Today we have a homebirth story from Melanie. You can read more about Melanie at her blog here, or go check out her home business here.

My story starts on Monday (labor day). That late afternoon/evening I started having some fairly regular contractions through that afternoon and evening. They were regular enough to wonder if they would be the real thing eventually but not strong enough to know it was the real thing. By the evening they had died down some so I decided to try to sleep like normal. I had called my midwife just to let her know. I did end up going to sleep and sleeping well through the night and woke up without contractions in the morning. Tuesday I didn’t have contractions and not too many on Wed. Thursday I again had quite a few, but not any different than Monday. During this time my parents were up in WI where my brother lives. They were visiting him and ready to come down to our house (in MN) whenever I called that I was in labor. I also had my 2 midwives coming when in labor, a doula, and my mother-in-law coming to help out with the kids while I was in labor. So anyways, again the contractions went away by bedtime on Thursday so I went to sleep again. Thankfully they always went away during the night so I slept really well.

Friday I did start off having occasional contractions from right away in the morning so I did let Leland know at work just in case. Sometimes they seemed gone but occasionally I would get more. We had planned on having some good friends over for supper Fri. They have 4 kids similar ages to mine and were bringing pizza with them for all of us. (Papa Murphys take and bake) So anyways, my friend called late afternoon to check on what pizzas to get and to ask if it was ok if they camped overnight in our yard. I had actually thought of having this friend at my delivery possibly so we thought, maybe I’d be in full labor at night and then she could come in and be with me during labor. Not too long after that my husband called saying he was on his way home and shortly after that I started having stronger contractions more regularly that made me think I must be in the start of real labor. My friend called around 5:15 saying they had been running late and were now finally on their way over. I decided not to say anything about being in labor and just have them come.

So my husband gets home and I tell him I’m in labor, and my friends get there at around 5:45-6:00 and I mention to them that I’m pretty sure I’m in labor for real. She and her husband are like, Oh this is just wonderful and were totally happy/excited etc. and I’m just thinking, I don’t know how I’m going to cope with 9 children ages 7 and under running around and was trying to figure out how things were going to work out. I hung around with them a bit while they got the pizzas baking and the kids went outside and got the tent set up. Unfortunately it was probably in the low 60’s and really windy so it wasn’t great weather to be outside or anything. Finally I decided I had to escape and go away somewhere so I got my husband’s attention to come upstairs so I could talk to him. I was in quite strong labor with contractions every 3-4 minutes or so. So I told him I needed to get away and hide upstairs and I would call his mom to come and my doula to come so I knew she would be there with me. My husband said he’d get the supper thing taken care of and them come up to be with me so that the kids would be fed and all.

I was coping fairly well, though the contractions were quite strong/painful. I also called my midwife to inform her I was in real labor finally and all. She told me to keep her posted. I think all this was around 7:00 or so. I also ate an egg which my midwife suggested as I was kind of hungry from not having supper. My doula got there at around 7:30 or so and I moved downstairs to my bedroom as the kids had gone outside and I figured this would be farthest from them but in my own surroundings. I had originally planned on laboring & delivering in our big family room that looks over the lake and has our queen-sized bed in it. But with everyone around so much, I felt better hiding out in our room. So my doula brought the birth ball and I pretty much spent the rest of my time leaning/lying across the birth ball on the top of my belly.

By 8:00 or so, I was occasionally having contractions 1-2 min apart but those contractions weren’t as strong as if they went 2-3 min apart. Then they were VERY strong. So we called the midwife back. It was funny - I had my doula call her. When she called her the midwife asked how far apart my contractions were and my doula said, the last few were only about a minute or so apart and she started to continue saying something and the midwife had already hung up the phone to run out the door She lives about 20 min. away from here and called me back on her cell phone from the car to talk to her. I did talk to her on the phone between contractions for a short time. By this time I was doing a lot of moaning which I felt helped a lot. My husband was in there more then too and would massage my low back kind of hard with each contraction. I wasn’t having back labor, but it definitely helped. I also started to feel queasy during this time. Whenever I’m in strong labor I get shaky and cold and queasy and end up throwing up.

My midwife arrived around 8:30 and the first contraction after she got there I threw up a few times through that and the next contraction. I still felt a bit queasy after that but that feeling gradually went away enough that that was the only time I threw up thankfully. The contractions after that were getting quite strong. Somewhere around the 8:00 time, my husband was in and out a bit to give a game-plan for getting the kids in bed. Most of the time he was with me though. I told him to get them in bed early so at least they would be put in their rooms. My 2nd midwife arrived about 10-15 min after the first. They encouraged me to go to the bathroom because I hadn’t. It took me a bit to get up my courage to get up and walk out there knowing I’d have a really bad contraction during that time. Thankfully I got that done with ok with only 1 contraction during that time.

After that I was having the really hard contractions pretty close together and started saying the typical transition-type statements. I don’t think I can do it anymore , this had better be transition because if I’m not very far along I can’t make it etc… I just remember with my oldest, I was in really bad labor that where the contractions were doubling back on each other and I had vomited but I was only dialated to like 4 at the time. So I kept hoping that wasn’t the case and I really was almost done. I also had never noticed my water breaking so occasionally worried that it would break and things would actually get worse than they were But finally around 9:15 or so, I started feeling the urge to push and mentioned it to my midwives. They checked me and said I was complete and could go ahead and push.

So in everyone’s birth stories I read, they seem to say how much better it felt to push and the contractions were so much better once they could push etc… So I was expecting to feel much better with the pushing stage and then I get these big, hard contractions and I said to my midwives, these contractions are not better like everyone says they are - they hurt just as much But at least I was excited to know it wouldn’t be long as I never have long pushing stages. I just stayed there on the birthing ball and my midwives got everything ready. It was probably only 3-4 contractions of pushing before she was crowning. The only negative about pushing and delivering in that postion on the birthing ball was that I couldn’t see anything that was going on. My midwife asked my husband if he wanted to catch the baby and kind of encouraged him to. With prior deliveries in the hospital, he has gotten kind of queasy and almost thrown up a few times, but with her encouragement he hesitantly agreed. So the burning was pretty bad with crowning - could feel it all the way down to my toes. But then that part was over soon. My husband held her head while they worked on getting the cord away from her face and easing her shoulders out and he caught her as she came out. As soon as she was out I asked her if she was a boy or a girl and he told me a girl It was such a relief and excitement that she was born and was a girl.

They eased me back into sitting leaning against the birthing ball and put her on my chest while they wrapped her in a towel. She had a little too much mucous to nurse immediately. She cried vigorously right away for quite a bit before she settled down. The placenta was delivered probably 5-10 min. later. After that they got me up into my bed. My mother-in-law had been out nearby outside one of the bedrooms while they went to bed. All the kids had gone into their rooms and my husband had mentioned to her before Jemma was born, that it might not be too long and she should stay around in case she thought about going home. After she was born, Cody heard her crying and came down to check with Grandma and then they all ended up back out of bed in the kitchen area which isn’t too far from our room waiting around to see her. So after I got back into bed, we called all the kids and everyone in and they all got to come up on the bed and see their new baby sister and see mom. They were all pretty excited and happy to see us. They ended up staying up until about 10:30 or so.

My parents arrived about 10:15 so they got to see Grandma & Grandpa too before going to bed. My friend came in not too long afterwards (she had been putting her kids to bed in the tent and never thought I would have delivered the baby already), and was amazed to see me there with our little girl already I don’t think she every truly realized how serious of labor I was in when they got there - it was pretty funny Grandma & Grandpa were excited to see Jemma as well. Jemma did start to nurse somewhere during that time when the kids were there and nursed well for quite a while. Then after the kids went to bed and I had seen my parents, I went and took a shower which felt good to get completely warmed up and over my shaky feeling. Then they got me set up in the other comfy bed in the living room and I got to visit with my parents and take pictures and then my husband, my friend and I hung out and talked for a while before we went to sleep. So that’s our exciting birth story of #6!

Melanie