and baby makes 5

our birth story....

John signed up for Netflix and they offer instant ques for some movies. He was interested in one because of the picture of the cute baby on the cover. So, he rented this documentary, and little did he know it would literally change our lives. 

The documentary  was a huge eye opener. 

I was 4 and a half months pregnant, already established with a physician, and did not have a second thought about where we would have our baby... obviously at the brand new, state of the art hospital I worked at. We had it all planned. I was seeing my Dr. for our short 15 minute appointments, after sitting in the waiting area for an hour to be seen, we had looked at the labor and delivery rooms at the hospital, I would have pain medication as needed and maybe an epidural. All was set to bring our son into the world.

We watched the documentary, at first very skeptical.  Don't midwives show up with birkenstock sandles and socks, no underwear, hippie hair and boiling water? Who even knew they were still around? Does John think I am crazy? I could never do this all natural. As the film went on the statistics were shocking... And by the end I was searching the internet locating a midwife for us.

The next week we were interviewing with Penny Lane CNM to see if we were good candidates for home birth and how we felt about her. She was perfect. I knew a home birth was how I wanted to have our baby and I knew Penny was the one I wanted to attend. 

And so it went from there. We seen her monthly at her in-home office. Always seen on time and our appointments were full of education, care and concern. We had great prenatal visits like I had never experienced in a traditional model of prenatal visits at physicians offices. At 36 weeks our hot tub for the water birth was set up in the entry way at our home. We were ready to go!

Time flew by the next few months, and then it kind of stopped when I was a week past my due date. Then I was another week overdue. Time dragged on, I was getting very discouraged, thinking I would be pregnant until I was 45. I felt like I was ten months pregnant working on my 20 pound baby. 

But then 2 weeks and 1 day past May 4, labor began, with a little help of castor oil. How exciting!  I went to bed at 1030 pm, thinking another day and no baby :( And I woke up 2 hours later in labor. At 2 am I called Penny and told her I thought it might be time. She suggested that I see how the next hour went. It went pretty fast. I was in a lot of pain, my contractions were getting stronger and longer. John was such a rock through all of this. I was hot then cold, wanted touched and then not, he just stood by me and did what I needed at that time. 

I called Penny back at 3 am and told her it was time. She was on her way, which is about 30 minutes from us. I then made my other calls. First to my mom, 2 hours away who was coming to help with Jacob. And then to Tanya, 45 minutes away who was coming for moral support for John and I. At this point my contractions were very intense and getting stronger, but I felt like I still had a ways to go. 

At 355 am Penny's birth assistant arrived, she was just to observe this birth since it was her first one with Penny. By this time I was crawling on the floor my contractions were so intense. I told her that I thought I could use the restroom. What I did not know at that time was I did not have to use the restroom, it was time to push. 

John let Apple out to potty, and I went to the bathroom. I had a terrible contraction, and decided to check myself. I could feel his head!! I screamed bloody murder for John. I tried my best to make it back to the hot tub d\fro the bathroom to deliver our baby, but could only make it one step. John came running in as my water broke and Liam Clark was born into daddy's hands at 4:01 am just 5 minutes before the Penny and Tanya arrived. It was the first birth she had ever missed. 

They helped me to the hot tub and I was able to deliver the placenta in there. As I was in the water holding Liam, he automatically began to breast feed. That was so amazing, since breast feeding was my biggest fear. Once I was in the tub a bit, they helped me back to our bed. Mom and Penny's other birth assistant, Dana arrived in this time as well. 

Penny and her assistants took care of cleaning me up and checking myself and Liam. Everything was wonderful. I did not have to have stitches, Liam was a 10 on the apgar scale, perfect of course :). Once done checking us, John and I lay on our bed, together, admiring our brand new little one. While we were relaxing, Penny and her assistants were scurrying around the house cleaning up the mess, draining the hot tun and disassembling it, making an herbal sitz bath, doing our laundry, bringing me a small breakfast. At 7 am they were all done with everything and on their way out. You would never have known that we just had a baby here. They did an amazing job. We were left in our own home to rest and love our baby. 

John did such an amazing job.. he caught his 1st baby. Liam's birth did not go exactly as planned, but I would not change it for the world. We are so thankful we were at home. None of the hospital BS that you have to deal with,  all natural, no pain meds, no unnecessary interventions... just us and our baby.

Big brothers Ethan and Jacob are in love with their new baby brother. John and I have never been closer. This has truly been a life changing experience. Welcome to our life Liam. We love you!