This blog post contains sensitive information about our homebirth. Please be advised!
Sunday, 11/6, I had fallen asleep to the tv like I always do around 10:30 pm and felt fine and normal. Around 11:45 pm I woke up and felt a little off, so got up to go to the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet, I felt a subtle pop in my low back, and noticed fluid coming out. I thought that was a little odd, but I went back to bed. After about 5 minutes I just couldn’t get comfortable, felt a little pressure, and couldn’t shake the feeling that my water could have just broken. I went back to the bathroom and more fluid seemed to come out. This time I made sure to look at it in the toilet, and it definitely looked different... kinda cloudy with things floating. Then my back started hurting a bit, and I basically felt like I needed to use the restroom... a feeling I remember from my miscarriage. I decided to give my midwife a call at 12:19am to give her a heads up and let her know what was happening. She agreed that it sounded like things could be starting. She told me to try my best to relax and get some rest, but to keep her updated. I went ahead and called my doula right after just to give her a heads up as well, then I went to bed and woke Brian up. At this point, I was shaking profusely and could feel contractions definitely starting. Laying in bed was not comfortable, especially with the shaking. This whole time I had been texting my doula, and gave her another call at 1:22 am and told her I truly thought things were moving fast and that she might have to head this way soon. Contractions were already just a few minutes apart, lasting about a minute. I told her I would hop in the bath and see if things picked up or slowed down. Brian ran me a bath and I turned on my Christian Hypnobirthing app to try to relax and focus. Brian sat with me in the bathroom, observing and updating my doula and midwife. The contractions slowed for a bit, but then ramped back up, moving mainly to my back and hips. Brian started getting things ready, and I decided to call and update my midwife at 2:25am. She asked me to time my contractions. I timed them for about 15 minutes, and they were 1-2 minutes apart, medium intensity. She said she would head our way soon.
At 2:45am I got out of the tub and transitioned to downstairs. My doula arrived shortly after 3AM. She and Brian helped me through contractions, which felt like they were almost one on top of each other at this point, as I leaned over my birth ball. After only about 10 minutes, my doula took me upstairs to go to the bathroom and try to labor in the bedroom while Brian set up the birthing pool, which took about 40 minutes.
My midwife arrived about 4 AM. When she walked in she checked in with Brian, then heard me upstairs laboring and realized things were definitely progressing. She and my doula and I were in the bedroom for about 10 minutes, working through contractions that were definitely starting to be accompanied by the urge to push. When the pool was ready, my midwife said we better go ahead and transition there. I was happy to do so, knowing how relaxing the water would be. We got in the pool, where I shortly began pushing. Brian held my hand and reassured me while my doula coached me, gave me sips of Labor-Aid, and squeezed my hips with every contraction. My midwife assured me that I was pushing well, and could tell the head was coming. They kept telling me that it wouldn’t be much longer and he would be born. I believed and trusted them and my body, but they kept saying that for a while! They had me change positions a few different times, which was never fun... but again, I trusted my midwife and did what I was told, knowing whatever position she told me to get in would help me progress further. We worked through a few positions, but he just wasn't quite moving down any further. She had me flip on my side, which was much more comfortable for me. We continued pushing and thinking he would be born soon. I labored in the pool until about 8 AM.
My midwife decided we needed to move outside the pool into a squatting position, knowing that's probably what we needed for him to finally arrive. It was not my favorite or most comfortable position, but again, I trusted her. We moved to the squat where Brian was supporting me from behind. As he began to crown, my midwife gently grabbed my hand and directed it down so I could feel his head. This is when I really knew it was happening. The next push was crowning time, and I was getting a little scared of the pain. Between that push, my midwife started praying out loud for me, my birth, our baby. <3
Never once did I doubt that my body that God designed couldn't do this... but as he was crowning I for sure didn’t want to do this! I made sure everyone knew it hurt! But with everyone's encouragement and coaching, and the love and support that filled the room.... Bradley Lucas Kurtz came into this world at 8:29am.
I held his slippery little body in my hands in disbelief of what I had just accomplished... of what my body grew and did... of this precious son that was finally in my arms. They helped me up into our love seat recliner where I just got to hold and stare at our son with Brian right beside me for a long time ♡ We waited about 30 minutes after birth for the cord to stop pulsating before we cut it. Then we started working on getting out the placenta, which was being stubborn. We passed the baby off to daddy, and moved to a sitz bath. My midwife sat with me and just talked with me for the longest time, which I loved. After 1 hr and 46 minutes, and a little tugging, we finally got the placenta out. It was tiny! (My doula made it into capsules for me to take during postpartum!) We transitioned to the bedroom where we got cozy and watched my midwife weigh and measure Bradley. We all made our weight guesses, but were all shocked to find that he was under 6 pounds !! What a tiny cutie! Everything checked out great!
Labor was tough, crowning and pushing SUCKED, but the homebirth experience was AMAZING.
If we ever get pregnant again, I will 100% be having another homebirth.
I will gladly share our homebirth story and the few details we left out with anyone who asks, because it was so special and empowering. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below in the comments, or reach out to me personally! Thanks for taking the time to read about our homebirth <3