The whole story and pictures...

My mom and dad drove into town on Tuesday afternoon. A lot of phone calls went on about how when I would have her and how we could make sure my mom was here... anyway long story short my parents were baffled I had gone the whole pregnancy without being checked. So my mom said and I quote on Tuesday night before went to bed "So do you think you can just will this baby here?" I said "yes". And the story begins...

Fast forward to 3am that night. I have some back pain that wakes me up but it definitely wasn't anything timeable or even contraction like so I go back to sleep. 5:30 I wake up with distinct tightenings but I think these must be braxton hicks I'm going back to sleep. Around 6am I started to time them and they were 10-12 minutes apart but I could still lay down through them so I wasn't convinced today was baby day. Then just 30 minutes later I had to get out of bed. So I went out to the living room where my mom was already awake reading and said, "So you think I can't will this baby out?" and she said "Oh my gosh you're in labor...". My contractions still weren't very intense so we went out walking around the apartment complex and just 10 minutes later they were every 4 minutes apart. And starting to get a little more intense. It wasn't until we came back inside at 7am that I was convinced today was the day.

We woke David up and started to get stuff ready to fill up the birthing tub. It was around 7:15 when my mom started telling me to call the midwife and I wanted to hold off. Apparently she was getting nervous that I was going too fast because by now the contractions were just 2 minutes apart. So I called Cori and she said she'd head right down. The tub was filling and I was having serious contractions that I no longer could talk through. I kept saying I was going to wait till Cori came to get in the tub but around 8:00 I said forget it and I hopped in. I was still having intense contractions but they were only coming every 4 minutes now. Cori walked in at 8:20ish and started setting everything up right away. She never checked me she just listened to the baby's heartbeat and took my vitals and let me labor away.

Then before I knew it my body started to push with the contractions that were coming every 4 minutes. Then there was a period of 3 contractions really close and Hannah came out. Cori said look down and pick up your baby at 8:58am. And I pulled Hannah up right onto my chest. I don't know if it was the water but it was so distinct from pushing out Ashton. My body did all the work I never had to consciously think to push. Don't get me wrong it was still hard but it was so much more natural. Good thing my mom made me call the midwife because I wouldn't have and she only had 40 minutes from the time she got here until I delivered.


After that everything just went very calmly and slow after that. I nursed her for a good 20 minutes before they even measured or weighed her. Everything was so peaceful and normal. It was not a big event and I never felt pressure to do anything. I had exactly who I wanted around me and didn't have to worry about strangers coming in and out of my room offering me all sorts of random things. I was SO glad to be in my own bed with my own things around me afterwards. And while I hung out with Hannah the midwives with some help from David & my mom cleaned everything up. You would have never known I had just had a baby in our living room.
My mom and David now say that homebirths are the way to go. I'll never do this in the hospital again now that I know how easy it is to do at home.


And here she is...

David weighing Hannah. I've got to give BIG kudos to David. He thought I was crazy in the beginning but is always willing to let me explore my crazy ideas. How many husbands do you know would have been on board with this?

Ashton kept trying to poke her so finally today we let him hold her. He was so calm and gentle with her and just kept smiling and kissing her.

He loves his little sister and cried when I took her away.