My Home Birth Story: The Labor

I am excited to finally share with you, my amazing home birth experience with you. If you want to know why I choose a home birth, see this post here.

I was due 5/31/12, I was convinced I would have a "May baby", which would space out our birthday's and make planing birthday parties in the future easier.  The whole week leading up to my due date, I would get fairly regular contractions, which would eventually, slow down or stop.  Every time I would get my hopes up that "this was it!"  I even called my midwife one night, the day after my due date to tell her this may be it (just so she would have a heads up).  Alas, they stopped shortly after.  It was vary annoying.

It was now Wednesday, I was 6 days late and none too happy about it.  My fabulous sister-in-law was graduating from high school, and I knew there was no way that I could go.  We felt it out and decided that since it was just 2 hours away, I would send my hubby and toddler to surprise her.  She really wanted both of them there and was understandably upset about the fact that it may not happen.  I would spend the afternoon/evening with my parent's "just in case" anything were to happen.

All went well and Matt and the little man were able to attend the graduation and were heading home.  I was slightly bummed I hadn't gone into labor as I for SURE thought the minute my husband left our area, my water would break.  Alas, I was still pregnant and there was no end in sight.  By the time my hubby got back, picked me up from my parents and we got home and into bed it was 11:30 or 12.

At about 2am, I woke up obviously in labor.  The contractions had woken me up out of a dead sleep, and I knew that this was it.  I waited 30 minutes to make sure and then told my hubby to call the midwife!  He also had some set up to do, as our dining room table needed to be moved and the birthing tub needed to be placed there.  He called the midwife to find out she was on another call!  She was able to leave that one as it was a hospital transfer and she was not delivering that baby.  My fabulous midwife Quincy showed up soon followed by her assistant Karen.  They checked everything out, set up and let me labor.

This was a wonderful experience.  I was able to sit, lay, stand, walk and do whatever I wanted.  It was hard and exhausting, don't get me wrong.  Yet I wasn't strapped to the bed like I had be in the past.  We called our families around 6am to let them know that I was in labor.  My mom stopped by on her way to work.  My mid wife told her that she thought it would be awhile, as my contractions were still 4ish minutes apart.  My Dad came to pick up our toddler around 6:30/7 to hand out with him and then take him to daycare at 8 am.  My labor really started to pick up and just after 7am I decided it was time to get into the tub to relax and try and relieve some of the labor pain.

The water brought on a lot of relief.  Well about as much as you can expect when you are in labor.  Then all of the sudden, I felt like I couldn't do this anymore.  I could deal with being pregnant forever, because there was no way I was able to handle the pain.  I started regretting my decision to have a home birth without drugs.  I must have been insane!  As this feeling was starting to overcome me, and I was telling my husband and the midwife, I didn't know how much longer I could labor, my water broke, and things got way more intense.

Part 2, The Delivery is coming soon, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Ashley