On September 26th, 2009, at 3:38 am Sophia entered the world backwards (feet first) and with much commotion! She weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 18 1/2 in long. She has a full head of hair and is just beautiful!
Extra tidbits: In 8 births, this was my 2nd footling breech, the1st was born by c-section. This was my 6th successful VBAC!!!
Detailed birth story:
When we found out we were expecting, (Valentine's Day 2009!) we knew we wanted a home birth once again. There was only one problem...our wonderful midwife had moved away!! We worked at finding a new midwife, but all fell through and we decided an unassisted home birth was do-able even though that was not our first choice. So for months we studied and prepared to give birth to our precious baby on our own. We knew and fully understood risks and complications and planned ahead of time that if there were any complications, we would go to the hospital.
Thursday September 24th, I decided to call my mom and asked her to come into town and stay with us so that Randy and I could have an evening out and to walk. I had been having on and off contractions for a week and was getting tired of the starting and stopping. I was hoping walking would help move things along. I was wrong...all that came of it was sore ligaments! So Friday came and I had not had a single contraction all day. I was a bit nauseas, but feeling fine otherwise. Friday evening I rode with Randy to pick up his check while my mom stayed with the kids. Randy and I really enjoyed this time together and were having great conversation. On the way to deposit his check in the bank, I started having contractions, but with them I was having nasty back pain as well. We had planned on stopping at Mother Earth Foods for some herbs to help labor get under way, Well we stopped at the store, I'm getting increasingly more uncomfortable, and by thje time I'm staning in front of the bulk herbs, I can't concentrate on anything, so i turned and walked out. We had to make a stop at dreaded walmart before going home, and at this point the back pain was subsiding. We picked up our items and upon arriving home my contractions had STOPPED!! I was so frustrated!! I just knew this was it and now I'm quite discouraged and even more angry that I didn't get my herbs! Randy fixed dinner for us and I ate well. My contractions were starting up again, but they were extremely irregular and at this point annoying!! We decided to head off to bed around 10:30 and watched a bit of tv. I dozed off for a couple hours and awoke to pretty regular contractions. I went to pee and checked my dilation. Still at 4-5 cm. So I go in and tell Randy what's going on. He proceeds to take my vitals and we listen to baby. Everything sounds/looks great. Then I start getting annoyed by being watched by my mom and Randy so I tell them to just lay down and relax and that I am going to do the same. I lay on my side and breathed calmly through the waves as they came. My husband began to snore, so i was comforted that I could just be by myself and relax through the waves. It was so nice, quite indescribable, the feeling of breathing and connecting with my body and baby. I was not in pain at all. After several waves, I went to pee, yet again, lol, and checked my dilation. I was at 7!! I couldn't believe it! I was in awe of how it felt as well. I went back to my room and sat on my birth ball in the dark. I had about 4 waves and had to pee AGAIN! Decided to check once more and I was complete! I had a strange feeling though that baby wasn't getting into position and told Randy to start filling the pool. Right at that moment I had the overwhelming feeling to poo, so I went off to the bathroom and started to push. I felt something moving down and I placed my hand to feel the baby's head. I gently and gradually pushed and out of me came the water bag ballooning out and it exploded all of a sudden. I was a bit disappointed because I had thought it was the head of the baby. It did boost my confidence though, that I could birth her gradually and easily. So I felt to see where her head was...I felt two sweet little toes that jerked back from my touch. My heart sank. I knew this meant we were off to the hospital. I yelled for Randy and he called 911. The paramedics that came were clueless how to deal with the situation. They whisked me off to the hospital where nurses greeted me with snarls and very nasty attitudes. I was being screamed at not to push because the on call Dr. was 40 minutes away!! They wanted to get me all hooked up to the monitors in the middle of what are now VERY intense painful contractions (all due to my tenseness and lack of support.) I could not do as they wanted in the midst of these waves and they screamed at me. They explain to me that once the Dr. arrives they will do a c-section because babies cannot be born breech. All the while my body is pushing the baby out and soon a nurse sees this happening as one foot of our baby is born. Along with the foot came the cord and then the other foot. The mood of the whole place changed. They then were doing all they could to keep pressure off the cord and called an ER Dr. to come up. The ER Dr was there in a flash and was sent from God. He had 8 children of his own and had delivered them all. He was SO kind and calm and immediately told me to push. Sophia came out with one push. They cut the cord immediately and started to assess her. I birthed the placenta about 20 minutes later. They did not let me see Sophia and took her in to the nursery. They said she was having a little difficulty breathing and wanted to monitor her. An hour later they said the on call pediatrician wanted to send her to Charleston, WV to their NICU for further evaluation. Though I knew she was in good hands in Charleston, this is not how I wanted this to turn out. I was brought 2 pictures of her that they had taken in the nursery. She was just beautiful and I was longing to touch her. I desperately wanted to see her. At approx. 6am the transport nurse arrived to take Sophia to Charleston. They finally aloud me to see her in her travel box. I was so in love with her!! I was discharged rather quickly after being probed by the on-call Dr about our prenatal care and home birth choice.
We headed to Charleston as soon as we got everything squared away with the kids and my mom. (My mom was absolutely fantastic through all of this!!) We arrived at 11:30am and was allowed to see her as soon as we got there! She was not having breathing problems at all. Her legs had some bruising that they checked out and all was fine. She stayed in the NICU to receive rounds of routine antibiotics for 2 1/2 days. We were able to bring her home on Monday afternoon. I was ecstatic and so was my husband! The kids absolutely fell in love with her the minute we arrived home! She is nursing well and is such a delightful baby girl. She's very calm and I just love to smell her smell! Quite intoxicating!!
With all that took place, if we were to have another child (which we will not according to dh) I would have no fear of doing it unassisted again. It felt so wonderful to trust in my body and to work with my body instead of tensing up and fighting against the waves. It was such a beautiful moment right up to the moment of touching her feet. I will forever remember that peaceful experience and treasure it.
Josiah's Birth
Back in April 2007 Randy and I started discussing TTC baby 7. My only hesitation was that I knew I did not want to have a repeat of my previous pregnancies. With each of those pregnancies, I had delivered prematurely. My last one ended with a quite traumatic incident when I went to the hospital in preterm labor. A nurse stripped my membranes while checking to see if I was dilated. Afterwards I was released to later return in labor and transfered to a hospital 80 miles away that coould handle a preemie. I went on to deliver my 4th preemie, who was fortunately healthy and went home with us 2 weeks after delivery. It was such a stressful time for our other 5 children and us as well. I needed something to change if we were going to have another child.
I had read so many posts by women online talking about their midwives and how fantastic they were...from their care to just being personable. While searching for midwives, I read a lot about home birth. I quickly became aware that a home birth just might be for me. I was armed with info when my husband came home to convince him this was the best way to have our next baby. I told him I found a midwife and had spoke with her concerning my previous issues. She felt I was able to prevent another preterm pregnancy. That's just what I wanted to hear! With a bit of a distance issue, I did not stay in her care long and fortunately found a midwife much closer that was awesome!
I enjoyed my visits with my midwife very, very much. She calmed my fears of natural childbirth and knew just what to say when I doubted myself. I will be forever grateful to her for joining me in a journey of discovering more of myself. It took a while (read months) after the birth for me to fully appreciate my home birth experience due to my inability to get beyond my perfectionism. I hold myself to unreasonably high standards, and then beat myself up repeatedly for not doing things "perfectly". I was looking back appreciating my midwife and the experience she blessed me with and came across this poem:
| You have a special gift sent from God above, |
You help Him give to families deliveries of love. |
As old as the Bible, from when time began |
God has called certain women from among the race of Man. |
| He as given you wisdom and has endowed you with a heart |
That helps you to bless others and with great joy to impart. |
| A peace that comes from understanding and satisfaction that we know |
This life had a gentle beginning and that gentleness will show. |
For by the grace of God alone our steps led to your door, |
And His hand became quite evident as the months turned into more. |
Then on that special day when our baby did arrive |
We saw His grace upon you and we thanked Him for your drive. |
| Your drive to bring to families something beautiful and rare |
That brings great joy to people that is far beyond compare. |
We want to tell you "Thank you!" though the words just aren't enough, |
For the feelings in our hearts today for this delivery of love. |
Josiah Hunter12~29~2007
Birth Story
My dh called on his way home from work and said he had gotten MIL to watch the kids so we could go out for one last time before baby came. Just as we were walking out the door, I had a very strong, but tolerable contraction. They continued the whole time we were out...about 2 hours and were about 5 minutes apart. I called my MW and she said to call her with any changes. When we arrived home they started coming every 3 minutes, but lessened in strength. So I called MW back and she said she wanted to come over and check me out. I hadn't really made any change, so she went home and told me to get some rest. Between 2:30 and 3am I awoke to go pee and had a very different, very intense contraction. I made my way back to bed and decided I would see if they kept up before waking dh. They didn't go away. I had to put much focus into them when they came, so I got dh up and he called MW and doula. They were here within 30 minutes and MW checked me, then started setting up everything.
My favorite position was side lying on the bed and did fairly well at staying focused and relaxed...in the beginning. I spent a great deal of time laboring on the toilet, per my MW's request. I didn't like it, but it was keeping me upright and allowing things to progress nicely. I got to 10 cm fairly quick, but the baby wasn't'r ready to come down....my bag of water was still intact. Eventually I had had my fill of the toilet and was giving up on myself. I said as I stormed out of the bathroom that I wanted to go to the hospital. Everyone tried encouraging me, but I realized even if I did go to the hospital, they wouldn't be able to do anything for me at this point...I was so frustrated and SO done, but I kept going thanks to my wonderful birth team. I had horrible....that is such a mild word....contraction after contraction and baby still wasn't coming down, so MW decided to break my water with my permission. She warned me that the contractions would be worse and she was right. OMG, I thought I had lost all control and I wanted out. I did not want to continue and balled and balled. I just wanted it to be over! After she broke my water the bay slammed down into my pelvis. My contractions from that point on are purely indescribable...they overwhelmed me. I tried to stay focused, but it was SO hard. Finally after pushing and pushing and pushing he started emerging and that was no picnic either! Once he started crowning I was told to stop pushing, but I couldn't and wouldn't! The pressure was way more than I could bare and I WANTED HIM OUT! I was terrified of what my perineum would look like, but I just couldn't stop pushing. Finally his head came out...It felt like a freakin eternity! and then his body came tumbling out with one more push. I couldn't believe he was finally here...At 6:49am Josiah Hunter entered the world weighing a whopping 9lbs and was 20 1/2inches long!! I was in shock! I had a 9lb baby!!! I did have a teeny tear that didn't require a stitch.
