The Birth of Willow James
My birth story 💙
We had planned a home birth with baby number 6 (my 3rd biological) due to the convenience of having such a big family, not being impressed with my first 2 hospital births, and my difference of opinion when it comes to drs and child birth, and definitely when seeing the statistics between home births and hospital births, that just verified we had made the right choice! We also decided as hard as it was for me, to not find out the sex prior, too…
My due date was Feb. 23rd. On Sunday Feb.12th I woke up from cramping a few times and noticed I was not feeling well at all, my face hurt, I was plugged up and my eyes were watering out of control. I had assumed I got a sinus infection in my sleep 😢 so we stayed home from church, and asked our church family to pray for my health before labor kicked in. I spent the day in bed. I lost my plug that morning, and continued to get cramps on and off all day. Monday led to waking up with eyes I could barely open due to swelling, and every 2 hours spent at the sink using my neti pot to help with breathing. I continued to cramp, and thought how awful it would be to go into labor with this horrible head cold I had gotten, and prayed God would either miraculously take my sickness or hold off on labor.
I took benadryl, which I put off taking, but, honestly at that point, wanted to just sleep the sickness away. I took a nearly 6 hour nap when our older kids were at school. After my nap my eyes were so swollen I couldn’t see, even with my glasses on. They were watering uncontrollably, my sneezing coughing and headache were unbearable at times, but mom\wife duty calls: I made the kids and my husband dinner, and was stopped a few times by the intense cramping. I said to the kids ” we are going to have a baby soon, guys” 😐
I cleaned dinner up and got the kids put to bed. I laid down for a while longer and noticed my swelling was going down and as long as I used the neti pot I could somewhat breath. I took another dose of benadryl.
Around 11 o’clock pm I decided to take a warm bath as my cramps were getting more intense, figured the bath would stop them and I could go to bed for the night. I started timing the “cramps” when I sat in the water and noticed they were closer. I had back labor with both of my boys, so was unsure for a while these were contractions. I got out of the bath at 11:30 and went to clean my living room and fold the last load of laundry in the dryer, still timing these cramps…
About 3-5 mins apart at this time, at 1 am I was laying in bed next to my sleeping husband still timing and let out a very uncomfortable moan, he woke up, and I asked him to push on my back during it…. I decided to get out of bed again and he walked to the kitchen with me where the pains hit hard- really hard- about 2-3 mins apart. He called our farm partner to cover the morning chore shift for him because he was sure we were having a baby!! 😊
He called our midwife at 1:50 am and I called my aunt who was going to assist in being a doula in our birth, and who is also a photographer!! Our midwife arrived about 2:20 (ish) am and my aunt shorty after. I was sitting in my rocking chair enduring my contractions and my husband was making coffee. And all the other kids were still sleeping! ( even through my sometimes not so quiet moments!)
My other midwives arrived shortly after, I moved to the bathroom and had about 10-12 contractions in there with my husband wiping my head and neck, and my aunt pushing on my back during the contractions. At one point we both felt the round bulge of baby’s head on my lower back. Both in amazement by this…
I decided to go stand at my bed side as I started to feel more “pushy” moving between the bed for support and leaning on my husband as he rubbed my back. I tried the birthing ball but that didn’t help me at all, after one contraction I got off, decided to get in my bed and sit up because it was comfortable at the time….
Until minutes later when I started to push…. And realized I must have been sitting funny on the babies head, because the pain worsened, so I laid on my side and boom, felt the babies head move down, and in a hurry with one push! At this point the fear kicked in a little more and I started crying. My husband, midwives and aunt reassured me I was doing great and it was almost over!!!
I pushed until the baby crowned, then I “blew” through a few more contractions instead of push as my midwives told me too. It helps with not tearing (and wow, what a world of difference this made). A few more contractions and our baby’s head was out, still in the bag of water!!!! Holding my husbands hand as he sat in bed with me, and my aunt rubbing my back still, I reached down and grabbed my baby’s head in amazement as I swore I would\could never do this! A couple more blows and there SHE was!!!! Our baby GIRL has arrived!
With tears in my eyes and a huge smile on my face, I assisted her up to my chest. A smile on my husband’s face and as he said we got our girl, she’s our Willow! Our other kids ran in to meet their sister before I even delivered my placenta. They were thrilled!! Making our family 3 boys and 3 girls! We are so blessed to welcome baby number 6 and even more blessed with a great home birth experience with the ones we love most and some amazing midwives! We got our very much wanted baby girl after a line of 3 rambunctious boys and on Valentine’s Day at that!!! She was born on a holiday dedicated to love <3 Gods gifts are truly an amazing wonder!!!! Welcome Willow James!