Rachel's (Home) Birth Story

I apologize for taking so long to finally type this up. Go figure, life with 5 boys and a newborn is keeping me busy ;-) So... as for the details of Rachel's birth - here it goes! Just a warning, though - it's a bit long!

My due date with Rachel was January 29. My parents came to stay with us to help with the kids the week before, and were planning on staying about 10 days. Well... January 29 came and went. It was the very first time I'd ever seen my due date and still been pregnant! I was trying to keep a positive outlook, but when you add up all the people who were staring at me all day long (Michael, the boys, my parents...) and asking if I were in labor yet... it wasn't always easy!

Two things my midwife had mentioned had stuck with me - that babies tend to come on new moons, and that low pressure systems (storms) tend to bring babies, too. I checked the calendar and saw that the new moon was Wednesday, February 2. As I watched the weather, it also happened that a low pressure system was coming through that day, as well! So I started telling people that I thought Wednesday would be the day (half jokingly, but totally hopefully!).

Sure enough, Wednesday early morning, a little after midnight, I woke up to use the bathroom and noticed I was having some uncomfortable back pain. I took notice of it and went back to bed. I woke up about an hour later with the same feeling and knew it was the beginnings of labor! Knowing it was still really early, though, I went back to bed to get some more sleep. At about 3:30, I woke up, and couldn't get back to sleep. Instead, I got up and starting walking around and timing contractions. They were coming every 6-8 minutes! After about an hour, I woke Michael up and told him that it was the day! He wanted to me to call Debbie (my midwife) just to "put her on alert", so I did, and she said to call when we thought she should come over. After that, I tried to get more sleep, but discomfort and excitement didn't allow me much.

Another hour went by (it was 5:30 am or so by this time), and contractions were coming every 4-6 minutes, so we decided to start making official notifications. We called Debbie back, who said she was on her way, and I called my friend Jennifer, who I had invited to come to be a part of things, and we woke up my parents. There was lots of excitement! We had already had the pool I wanted to use for labor inflated, so we started filling it with nice hot water. We ran out of hot water when it was about halfway full, so we heated some pots of water on the stove to add to it. And, yes, we joked about having to boil water to have a home birth! ;-)

Debbie, her apprentice Whitney, and Jennifer all arrived, and there was lots of chatter and joking. Even though the contractions were coming more frequently, the intensity of pain hadn't gotten too bad (meaning, I was still smiling and being friendly, lol!). Here's Debbie checking the baby's heartbeat, notice my happy face?


(I wanted to jump in here really quickly and say that there's something to having some female company during birth. Michael is a great, great labor partner - he keeps me comfortable and keeps me laughing, but having a woman who has been through it before herself is such an added benefit! I really appreciated having Jennifer there, acting as an unofficial doula! She helped me keep my mind off of things, and when labor finally kicked into high gear, was so encouraging! My mom was also great - she helped keep the kids occupied for a bit, and then held my hand (or, was in my death grip) for the actual delivery. She wasn't sure she wanted to actually witness the birth at first, but when the time came, she was brave!)

Eventually, time became a bit of a blur, but at sometime after 8, there was a change. I had to use the bathroom, and when I sat down, a really hard contraction hit me - I had to moan through it and it felt like it lasted forever!! I knew transition was happening, and sure enough, the contractions picked up to about every 2 minutes, and some lasted nearly that long, too! I was having to moan through them, and my "labor support team" took turns rubbing my back as I leaned over my exercise ball. I decided I'd better get into the tub before it was too late, so I told the midwives that's what I'd be doing, and got in. The hot water felt SO good! And it immediately took away my back pain, too. I'm not going to lie, though - the contractions were still painful! See my "not so happy" face?


Once in the pool, I knew I wasn't going to get out. I had been on the fence about having a water birth - I had heard great things about it, but hadn't really decided that was what I wanted until that point. I had a few more contractions, and then suddenly, while I was kneeling and leaning over the side of the pool, I felt the baby drop! It was such an interesting sensation - in all of my hospital births, I've never experienced the "urge to push" - I always pushed whenever the nurses, midwife, OB, whoever, said I could. So allowing my body to be the one to tell me was amazing! There was one more contraction and I felt the baby about to crown... another contraction, and her head was out! My water broke at that point, although I couldn't tell. One more contraction, and I had to work hard to get her shoulders out, and then... she was in my arms! Michael and I looked right away to see who our new baby was...


And were SHOCKED!!! to see that she was... a she! Shocked really doesn't even describe it, actually. Amazed, delighted, awe-struck, stunned, thrilled... so many emotions all at once! I honestly never truly thought it was possible! The room was filled with tears, shouts of joy, excited exclamations... it was beautiful!

One very elated Daddy!

After a few minutes, I decided I wanted to get out of the pool (I'm going to interject here and share something that I've never seen or heard anyone else talk about when it comes to the whole waterbirth thing. There is, what I call, a "mess factor" involved. Birth is messy. It can be gross. Sitting in water in that mess - definitely a little gross for my taste. During labor I didn't care. Once it was all said and done, though, I wanted out! So there you have it, the plain truth from my perspective. Would I do it again? Absolutely! But just so y'all know, there was a definite yuck aspect to it.).

I got dried off and into my nice, warm bed. I tried nursing her, and she latched on right away and has been a great nurser from the very start! Then, Michael and I cuddled up together to get to know our little daughter.

After a little while, I was able to get up and take a shower while everyone passed around the baby and took pictures.

My mom and Rachel

Jennifer and Rachel

At that point, too, the sheets were changed, so my nice clean self was able to climb back into my nice warm bed with nice clean sheets. Heaven!

The kids came in right after that and were over the moon to meet their new sister. Isaac has been wanting a sister since, oh, about 4 babies ago, so he was almost in tears, and literally jumping up and down and shouting about how excited he was! It was so awesome, lol!

Judah, especially, is in love with her. He asks about her whenever she's not in the room, and is so gentle and sweet with her. I can't wait to see how close they'll be as they grow up together.

The midwife did the newborn exam while all the kids were in the room, and I loved being able to watch everything she did, and listen to her explain everything she was doing. The whole time, Rachel was quiet and peaceful. In fact, I don't think she cried at all for the first 3 hours of her life!

Rachel's in there! It's how she was weighed!

The homebirth experience was really everything I had hoped it would be. The best part is, Michael really enjoyed it, as well. He had said from the time he agreed to allow me to have a homebirth that it was a gift to me, because I wanted it so badly. Now, he's fully on board and told Debbie himself that we'd be calling her again for any future babies! I've also overheard him telling others about how great it was and how we'll do it again... awesome!! I truly never, ever thought I'd see the day!

The 8 of us!

I am so thankful to the Lord for our new, healthy, beautiful addition, Miss Rachel Susannah! She is already cherished and adored by all of us! :-)