On 2.22.22 we welcomed our baby girl into the world. I chose to give birth at home, supported by a midwife, doula and my husband. This was our first child and I’m 37 years old.
Here is our story
“All I want is to go to the hospital and get drugs. I cannot go through that again.”
I told my husband, crying after my third night of contractions and no sleep.
Saturday afternoon, I had started feeling crampy and contractions became regular at night when I tried to sleep.
They faded in the morning only to come back stronger each night.
By Monday night, I was ready to get this over with so we went for a walk after dinner to move things along. I’d noticed they weren’t as strong if I watched TV so we played some rummikub.
Around midnight, I started timing my contractions. They were 60-90 seconds long and about 4 minutes apart. After an hour, I woke Jordan up and asked him to time me.
After another hour, we called our doula @lexireeeid and midwife @sherhopkins. Lexi was on her way to check me and we called for our birth pool.
I got up to pee and caught the worst chill, my legs started shaking uncontrollably and my contractions became shorter and closer together.
When Lexi arrived, we timed a few and she told me I wasn’t in active labor yet. I couldn’t believe it after all that work, I knew I was right on the brink and felt so disappointed.
She told me to take some magnesium and get some rest. Of course I couldn’t sleep and contractions continued all morning.
I finally got out of bed and tried to nap on the couch. I knew I couldn’t make it through another night like that. When Jordan came downstairs, I started sobbing. I didn’t think the home birth I had planned was going to happen and I felt hopeless. All I wanted was to get pain meds and take a nap. (BTW, I don’t think pain meds or hospital birth are less valid options by any means. All birth is hard!)
We had an appointment at our midwife’s office at 10 am and I lost my mucus plug right before we left. She did a non-stress-test for baby and a vaginal exam. Baby was fine and I was 6 cm dilated and 100% effaced!
She sent me home to get some rest and with herbs in case we needed to augment labor.
When we got home, my contractions got intense quickly. Jordan put all his weight into hip squeezes. Our doula came over and gave me the go ahead to get in the pool. After a few contractions, I could feel the urge to push. I could feel the sack and baby’s head.
When Sheri arrived, they gave me the go ahead to push. 49 minutes later, our baby girl was born, in her sack. My water never broke.
66 hours of labor
2 hours active
49 minutes pushing
Ainsley Rose
6 lbs 12 oz
2.22.22
So grateful we got to have our baby girl at home surrounded by the best team.
