Earth Day Babies: Poppy's Home Birth Story

The best thing about doing something the second time is that you get to learn from your first experience. When I got pregnant for the second time, I knew a ton more about birth and I knew what I wanted to keep the same and what I wanted to change from my son's birth 2 years earlier. Armed with my knowledge and ideas, I started getting ready for my second birth months before my due date. Among other things, I went to prenatal yoga class, hired a doula, and practiced hypnobirthing meditation. Every night, I read positive birth stories on www.naturalbirthandbabycare.com. I posted positive affirmations all over the house for encouragement and my friends threw me a beautiful blessingway. Everything was ready for the baby by 38 weeks, including me being ready for a new birth experience. The bathroom in our house was even decorated with blessings and pictures of water births and babies in good birthing positions.

Even with all that positive juju, the last few weeks of pregnancy were really tough. Between being sick and getting injured it seemed like we couldn’t catch a break. As the baby’s due date came and went, Ollie and I stayed home a lot and we all tried to stay positive.

Finally, on Saturday April 28^th, things started happening. We had a very relaxing day at home. I took a bath and a nap and was feeling good. After Ollie went to bed, Dave and I started watching a movie (The Killers) and I began having contractions. Even though they were mild, I dropped to my hands and knees during each one and did some deep belly breathing to make sure this baby was in a good position for birthing. Dave was watching the clock and noticed that these contractions were coming every 10 minutes. During the breaks, we started getting the bathroom ready because that’s where I pictured her birth happening. Around 12:30am, after one hour of contractions I called my midwife just to let her know that this could be it. She told me to try to lay down and rest and call her 30 minutes before I needed her for travel time. I went to bed with my ipod and meditations but laying down the contractions were painful so I kept getting up on all fours on the bed. At 2:00am, Dave suggested that I call my doula to come over. I also called my friend Desirae to come over at about 2:30am

The three of us girls sat in the living room, talking and laughing and when I had a contraction I would get on my hands and knees, my doula would press on my back and Desirae was moaning with me and saying “open”. After about an hour of this, contractions started to get a little painful and Des suggested we go to the tub just for a few surges. I wanted a water birth but I didn’t want to get in the tub until the end of labor. I had only been in labor for four hours and was expecting at least four more hours. Des assured me we could get in then get out and get back in later. So we ran the water and I tried a few different positions, ending up on my side as the most comfortable and most water coverage on my huge belly.

The contractions kept coming and getting stronger. Desirae was putting cold wash clothes on my head and feeding me ice. My doula would pour the warm water on my stomach during contractions. We had the lights down low and music going, I was very comfortable. All of a sudden the contractions started to changed and feel different. My doula called the midwife to come over but we had waited too late. My body took over and there was no denying it was time to push. Someone woke up Dave and he came in and held my hand. Someone told me to feel for the head, “oh my god!” I exclaimed as I touched her for the first time. I still couldn’t believe that it was happening so fast.

My body kept working and I felt myself stretching that “ring of fire” as her head crowned and came out. On the next contraction, I pushed but her body didn’t twist and come out. Des and my doula were getting worried because neither of them had delivered a baby unassisted before much less in the water. They urged me to stand up and get out of the tub so they could see the baby better. Standing on the bathroom floor, leaning on Dave, I gave one humongous push with all of my might. At the same time, Des grabbed Penelope’s shoulder and pulled her and what a wonderful feeling as she slithered out into Desirae’s hands. She was born on Sunday, April 29^th at 4:30am after only 5 hours of active labor! She was 21 inches long and 9 lbs 10 oz. The midwife and assistants arrived about 15 minutes later to do all the post partum and new baby care.

Some fun random facts: She and Ollie were both born exactly 10 days over their due date. Ollie’s birth weight was one oz more than Dave’s birth weight and Poppy’s birth weight was exactly one oz more than my birth weight!