Here is the story of his birth. As always, you may feel free to run for the hills at any given moment. If you do not wish to read a long, detailed story of how our fourth baby came into this world, at home nonetheless, then click X now! :)
First off, let's answer on here the questions I've been asked tons of times already by nearly every person I know, most likely since this was my first home birth and fourth baby... :)
yes, my home birth was planned.
No, Kyle did not "catch" the baby. far from that, too.
And neither did my mother. Although I feel confident she's fully capable. After all, she tends to be a fabulous DIY-er.
No, the girls were not there to watch. Although, that very easily could have ended up happening!
No, I didn't deliver the baby by myself. We (just barely!) had a professional midwife, who in fact had been my caretaker for all of my prenatal care.
Yes, we were prepared to give birth at home, and had all of the necessary items that help insure a safe delivery. Although, if you read on, you'll learn that, at least in OUR life, clearly that doesn't seem to matter much.
Yes, as mentioned above, I had professional prenatal care throughout my entire pregnancy, had ultrasounds all throughout, and even had an OBGYN to back my home birth.
Home Birth is not unusual these days, but I'm now aware that to most of the people that we know, I was one of the first they had heard of having a planned home birth.
I believe wholeheartedly that the Lord has fully equipped ALL women to give birth to the child He has blessed them with all by themselves. Is every birth completely successful without added medical care that the hospital can provide? No, therefore I also fully believe that women should fully take advantage of the care that is offered to them, if that is what they feel is best for them and their family. However, in my case, with having never had a miscarriage, any pregnancy issues, and three completely successful deliveries before, I felt very confident that I would be fine giving birth on my own. Some have asked why I chose not to just have a natural birth at the hospital, for safety precautions. Well, my answer to that is simple. The odds of being able to stand your ground at the hospital, on their time clock (which totally exists!), and not end up being convinced into using drugs to "help move things along" are extremely low. So, I did my research, found a home birth midwife, and planned to give birth at home. My home birth was hands down THE best experience of my life. So unique and unlike the routine hospital births that I've done three times before. I really wish that I would've been open to the idea sooner. I wonder what those births would've been like had I been willing to try. As with most things in my life, I literally say out loud, to someone at some point, that "I would never ___", and then TOTALLY end up doing it (home birth, homeschooling, ministry, and more).
I urge those of you who aren't as familiar with home birthing to do a little research before you assume it is the "scariest" choice. There is a ton of information out there proving that, statistically, the death rate among women giving birth is actually higher for those that give birth in hospitals than at home. If you want a little up-close and personal information, you can also watch the home birth documentary that is currently on Netflix, called The Business of Being Born. It is definitely worth watching, regardless of your stance. :)
Now, on to the actual birth story.
I was within a week of my due date the day I went into labor. I woke up that Wednesday morning feeling great, but had a few back spasms (not contractions) that made me wonder if that day would be the day. The spasms went away after an hour or two, so as usual during that time, I immediately thought it would be another two weeks. (ha!)
Camryn and Callie spent the day riding horses with a friend for her birthday and ended up being gone all day. So I got to spend my very last day as a mother of three , with my baby Charleigh. :) It was perfect. We went to Target and strolled around for 2 hours (for real), and went home, had lunch, played, and napped...a little too long. I was enjoying the peace and quiet so much that I accidentally let Charleigh nap for 4 hours!! Oops. A big oops, but an enjoyable one at that! :)
My friend Mallory, who the girls were with all day, lives in Peachtree City by my parents, so I arranged for my mom to pick them up for me and meet us at bible class at church that night.Kyle ended up getting home around 5:30 (which is rare for him), and I had no energy to cook dinner. Since there were only three of us to eat, we decided to go out to eat instead. After listing a dozen places, I finally agreed to go to the Dwarf House Chick-fil-A for their breakfast buffet. We loaded up in the car and went, and as I was driving I was having more braxton hicks contractions that I told Kyle I was starting to get really annoyed by. Not annoyed in pain, just annoyed that they weren't the real thing and I was tired of having them in general. We had a nice dinner, but didn't really stay long to talk, as I was just uncomfortable and ready to get back home. Being uncomfortable was not uncommon for me at this point in pregnancy. But, what rushed us even more was the fact that Kyle had been running all day on about 2.5 hours sleep the night before. He had trouble falling asleep, and finally did around 2am, then got a call at 3:30 to be at work at 5 to run an early route. I on the other hand, had slept great the night before. Another indicator that morning that had me wondering if today was THE day. So, he was tired and ready to go get the girls and go home and go to bed. That was the plan, at least, but after spending the day in the freezing cold outside, Camryn ended up having a headache and not feeling well, so my mom called me and said she was driving them home instead of meeting us at church.
We got home and got everyone, including Kyle, in the bed around 8. I knew Charleigh would be wide awake, since she had taken such a long nap that afternoon, but chose to put her to bed anyway with hopes and prayers that maybe the consistent schedule would help. In case it didn't work and she got out of bed, I opted out of my usual early bedtime routine and stayed up downstairs catching up on some DVR'd shows. Not a bad way to spend the last hours that I'd be alone for a while ;)
I was relaxing on the couch when I actually choked a little bit on the water I was drinking, and had to get up and cough a ton. I remember laughing inside thinking "well, wouldn't it be so crazy if this broke my water" as I was coughing really, really hard. I really didn't think it would, just thought it would be funny it if happened that way.
Well it did, sort of. A few minutes later, I was sitting on the couch still watching an episode of New Girl, when a really funny scene came on that I laughed out loud at. It was Winston trying to measure his smile with a ruler.
(Ignore the spanish captions, but here's the clip that had me cracking up!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWYj8oUio0
It was then that my water broke, right at about 10pm! I jumped up and within seconds, as in maybe 5 seconds, was on my phone calling my mom telling her I was "pretty sure" that my water just broke.I laugh at this now because I remembered exactly what it felt like when it broke with Callie, but for some reason when I am that far along in my pregnancies, I tend to actually think that I will never really go into labor, and the baby is never going to come out. It's like I tell myself it just won't happen since I want it to so badly. A minute or two later, and sure enough, there was actual evidence that my water had indeed broken during that laugh. But, in my past experience, I had a few hours until any real action was going to occur, so my mom and I both agreed for her to stay home a while longer, for me to leave the girls asleep in bed, and wait for the labor to pick up before her and my dad came to get them.
I sent texts to two of my closest friends, and headed upstairs to wake up the husband.
By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was practically high off of adrenaline. No pain had set in yet, and with this being my fourth baby, I was just so excited to actually be in labor! I knew the upcoming hours would be life changing ones, and I was just thrilled that it was actually here! I turned on the light, and quickly said, "Kyle! Wake up! my water just broke."
He was in the deepest sleep ever. EVER. Probably the deepest sleep he's ever been in in his entire life. Figures!
He sat up and
Shortly after that, a cute little blonde headed two year old meets us in the hallway, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to play. The girl was wide awake, my husband was far from that, and I was in labor.
Well, that is how it all went down on the last full day leading up to Preston's arrival. Check back soon for Preston's Birth Story {part 2}!
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