I love sharing my birthing stories and catch myself reliving them because the details of those days are still so vivid in my memory. Both of my births will always be one of the most favorite days of my life! I feel so blessed to have had such amazing experiences. I always get a sense of nostalgia around my kids birthdays. This beautiful rite of passage shaped me into the woman I am today and for that I am eternally grateful. This post is a way for me to share my beautiful natural birth story with my readers!
The day I found out I was going to have a son was life changing for me. I never knew I wanted a boy. The thought of it scared me! I grew up with two sisters and the male species has always been confusing to me. For weeks I questioned whether or not I could be fit to raise a son? When I first laid eyes on him it all made sense. I knew why God had given me this beautiful baby boy. He was perfect and every day has continued to steal my heart more and more. Watching him and his sister grow has been amazing and I cannot believe how fast it flew by! Mason, my baby boy, being your mom has been such a joy. I look forward to watching you grow up into a little man and sharing laughs, hugs, kisses and no doubt a few bumps & bruises. Mommy, Daddy & Mia love you more than the sun, the moon and all the stars.
A Whirlwind Birth!
It couldn’t have been a better day. The experience was amazing, which I think is always the case when you bring new life into the world. The delivery itself was a fast, easy natural birth just like I had been planning since the day I found out I was pregnant. I literally prepared almost every day, in one way or another for the big event. You can read more about the mind body techniques I practice in my ebook Mindful Mami: Preparing for Pregnancy, Labor and Beyond.
The labor itself was short and FAST. I woke up at 2am with contractions that weren’t totally regular, but were about 5 minutes apart. Some were close to a minute, some 15 seconds some 30. So I got up and walked around for a bit and sat on the birthing ball and tried to see if they would go away. They didn’t disappear, but they were pretty mild so I went back to sleep for a little bit. I slept on and off listening to my Hypnobirthing prompts and meditating with my mala beads. I woke up around 5am still having mild contractions so I got up again to monitor them. They were a little more regular but still not that strong so I decided I would call the midwife around 7:30 because I didn’t want to wake her up when I still felt so early on in the process. Around 6:15 they started to get a little bit stronger and I thought it was a good idea to at least give the midwives a heads up and let the know I was most likely coming in today. I spoke to her while I was having a contraction and told her I still felt I had some time to go and she agreed by my demeanor and sound of my voice. She advised me to get something to eat to give energy to myself and the baby for labor. I went into the room and my husband was shuffling around in bed and I told him I was in labor and probably going to have the baby sometime later today or tonight, so he ran out to grab a Starbucks while I went to get some food in my belly.
Before I started the bread I had drawn the bath, mixed my labor blend mix which you can read about here, and rubbed some on my belly. I had mixed some essential oils that were supposed to dull labor pains and speed up contractions and had been excited to use them for weeks!
I had decided that I was going to make Apple Cranberry Walnut bread and sit in the tub while it baked and then when my daughter woke up she could eat some, and I could have some before we head over to the center to get checked. As I was making the bread (not anything fancy, Trader Joe’s boxed mix and adding chopped walnuts and cranberries) I had a couple pretty bad contractions. To the point where I was literally on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor breathing through a contraction and then would stand up after to hurry and get the bread in the oven so I can soak to the tub that I had started.
As I was walking to the tub I got this HUGE urge to drop the kids off at the pool, if you catch my drift! Tremendous pressure down under that most women who has gone through natural birth knows what I mean. So I called my husband and told him to get home ASAP and called my mom and told her to come get Mia immediately. At this point it is shortly after 7 am, the midwife had told me earlier to check back in with the next midwife on call around 8, but I knew it wouldn’t last that long. I called her and told her that the labor came on really intense and I was having an extreme urge to push. She told me she was worried that I wouldn’t make it to the center. “I think you should get in the tub, and call the paramedics and have that baby there because I don’t want you to have him in the car on the way here.” OMG! EXCUSE ME LADY? WHAT?! ARE YOU NUTS!?! I almost died. I definitely didn’t like that option. I love the idea of a planned home birth, but that was crazy to me. “How quickly can you get to the center? We can make it!” I assured her. She told me she could make it there by 7:45.
My mom and husband walked in the house at almost the same time. Marcus started loading the car with our suitcase that was by the front door and my mom started packing up for Mia and I headed to the car. We hauled butt to the center. The hubby was driving almost 100mph on the way there. I was definitely feeling closer to having him but we were so close to the center. We pulled up and the midwife pulled up right behind us. She unlocked the door and I ran to the toilet. I sat there having a contraction and as my husband walked in with the suitcase and the midwife was grabbing my chart there was a loud sound that sounded like someone threw a giant water balloon off a balcony. My water broke. My husband couldn’t believe how loud it was. I got on the bed for the midwife to check me and the baby’s heartbeat. Mine was good, but the baby’s was very faint. I heard her tell a nurse to call the paramedics in case they need to resuscitate the baby when he was born. At first I panicked. Then I realized that I was hardly breathing on the way over so scared that I was going to have him in the car. The poor little guy didn’t have much air. I started focusing on my breathing and taking deep breaths and they gave me some oxygen. Within seconds his heartbeat was strong. There on the bed I had about 6 pushes and he was out. We arrived at 7:45 and he joined us on the outside at 8:19am weighing 6 lbs and measuring 19 1/4 inches.
It was the rockstar birth that him and I had been planning for weeks. We talked about it often about how I would dilate quickly, my water wouldn’t break till I was at the birthing center either fully dilated or pretty close and that he would be out with a minimal amount of pushing. The only thing that didn’t go according to my plan was laboring and delivering in the water. I never even stepped a toe in a tub either at home or at the center. When I had gotten the tub ready with my essential oils, I already felt so close that I was scared to get into the water and strengthen the contractions and speed it up anymore! I attribute my wonderful labor to all of the yoga, walking, meditation, and visualization I had done since the beginning of my pregnancy. Obviously, there was some drama involved, but I felt that I was prepared to deal with anything unexpected that came up and everything worked out wonderfully.
It was such an incredible experience and one that I will remember for the rest of my life, just as the day my daughter arrived. I am so blessed with two very healthy, beautiful children and will forever cherish the birthing stories that we share. I hope that the information that I have learned from my birth experiences can help other women in their future deliveries and empower them to have a positive experience that they are happy to share with others.
