This is the birth story of my 2nd little girl! She was a source of Hope, her birth brought so much healing to me during the process!
I found out I was pregnant sometime in November 2008. Just like last time I had morning sickness pretty soon after finding out we were expecting. We again were thrilled to be welcoming another baby to our family! I knew I wanted something drastically different for a birth expirence then what had happened the 1st time around. I was committed to a natural non medicated birth more then ever! This felt like a 2nd chance! I quickly began getting my hands on any and every book I could find that related to a natural childbirth. During all the research I began learning more about Homebirth and Midwifery care. My mother in law had my husband at home almost 30 years before and had nothing but good things to share about the expirence so I decided to search for a midwife.
I found a local midwife within 30 minutes of us, and we set up an interview right away. I fell in love! She felt like a fairy god-mother! Everything was just so different then any typical OB office I'd ever been in. She was interested in me and my husband, there was no rush, and she was more then happy to answer any and all questions I had! We decided to hire her and move forward!
The pregnancy was pretty un eventful, the morning sickness even ended early this time (around 14/15 weeks) we decided to do the 20 week anatomy ultrasound and check for the babies gender while we were there we found out we were having another baby girl! I was pretty excited to have 2 of the same gender, especially because I never had a sister growing up. As we moved further into the pregnancy I so enjoyed spending time with the midwives, my 2 year old was welcome at every appointment and it had a big family feel to it. Midwives are actually more medical then people realize... each pre-natal appt. consisted of: chit chat about life, how I was feeling emotionally, a bit of education on nutrition and general pregnancy health, upcoming testing, checking my blood pressure, the baby's position and heartbeat! All lab work was available as well as ultrasounds, this wasn't barnyard pre-natal care like most stereotypes expect.
My midwife helped me prepare mentally for another post due date baby, helping me to understand that I just am a mom that cooks babies a bit longer then 40 weeks and that in most cases everything is fine and normal... Well my due date was August 9, 2009, and of course that day came and went! I was getting anxious, and afraid what happened during my first pregnancy (going 2 weeks overdue and an induction) was going to repeat itself. However, I woke up on Monday Aug. 10 with some mild contractions, they weren't much, I only knew contractions induced with medication (Pitocin) not natural contractions. They were about every 30 minutes, I had a meeting with my midwives assistant, and we were all excited knowing that birth was approaching soon! I was thrilled that my body was doing 'something' on its own this time! Unfortunately, Tuesday and most of Wednesday came and went with nothing!
I was once again finding myself pretty disappointed, I again just wanted to meet this baby! Wednesday night we put our 2.5 year old to bed and decided to get into our hot tub, we were outside soaking away (my favorite place to float!) and there was a meteor shower that night! We live in a coastal area with tons of fog and hardly ever see stars so this was a rare treat! We must have seen 40-50 shooting stars (or meteors) that night. We went back in the house to go to bed about 11:30pm. My husband was asleep pretty quickly as usual! About 12:30 my 2 year old came and got into bed with me (which was rare at this point, she usually slept through the night) she snuggled with me until I couldn't find a comfortable spot... My stomach kept cramping up, it took me awhile to realize the cramps were coming in intervals! I woke my husband up and had him return the now sleeping toddler back to her bed. He helped me time things for about an hour, by 2:00 am I could no longer lay down, or talk... things were intense and I told him I needed to stand up. When I stood up I felt the baby drop what felt like a few inches (Im sure Im over exaggerating but I felt that baby drop!). My hubby decided it was then time to call the midwives since we knew they were about 45 minutes out. He told them what was going on and they said they'd be here as soon as possible.
I labored on the couch in the living room while hubby started getting things set up, he had a pool to fill with water and tarps along with other supplies to drag out. By about 3:30 the midwives arrived. The contractions were about every 1-2 minutes and pretty intense... All I wanted was to get into the pool of water, but I had read about it stalling labor if you get in to early, so the midwife offered to check my dilation and see where we were at... she discovered I was already 9cm! I was shocked, elated, and just about cried with joy! It took over 46 hours to get to this point the first time and we were only about 3-4 hours into this!
I jumped into the water and the relief was absolutely amazing! Night and day difference from my first pregnancy! About 30 minutes later the midwife checked me again and told my hubby that if we wanted anyone else present for this birth he better call them ASAP! He quickly called both grandmas. I began pushing about 10 minutes later and never even noticed either one of the grandmas coming into the house. After about 20 minutes of pushing I soon delivered our 2nd baby girl into the water (In a kiddie pool on the kitchen floor of our house haha!) it was 5am on August 13, 2009! I will never forget the voice of the midwife saying, "Mama, reach down and pull up your baby!" She was here, and so calm, she just gazed into my eyes to the point where I wasn't sure if she was ok... she wasn't screaming like her sister... however no one else had even touched her, it was dim, peaceful, and loving environment! I soon handed our sweet baby girl off to her daddy while I delivered the placenta and got cleaned up, out of the pool, and into bed.
Unlike my first birth expirence where I passed out from all the exhaustion and medication about 20 minutes after she was born, this time I was on a natural high that I can't even begin to explain! I seriously could have cooked breakfast for everyone (glad they didn't let me)... but it was that different, I was fully present and aware of everything that was going on and so was our sweet baby! She latched about 20 minutes after being born and was nursing away! We were snuggled up in our bed getting to know each other! While resting in bed, the midwives took care of everything, they cleaned up the small (very small) mess before getting on to the newborn check part of the day. About 7:30 am our 2.5 year old woke up and got to meet her brand new baby sister! After the sisters had some time to get to know each other the midwives began the newborn exam (also in my bed, right next to me) and we learned that she was 8lbs 2 ounces and 21 inches long! Her middle name is Hope because I had been hoping that birth for both the baby and me would be different this time and it was! We didn't have any problems she was a super easy newborn, and nursed like a pro from the beginning! She actually never lost even an ounce! Recovery for me was beyond easy, even with some tearing, I was able to be on my feet being a wife and mom so quickly! It seemed to take about 6 months for me to adjust to being a mom the first time, this time it took us about 6 days... It was a true babymoon!
This expirence drastically changed my views on so many things, I realized I needed to question everything and find out why we do some things as a culture. It changed me as a mother for the better and I am grateful there are midwives who feel called to this work!
This sweet girl is now a fiesty almost 3 year old, who loves all things ladybug! She is also my girly girl by nature, she lives in dresses and loves like nobody I've ever met before! She is going to be my challenge in the future, but as a mom I can't wait to see who she grows up to be!
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