Birth Story- Fourth Baby, Home Birth

Another perfect birth story. They are all so different- This is a fourth baby, born at home with a wonderful support team. You can find this mother's blog here.

Enjoy!

In September of 2010 to our surprise we found out that we would be expecting
our 4th child. It was a bit of a shock but right away I started planning my
birth. I knew that I would be delivering our 4th child at home. Its something
that I really wanted! I began called midwives in our area and thankfully we live
in San Diego and have lots of options. I talked to a few midwives on the phone
but just didn’t click with them while talking. Finally after about a week of
looking around I got a return call from a midwife that I had called her name was
Brooke. I was so excited because we seemed to click great over the phone so we
set up our consult and decided to meet. I was about 5 ½ weeks pregnant when we
first met our midwife. I knew from the moment I met her that she would be more
like my friend than provider! Over the course of my pregnancy we got to know
each other really good and always had such great conversations when I went to my
appt.

On June 2nd, 2011 41 weeks along I woke up sometime after 1am having some
cramps and little contractions. I didn’t think much about it because I didn’t
think it would be labor starting. I was able to fall back asleep until around
2:40 and then I was woken up with some pretty intense contractions. I woke up
Chris and told him I was pretty sure I was going into labor!! We both headed
downstairs so I wouldn’t wake up the kids. The contractions were 5 min apart and
lasting 1 min, very strong too! I used my birth ball for awhile and that helped
with my pain. While sitting on my birth ball I called a few friends and set out
text letting everyone know I was in labor. Once the ball didn’t help anymore I
starting walking around and leaning on Chris for support when I would have
contractions and that really helped. At around 4:30 I told Chris to call the
midwives and photographer because I knew for sure now I was in labor and that I
was starting to hit transition because I was throwing up. He called them and
they got to my house around 5am. While waiting on them to show up Chris got the
tub filled so I could get some relief that way. Once they got here I went
upstairs with Sunshine and she wanted to check me to see where I was, to my
surprise I was 9cm already and my bag was like right there about to break( I
found out later I was actually 10 but since the baby was still high up she told
me 9 so I would think it would be soon). I went back downstairs and got into the tub.

Brooke hooked up my IV since I was gbs positive and I was able to get a
dose of the antibiotics. Korbin was still high up and needed to come down more.
At around 6:30 I started pushing to move him down and that’s when things got
very intense. My girls sat on the bottom of the stairs in awe of what was going

on,

my poor baby boy Thayden cried anytime I moaned or yelled out in pain. We
decided to take the birth upstairs because I couldn’t stand being in the pool anymore.

It was a great effort to climb the stairs and I ended up stopping half
way because I had to push! I finally got into my room and tried lying down in my
bed but that was very painful and uncomfortable, so I decided to stand by the

side of the bed for awhile and just push standing.

This made it easier to get
through the contractions and pushing. After awhile he came down more and I was
able to lay on my side in the bed and push on my side for awhile, it really
helped me because in between contractions I was able to rest very well and
regain some of my composure( I was losing it by this point lol).

I ended up
moving to my back and pushing which was very helpful and brought him down a lot.

My midwife Brooke then suggested that I squat down holding onto the bedpost and
push a few times in hopes that my water would break, it was hard to get out of
the bed but I somehow found the strength!! I squatted down and pushed once and
my water broke, right after my water broke I pushed a few times squatting but
the pressure was so intense I had to lie back down. Thankfully my friend Lyndsey
make it just in the nick of time) my water broke around 8:18 and we welcomed
Korbin David into this world at 8:32am!!! He was caught by his daddy and it was

definitely an amazing experience.

His head was delivered and I got a 5 minute
break until the next contraction, his head was out and my little baby was
starting to blink and just looking around at the big bright world. When my
contraction finally came I pushed once and the rest of his body slid right out
into his daddy hands. He was then placed on my chest and i was in love from the moment i saw

him!

We then waited for the cord to stop pulsing and Chris cut
it. Korbin turned OP(sunny side up) at the last minute and my midwives were
surprised by this lol. After I got my little 1 degree tear stitched I got
comfortable in my bed and started nursing Korbin right away.

He nursed for a
good 30-45 minutes and then my midwives took him to do the newborn exam. He got

great scores 10/10, they allowed Chris to weigh himand to our surprise he was
7lbs 6oz and 19 inches long, and head was 14 ½ inches. We had all thought he
would be in the 6lbs range but he sure tricked us. After they were done he was
given back to me and he nursed again and then we were tucked in by everyone and
I got some rest, which wasn’t east since I had like a burst of energy and wanted
to scream from the roof that I had my baby at home!!! My homebirth was an
awesome, amazing, empowering experience and I would do it all over again! I had
a great supportive husband which I couldn’t have done this without him! I also
had a great supportive team and my friend who came right into the room with
encouraging and positive words)

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