Solo with Four: Samuel

Samuel joined our family on July 13, 2015. He was born at home, in the water and weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs and measuring 21.5" long. He was a welcome addition after a long 42 week pregnancy.

It all started the Saturday before. I had gotten my membranes swept for a second time, and was contracting a ton at the aquarium afterwards and late into that night, to the point that I thought I might actually be in labor. I laid down to rest and see what happened and woke the next morning, still pregnant. It was such a disappointment. I was tired of waiting, but more so I was starting to really worry about how truly safe it was to keep him in any longer. After loosing Cadence, and knowing so many other moms who have lost late term babies, it was starting to freak me out a little (ok a lot.)
So, Sunday afternoon/evening I got permission from my midwife (Terah) to use her recipe for a caster oil induction. She had me make a smoothie to help it work more slowly and not be such a shock to my system. It wasn’t that bad, and after only 4 hours, around 6:30pm, my contractions started just like they had the evening before. I was in complete denial. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and then have nothing happen.
I sat outside for a while with my mom and then, when she and the girls were in bed Robert and I watched some episodes of our TV shows. I set up my birthing ball so that I could lean against the back of the couch and completely relax. I was texting Terah and doula (Aliya), and kept telling them that I didn’t know if this was really it and that I felt like if I laid down everything would stop. I was timing the contractions and they were about every 2-3 minutes but only lasting about 45-50 seconds. The contractions were much more intense when I was up and moving, but more spaced out. Around 9 Aliya and I talked for a few minutes so she could hear how I was handling contractions. I felt like they were getting closer together, but not too difficult to breathe through.
At 10:30 I decided that I should lay down and see what happened. I went to my bed fully expecting everything to stop. On my way to bed I asked Robert to check on me in 30 minutes and wake me up if I was asleep so I could take more caster oil. Once I got in bed I continued to time the contractions, and started listening to my Hypnobabies birthing day CD. The contractions went to about 1.5 minutes apart and 1 minute long. Luckily, Robert came to check on me early because I had gotten to a point where I couldn’t text in between contractions. I had him text our birth team and tell them to come over. This was only 15 minutes after I had laid down!!
It took me a couple days to realize it, but this part of my labor was NOT painful! It was intense, powerful, and I had to work to keep myself focused on my breathing, but I was not in pain! I never moved, just laid on my side and stayed deep in hypnosis listening to my early stage labor CD track.

By the time Aliya arrived, probably only 10 minutes later, I was DEEP in hypnosis and didn’t really notice when she came in. Terah was stuck in traffic and her assistant and student got there before her. When they arrived, they apparently thought I was asleep and wondered if they were going to be heading back home! At this point, I was actually in transition! I was starting to shake between contractions, which I knew meant I was close to having a baby. I was still not feeling any pain, only the extreme power of my muscles working hard to birth my baby.
I remember noticing when midnight came. The app I was using to time contractions showed a line where a new day started. I’m not sure why I remember that part of the labor, but I do. Shortly after that, at 12:37 I had a contraction that was double the length that any of the others had been. It started, peaked, started to die down and then intensified and peaked again. It was just over 2 minutes long. According to my contraction monitor, I only timed one more after that before I left the bed to get into the tub. I didn’t remember to bring my phone with me out to the tub. The “Push your baby out” track completely slipped my mind, but probably would have been helpful in the hour to come.
Getting into the tub was wonderful! It lessened the intensity of the contractions (still not painful, just super powerful and hard to concentrate and breathe through) and renewed my birthing energy. It felt like I only had a couple contractions in the water before I started pushing, but apparently it was more like 30-45 minutes. This is when I started to loose focus. The CD track I had been listening to had been keeping me focused, deeply hypnotized, and grounded. Not having that shook my focus and things started to get uncomfortable and scary. I remember starting to feel a bit of fear every time a contraction would start because I wasn’t able to handle them as well. They weren’t overwhelmingly painful, but they were much more difficult to handle than when I was laying in bed. If I ever do this again I will make sure that a couple people know to switch my track to pushing baby out and bring it with me to the tub.
Then came the pushing. This is where things started to hurt. With Kaylee, not only did I had an epidural, but I only pushed 3 times and out she came, no big deal haha! I don’t know if I was expecting the same thing, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as difficult as it was. At first I was pushing on my knees holding on to Roberts hands over the side of the birthing tub. Then, they couldn’t find his heartbeat with me in that position so they had me turn over and lean back against the side. Right before I turned around my water broke, and that was when things got super intense. Being on my back, facing the middle of the tub, was much better for me because I could brace my feet against the opposite side when I pushed. It seemed like it took forever for him to start crowning, and it felt like my pushing wasn’t doing much to move him down.
Finally he started to crown, and that part did hurt. There is a reason it’s called the ring of fire! He head came out half way and then it felt like FOREVER before the rest came out! Then I pushed a couple times and his shoulders didn’t come out so my midwife reached in to make sure he wasn’t stuck. I remembered having an instant of preparing for things to get really crazy really fast if he was in fact stuck, but then Terah said “his shoulder is out” and I relaxed as he came the rest of the way out. 1:37 pm, exactly an hour after the crazy double contraction.
Finally he was here! There were a few scary minutes right after he came out because he wasn’t breathing. He got some attention from the midwives for almost 3 whole minutes before he took a breath and started crying. His color was good, and he was still getting oxygen from the cord, and I trusted Terah to know if something was an emergency or not. As soon as he was breathing he was handed to me, and it was amazing to finally hold him.
After delivering the placenta, Samuel went with Robert while I was stitched up. Then I got him back to nurse while Robert went to get Kaylee and my mom. Kaylee had requested that we wake her up to meet the baby even in the middle of the night. I’m so glad we did, because she was SO excited to meet him.
As soon as I was stitched up, he had nursed for a little while, been weighed, and measured he and I went to bed. My poor midwives had to stay for a while longer to be there for the 3 hours postpartum before heading home.
This birth was such an amazing, empowering experience! It was so much calmer and more controlled than I ever thought it would be. Having such an amazing home birth makes me wish I would have birthed this way from the beginning!

Birth Pictures:

I wish I could have afforded a birth photographer, but my midwife took some beautiful pictures when she wasn’t busy with me and Samuel.

The birth space and tub. On the wall are affirmations

Contracting while trying to get into the birth tub

I love this one of everyone

The relief of him being out and being ok

Holding him was so amazing!

Kaylee meeting her brother

Setting up the scale

I love Kate’s face in this one!

When they weighed him and I saw everyone’s jaws drop and their eyes get huge I was really surprised. I hadn’t thought he was that big at all. I never imagined I would birth a 10 lb baby!