Happy birthday to me and to my PRECIOUS son!!!

Well, I’m writing this on the evening of the 23rd. Tomorrow (January 24th) will be my birthday and also my amazing son’s birthday!  Happy 4th birthday, Michael!!
Yes, my son was born on my 23rd birthday. 🙂 He was due on January 25th, but apparently thought it would be cool to just become my birthday baby instead. I can tell you right now that he made the PERFECT present!
You see, my son’s birth was incredible. He’s my 2nd child. I had a Cesarean with my daughter (which I did NOT want – I had wanted a natural childbirth at a birth center with her and ended up with the Cesarean after 42 hours of labor and my water being broken). With my son, I knew I wanted to have a homebirth VBAC. I am so glad I had the opportunity! (WARNING: Birth Story Below!)

His birth was just about perfect. I woke up at about 7:15 with a sharp feeling in my stomach and the urge to go to the bathroom… I noticed I’d lost my mucous plug and was experiencing just a few contractions here and there. I told my husband to go ahead and go to work, so he left at about 7:45 to go. At 8:15, I told him to COME BACK HOME! I had been having more contractions, closer together and quite intense. I was having a difficult time concentrating to make my daughter (then, 20.5 months) breakfast and to try to get her ready to go. I had a 9am midwife appointment to go to!

My husband hurried home and got my daughter ready and we got to my appointment at 9. I don’t remember a lot about that appointment except that they had checked me and I was a “stretchy 4”. They were pretty convinced I’d need them sooner rather than later and loaded my car up with a bag of some gear that they would need when I was ready for them to head over to my home. They made it sound like they’d be coming sometime VERY soon. I wasn’t sure if I could believe that since I had such a LONG labor with my daughter!
Once I was home, I called my mom to come pick up my daughter. I didn’t want her around to distract me or hear my loud labor! I got on the birth ball and remember thinking, “Yes, I think if I were at the hospital, I’d be wanting drugs about now…. I see why women do that….” Little did I know, I was seriously in transition ALREADY!

I hopped in the shower and made my husband call the midwives. I knew the time was getting closer. My husband had the nerve to pop back in the bathroom once he was on the line with them and say, “Hey, what did you want me to tell them again?” lol MEN!

By the time they got here, Grace had been picked up by my mom and I was out of the shower. OH how I HATED the water with this labor. I know some people love the thought of water births, but I hated water so much with my boys’ births (and didn’t love it too much for the few hours I was in the birth tub with my daughter’s birth either!).

My midwives checked me and my baby’s heartbeat. At this time, I didn’t know if I was having a boy or a girl. I kept all 3 a secret until birth. I’m weird like that. 😉 I started getting preeeeeeeeeeetty spiritual sounding and VERY VERY vocal. I was like a lioness. lol I kept saying things like, “LOOOORD!!! BRING THE BABY DOWN AND OUT!!!!!!” I was having some pretty loud discussions with God about getting my child out for sure!

I started grunting and moaning and my midwife asked if I was feeling pushy. I told her no, but 2 contractions later I told her that actually maybe I was. haha I honestly think I was kind of scared of being that close. A few moments earlier I had told her that I didn’t think I could do this for several more hours. She had assured me that I wouldn’t have to do this much longer because I was so close.
My midwife told me that she didn’t want me having this baby in the toilet and encouraged me to go to the bed to find a good position somewhere besides the toilet. The two midwives and their apprentice had staggered my bed so the bottom piece and the mattress were like little stairs, one jutting out more than the other. I put one knee up and the other one stayed on the ground for a bit. They tried to give me pillows but I kept refusing.

Oh man, it was close to pushing time!
I pushed for what seemed like no time at all yet also seemed like forever. I lost sense of what time was supposed to be like. Suddenly, I had a baby coming out of me. Wow! My body worked! It felt GREAT to push. I stuck my other knee up on the bed and leaned my elbows and face into the top mattress. Out popped my baby!! I was so stoked! I rolled over onto my back and eagerly held him. I kept saying how little he was and my midwives looked at each other like I was just a little bit crazy and told me he wasn’t really that little! LOL

He was 22″ long and 10lb, 1oz! YAY!!! He was born right at lunch time – my labor had been just about 5 hours from start to finish…wow! He was bigger than my daughter by half a pound and a full inch! Yet my body worked beautifully and God blessed me with a fabulous birth. OH I was so thrilled! I kept telling my husband that, “It’s like someone hit the EASY button! I have no idea why people choose to do this in the hospital!” haha Oh the words of crazy hormone-filled postpartum mamas!

At one:

At two:

At three:

and now, at four: