Our Birth Story-part1
I’ve known for a few years now that I wanted to birth my babies at home. I did the research, listened to audiobooks and podcasts. I listened to and read 100s of home birth stories. I made sure I knew of the complications and rights of birth both in and out of a hospital setting. We had been tracking ovulation after our second loss and only 1 cycle between birthing our second baby I became pregnant with baby #3. I woke up that morning with heartburn and knowing it would be a close call on the test being accurate I gave it a shot. To see the lines on that little test strip was just as exciting and equally nerve wracking as the first two times I had experienced this moment. Off to work I went without telling James. I stopped at Cvs on the way home to grab a pack of real tests and a box of lucky charms cereal. I surprised James by taping the positive test to the back of the box with a note saying “Third times a charm?”. Then impatiently waited for him to find it.
We were so happy and so scared to begin this journey for a third time in less than a year.
But we had faith that this baby would have a different outcome.
I was given our midwife’s contact information from a close friend and set up our first appointment for a few weeks later. I did use my PCP for bloodwork confirmation of my pregnancy once getting that positive test. The bloodwork confirmed. We then set up our first ultrasound with Growing Joy for my estimated week 9 of gestation (because I was afraid week 10 would jinx us or something).
The first ultrasound was one of the scariest moments of my life just waiting to see if there was a beating heart inside of my belly. (There is a separate blog post on this experience so I won’t go into detail).
Knowing this sweet babe was alive and thriving was a huge sigh of relief but that fear never truly went away throughout the entirety of my pregnancy.
Our first home visit with our midwife was everything I ever dreamed of. She sat on our couch for an hour and a half that evening talking to me as if we’d been friends for years. She took our medical histories and we talked about my previous losses. We listened to baby’s heart beat and she checked my blood pressure and hemoglobin. When she left that night I had such a calm feeling come over me. Like I just knew this was exactly what I wanted to be doing.
We continued to have prenatal visits once a month then biweekly as the due date grew near. Some appointments were in our home, some were in her home office. I met the assisting midwife who would be helping with our birth near the end of my pregnancy during a home visit. She too was absolutely wonderful and had so much knowledge to offer us. With each passing appointment my fear began to fade little by little and more peace crept in. My last prenatal visit before baby made his “early” arrival happened in our home. Our midwife, assisting midwife and an assistant, who is a nurse, checked over baby and I then took a tour of our home. We showed them where we keep the items that may be needed throughout labor and delivery for easy grabbing without disturbing James and I in the moment such as towels, garbage bags and the all important snacks! They explained what labor and delivery could look like and what options I had for after delivery. How they would strip our bed to make it with other pads and linens or how they would make my “nest” on the couch depending on where I wanted to be after our birth. They spent almost 2 hours in our home that night answering questions, explaining the birth processes thoroughly and just laughing with us to make the experience as personal and smooth as possible.
When everyone left that evening I had never felt more at peace with our “plan”.
Stay tuned for part 2🤍
