3rd Baby, 1st Home Birth, Breast Crawl!

I love the different journeys women make to find joy in birth- 

Enjoy!

Our interest in other birthing options sparked shortly after Katelynn was born. It dawned on us that, I didn't even know the name of the doctor who deliverer her, nor did he know me.  He walked in caught Katelynn walked out and I never saw him again. It was such an impersonal experience for something that is such a personal experience. The research began. If you would have asked me what I thought of home birth before I would have told you that I thought women who did that were crazy and how could that be even logical. As I began looking deeper what I found was the complete opposite and enjoyed learning about how other women birth. 

In September of 2010, we thought we have a little surprise baby on the way. When it turned out to just be a funky cycle we were kinda bummed but were set out to keep our TTC date of Jan 2011. But also not really prevent pregnancy from happening either, if it happened in the months before our date we would still be thrilled but were not really doing anything TTC wise other than not using protection. On about December 15th 2010 we found out our sweet baby was on their way. So about a month before we had originally planned. Not bad. 

At this point it was time to figure out if we were going to have the baby at home or have the baby in the hospital. We met with a a certified nurse midwife and her partner to find out she was contracted with our military insurance, fantastic! I  felt an instant connection to them and knew that I wanted them to help us bring this baby into the world. 

The appointments in the months that followed were like having coffee with a friend. We talked about the pregnancy, how I was doing, how the kids were doing, and everything in between. After some chatting we did all the routine pregnancy stuff. I loved that it was done at the end of the appointment where I was relaxed and settled instead of in the very beginning where you can be flustered from walking into an office. As my due date quickly approached we felt so focused on knowing that our baby would be here soon and hopefully caught by his daddy. 

As I passed my 36 week mark (the weeks that David and Katelynn were born) we thought for sure he would be here soon. When 37 weeks came and went we thought for sure he would be with us by 38 weeks that date also came and went. My body was tired and we were ready to welcome our baby. When I hit my due date still pregnant it was a shock we couldn't believe that it was here. We thought for sure we had some time left. I had a midwife appointment and while she was feeling his position it seemed that he may have flipped so she wanted to verify position. Which involves a pelvic exam which at 40 weeks I was okay with it. She said that was for sure his head and I was 3cm but my cervix still had some effacing to do. Okay cool a few more days or maybe a week or so. She asked if I wanted her to see if stripping slightly would put me into labor I said sure why not she was stirring things up anyways. She started for like 2 seconds and said I have to stop you water bag is bulging if I continue it will break in my hands. I was hopeful that labor maybe closer than I originally thought. 

I got home from my appointment at about 2:30pm. I then went to the bathroom and noticed I was spotting credited that to the membrane sweep. We did some laundry, played with the kids in the house, then at about 6:30 we decided to take the kids outside to play. At about 7:30 we all came in for dinner. I just didn't feel hungry as a matter of fact I felt exhausted and ready for bed. I forced myself to eat a little something and headed upstairs to take a shower. While I was in the shower I began to cramp like a really bad period. I really didn't think much of it since I had false labor for a few weeks now and plus she did the sweep earlier so I credited it to that. The cramps were very tolerable and I was for sure it was not happening today but I did tell Kyle what was going on just in case. The cramps spaced out a bit so I settled into bouncing on my birth ball to help bring the baby down if I was actually going to go into labor. When I sat down I got instantly uncomfortable. Looked at the clock it was about 9:15. I told Kyle to put the kids to bed that this was it. He laughed and said you say that every night. lol. We put a movie on for the kids, David gets all excited and asks if its time for baby brother. Kyle tells him it is time. And they start dancing around the house so excited for their baby brother! 

The time is now 9:45pm and I can tell things are getting intense yet at the same time they were still these crampy contractions nothing like the contractions I had with David or Katelynn. They remained to last for about 30 seconds and 3-4 minutes apart. At 10pm Kyle decided it was time to call the midwives because I had told him, when I start saying I cant do this anymore it would be a good time to call. That this was real labor. He called Brooke, voicemail crap, called our 2nd midwife, Sunshine got an answer on the first ring Kyle told her it was time, she could hear me in the background and knew that the baby was close. We then called my mom to let her know to head down that Everett was on his way. Then called Denise to tell her it was time as well. Denise was the first to arrive since she lives around the corner, she knocked on the door and since I was so vocal Kyle made a joke that he thought it was the cops. I laughed because hey I was in between a contraction and it was funny. Sunshine walked in a few minutes behind Denise and at that point my body had already begun to push Everett out. Brooke walked in next, followed by their apprentice Katherine. My body was quickly pushing our baby boy into the world. Sunshine wanted to make sure I had no cervix left, as pushing with cervix left could cause swelling, there was a tiny bit left so we breathed through the next contraction to help melt away that last bit of cervix. At this point I am on the floor in front of our bed on chucks pads laying on Kyle for support. Sunshine could tell he was coming down fast so asked if it was okay if she moved the last bit of cervix, when she did that I had a huge contraction, and my water bag literally exploded everywhere. It was something you see in those birth videos you watch in school. I will never forget everyone laughing and how funny it was. It was a pretty intense and weird feeling. Shortly after my water exploded all over Sunshine I felt the intense ring of fire of our babies head crowning. His head was out in one more push. I had to try not to push him out to rapidly so let my body do the work the easier they come into the world the less you tear. But the pressure was so intense out came his body. Kyle and I received our beautiful baby boy straight to my chest. Kyle was pretty emotional and could not believe that we just did that. 

Sunshine waited for the placenta to start making its way out a few and it did a few minutes later. Once the placenta was out it was placed in a bowl next to Everett and I since it was still pulsating it was not going to be cut. As we were waiting for the cord to stop pulsating she checked me for tears that would need repairs as we all admired our new son. Who was wide eyed looking around. Instant love and worth every moment of pain to feel him come into the world. I had a small 2nd degree tear that Sunshine wanted to put some stitches in so we all moved me to the bed. Everett immediately began to try to crawl to the breast to initiate breastfeeding. While I nursed Everett I had my repairs done and my mom walked in shortly after they finished. Lidocaine, well we will just say ouch! 

Shortly after they did my stitches the cord had fully stopped pulsating so Kyle cut the cord before we began the new born exam. Such a thing we have 3 children and this is the first cord Kyle was ever present to cut, he is in the navy deployed with our first and out to sea for sea trials with our 2nd.  Brooke took over for the newborn exam. Everything was perfect he was nice and pink but with a little bit of weird coloring that everyone thought was a major bruise. Everything in the right spot. Then came time to weigh him everyone was taking bets, all were 8lbs at least. But we were all wrong when he came in at 7lbs 8oz. Measured his length 21 inches well that answers why we all thought he was over 8lbs he is long not that, that was a big surprise. We kept an eye on him through the transition into the outside world which is usually about 3 hours. He seemed to be doing fine other than the weird coloring, they decided to give him some O2 just in case he was having a bit of trouble but he was feisty and seemed fine. Not having labored breathing. Eager to nurse and all things that little babies do. We decided we would watch him and we realized that because he had such a fast entrance into the world he didn't have all the time to have everything squeezed out of him. The midwives tucked us all into bed and there we were with our new son at home in our own bed ready to sleep and continue life. This morning his coloring is completely normal and he already has his own little pattern worked out. He is so alert and stayed up for over an hour just staring around today. The midwives called this morning to check on him and said Sunshine would be by later tonight to check on all us. Check my bleeding, make sure my uterus is shrinking down to normal size, and take Everett's vitals. All perfect. Brooke will be by on Wednesday to check on all of us again. 

Everett's birth was seriously the best experience, I do not regret the decision we made to have him at home. It truly was an amazing experience that I would not want to trade for anything. I feel amazing and nothing is quite like giving birth! 

Welcome to the world Everett Michael Cole! You are a true blessing and we can not wait to watch you grow! 

Everett was given the middle name Michael, in memory of my wonderful Uncle Mike, who passed away a few months before Everett was born. I have such fond memories of him but the one that will always stick out is him doing the moon walk at our wedding.