bed.(which they had covered very very well with plastic sheets and pads) I pushed a little while like that, but then ended up pushing little Kailana out on my back on the bed. It turned out she had her arm up with her head, which made it a lot harder to push her out. My midwives were great with warm compresses and such to help me from not tearing, and I ended up with only a little tiny tear, most likely because of the extra hand and arm that she stuck out.

I had done it!!! I gave birth in the most natural setting I can think of - my own home with no drugs or other interventions with my wonderful encouraging midwives. And I mean it when I say they were encouraging. They helped me so much without being pushy or in the way. They offered so many words of strength and love. I feel blessed to have had them at my daughter's birth!

An hour or two after the birth, the midwives prepared an herbal bath for me to go in with my baby. It helped with healing me and my battle wounds, and it helps with the baby's cord to dry up faster and heal well. It was a special time for Kailana and I, and it was very relaxing.

My daughter was a healthy 8 lbs, 20 1/2 inches. Now, I am looking forward to my second home birth with my third child. I can't wait!

Cara