The Home Water Birth Of Vivian Louise | Positive Home Birth Story With Labor Footage

Hi guys, my name is Megan with the blog Wilson Homestead.com and today I'm here to tell this little girl's birth story. This is Vivian Louise, she's our third child, second daughter, and I have been dying to tell you guys her story, the story of her coming into the world. I've had three very, very different births and it's just kind of crazy how different they can all be and just totally different than you'd expect. So let's get right into this. So if you guys have been watching my pregnancy updates or following me on Instagram, you'll know that I had some issues with a bit of early labor. Two weeks, two or three weeks before she was born, I had started going into labor and it wasn't just prodromal labor, it was like actual early labor. So my midwife had put me on bed rest, I had a couple weeks of that, just trying to keep her in until I was like 37, 38 weeks. And then we made it to our goal and we made it till what I thought was 39 weeks. It turned out to be closer to 37 weeks just because of how tiny she was and a couple different things. My midwife thought she was closer to 37 weeks, but we made it far enough along that her lungs were developed at least. So that was a whole big thing. If you guys want to see more of what happened with all that, go watch my pregnancy updates. It was August 19th. Well, I guess it was August 18th that I went into labor. It was that night we went to bed. I kind of felt like it might be the night just because I was feeling really achy. Like you just kind of... If you've been through labor before, you kind of know the feeling. It's really hard to explain to someone who hasn't felt it before, but it's kind of like period cramps, but it's just kind of constant. And then you get contractions on top of it. It's like, I don't know, it really feels, it feels like your cervix is like opening and just stuff's happening. I kind of had a feeling that it was the night that it would happen. So around 10 o'clock, me and Luke headed to bed, even though I kind of knew we'd be up again soon. Okay, I'm taking my hair down because my bun is driving me crazy. Anyway, I kind of knew we'd be up again in a couple hours. I didn't want to tell Luke yet though, because I knew he would just get really excited and not be able to sleep. And I really needed him rested up so that he could help me during labor because I need his help a lot during my labors. So I needed him to be well-rested. And then, so we went to bed around 10 and then around midnight, two hours later, I started noticing contractions in my sleep. I was kind of in this like half awake, half asleep. I would feel a really strong contraction. It would like bring me almost to consciousness, and then it would pass and I would fall all the way back to sleep. It was kind of this weird, in limbo, feeling contractions when you're not fully conscious. It was kind of strange. And it would wake me up just enough that I was able to focus on just relaxing my stomach muscles as much as I could and relaxing my face muscles and my lips. I don't know what it was, this labor, it just really helped to focus on like relaxing my lips and my jaw and just like all the muscles in my face. I haven't needed to do that with the other ones, but it was just something that I kept thinking of during this labor. So I did that for another about two and a half hours, just kind of partially awake, partially asleep, having a lot of contractions. That must've been my whole active labor that I just kind of slept through. I just slept through all the easy-ish parts of labor, apparently. And then around 2.30, so it was two and a half hours later, my water broke in the bed. I've never had that happen with my first. My midwife broke my water. And then with my second, my water broke like during pushing and I was already awake. It was kind of a strange experience to have my water break in bed when I was already asleep and I'm waking up. So that was kind of interesting and different. I didn't hear a pop though. It just kind of gushed out and I jumped up out of bed. So I didn't get too much of it on the bed. And I woke up Luke because I knew that once my water had broken things would probably start to get pretty intense, which they did. So he helped me clean up the bed. I went and sat on the toilet waiting for more water to come out. And I also really felt like I needed to clear stuff out, you know, like go poop and pee a lot. That can happen at the beginning of labor or during labor, just kind of making room for the baby to come through. But it was really uncomfortable sitting on the toilet during contractions. It just made it feel way too intense. I really wanted to be standing. So I was kind of like, I would come back out here in the living room for contractions. And then I would realize I had more stuff to clear out. So I'd walk back to the bathroom that is attached to our master bedroom. And then I would sit there for a while until a contraction came again. And before it would come, I would have come out, I would come out to the living room and have the contraction. Then I'd go back to the bathroom, which is like a lot of walking back and forth, which I suppose helps get labor going more, all that walking back and forth. And during all that walking, the contractions were definitely getting stronger. I think around when my water broke was when I hit transition, which is kind of those transition type feeling contractions right after that. And so I think that that was when I was in transition and the contractions were getting strong enough with all the walking that I was having to stop and really breathe through it and hold onto something for balance, because it was just really overwhelming. I texted my midwife right around when my water broke. I went and sat in the toilet for a while and then I texted her. I let her know my water broke. She asked if the water was clear. I said, yes. So she was not worried about that at all. I told her that my contractions were about three minutes apart and about 60 seconds long. And then she asked if we'd like her to head this way or if we want her to wait. With Demi, I had an unassisted birth. So she was trying to be really respectful of if we wanted to try and do that again. And she lives about half, a little over half an hour away from us. So she needs a little bit of an advance notice. But I was feeling like they were intense enough and I was feeling overwhelmed enough that I was like, yes, just come. It would be nice to have her here. And I'm really glad I did because it just, it didn't go like how I expected it. So I was glad that she was there just to make me feel better. Now it's about 3.10 in the morning. So my water broke around 2.30 and then now it's 3.10. So about 40 minutes later and I was out in the living room by this point, I was kind of done going back and forth between the living room and the bathroom. And I remember Luke asking if I wanted essential oils put in. And during this labor, I was having a really hard time making up my mind about things, even though I had told him I definitely want ClarySafe essential oil rubbed on my back and my stomach and my ankles during labor to help kind of make contractions more effective. But for some reason, when he asked me if I wanted it, I was like, I don't know. I just like didn't know what I wanted during labor. It was like so hard to make decisions about anything during this labor. He ended up just putting them on anyway because he knew I had asked for that in advance. So he rubbed on some ClarySage essential oil, which something about smelling things in labor is different than smelling things just in general. This might not make sense to some of you guys, but with Demi's labor, my second birth, he rubbed ClarySage essential oil on me. So when I smell ClarySage, it brings me back into how I felt when I was in labor. So when he put it on when I was already in labor, it really put me deep into labor land. It was like this really strange connection with that smelling of the essential oils. Really interesting. I haven't experienced that before with other smells that I might experience during labor. It was just that strong ClarySage essential oil. It just really brought me back into laboring. It was interesting. Luke was having to help hold up my upper body during labor. Again, just like with my son's birth, it was really similar in a lot of ways up until a certain point. It was almost identical. I will explain that, but this part was so similar because I was standing up, leaning over, and Luke was having to hold up my upper body weight because I really felt like I needed to be standing, but I also needed to just relax my whole torso and just really focus on relaxing my stomach and my face, but I needed to be standing. So that was exactly the same with Demi's birth, that position just to get through the beginning part of pushing or the end of transition and the beginning part of pushing is what I need. So I was starting to feel my body bear down again. It was just pushing on its own and I was starting to feel like I needed to poop. So I checked myself and there was baby right there about two inches away from coming out, which was surprising and not because Demi's birth again was just so fast. That was the exact same thing that happened with him. I was like not in labor for that long and then I felt my body start pushing and I checked myself and he was right there and then like 30 minutes later he was out. But that point was the last point that it felt similar to Demi's birth because she just took so much longer to come out than him. So about 3.40 in the morning, that's about 30 minutes after Luke put on the essential oils and I started feeling like I needed to push, I heard Sandano drive up, which was such a relief. I kept listening for her car because in labor you just feel like kind of you can feel a little panicky and just waiting for her to get there and knowing that that little bit more security because I'm really comfortable with our midwife. She's been my midwife for all three of my pregnancies and we're just like more friends than like care provider and patient. So I was just really wanting her to be there to just to feel that support. So I was listening for her car and I finally heard it drive up and I was so excited. I heard her car door close, I heard our front door open and she came in and she asked how I was doing and she started unloading all of her supplies. But I was really relieved that she was there because it just seemed like it was taking longer than it should because I had kind of had this expectation on it that it would be like my son's labor where once I started pushing it would be 30 minutes and he was out and it had been 30 minutes and she was now out and she was in exactly the same spot about two inches in. I'm like why is she still in the same spot? I'm pushing really hard. So after Sandano got all of her supplies set up, I actually asked her to check me. I thought I might not want to be checked at all during this labor. I didn't obviously get checked at all with Amy's labor. I don't ever get checked during my pregnancies or anything but I was just like I feel like something's holding her up like a cervical lip cervical lip or something. So I really want her to check and see what the heck was going on. So she discovered I did have a slight cervical lip. She asked if I wanted her to move it and I said yes and then I kind of instantly regretted it because it hurt so bad. I kind of forgot how bad it hurts to move cervical lips out of the way. I had fun with my first birth but then I was glad that she had done it because I was just like hoping it would help move things along a little faster. So I was hoping that baby would be out in just a few more pushes after the cervical lip was out of the way. I really shouldn't have gone into that birth with so many expectations of thinking it was going to be like my last birth. The pain was really overwhelming at this point. I was still being really quiet and calm. So during interactions I could be like completely silent just I mean it's the weirdest thing that you can feel like the most pain you've ever felt in your life and just like really like retreat within yourself and just be completely calm and quiet. It's a really strange thing to experience because I knew that if I lost control and started screaming I wouldn't be able to get control back like you just can't let yourself go there. I made that mistake with my first birth. I started screaming during transition and then I could not get that control back and get back to my calm place and it was really scary and it made it more painful. It made it harder. I used up so much energy screaming when I needed to focus it more on pushing. So with my last two births with Demi and with Vivian I am really careful to not let myself go there. I'm just I have to be quiet. I was like kind of writhing around and like kind of grasping for like a handhold like something to hold on to that was like really firm. So at this point Luke was still holding me up and I was still in the living room leaned over but he had put up his knee up on the coffee table and I was kind of like resting my chest on his knee so that he didn't have to just use his strength to hold me up for so long. Much easier for him to do for a long period of time because I always give him such a workout during my labors. So now it's about 4 40 so we're another hour into pushing. An hour before was when my midwife had gotten there at about 3 40 and now it's 4 40. Still pushing and baby's head is still in the exact same spot and I was starting to feel really frustrated and confused like baby's head is right there and I'm pushing so hard. I don't understand why she's not just coming out because now the cervical lip was moved and I was like why is this not happening? That was the main biggest reason that I was really glad that my midwife was there because I feel like I would have started getting like scared if I was on my own like if something was wrong but she was just so calm. She would just she kind of just sits up in the corner during my labors and just watches and observes quietly and steps in if she feels like she's needed or if I ask for her. So she was just sitting there like perfectly calm so I was like well I guess nothing's wrong because she's clearly not worried. So she suggested maybe trying different positions because she kind of suspected that baby was just in a weird position and they just needed need to move around a little bit more so they could turn a little bit and then they could come out. I tried laying on the couch on my side for a couple pushes which I hate laying down during contractions because I feel really stuck and trapped. I tried sitting on the birthstool for a while, standing, squatting, being on my knees on floor, hands and knees. I was in like every imaginable position and it was it was odd. I was in so many different positions during this birth. It's a little ridiculous and at this point she asked if I thought a warm bath sounded nice and I did. So she went and started filling the bath and I'm so glad that we have a bigger bathtub than our last house because you just get in it deeper and it's a little bit bigger and roomier because bathtubs aren't like the most comfortable for laboring, like not as much as like an actual birth tub. So I'm glad ours was like kind of on the bigger side in this new house. But the water felt heavenly, like so perfectly warm. It was a little on the hot side but I was like it just felt so good, that heat. So I was kind of sitting on my knees in the bathtub and then I kind of had my chest rested on Luke's knee again because he was sitting on the edge of the tub with me and then he was he had a cup and he was pouring warm water over my back and at one point he stopped just for a second and I was like no keep going I need you to keep doing that because it just was like helping a lot with distracting me from the pain. My contractions actually slowed down a little bit when I got in the bath. They were about 60 seconds long and 60 seconds apart but then when I got in the warm water there was like a five minute gap in between my contractions. Maybe that was what baby needed, like just have a little bit of a break enough for me to like fully relax so that they could move or something like that. Who knows what even happened but it was really nice and I was like almost falling asleep during that big break. And then they started coming again so the water didn't like fully like stop my labor it just gave me like that one break and then it started up again and I was just really focusing hard on relaxing my stomach, relaxing my face. I took one contraction where I didn't even try to push I was just focusing so hard on relaxing everything which was really hard to do because pushing does like help in a way with the pain. Suddenly the the mantra this won't kill me started coming to my mind because I was like at the peak of a contraction the most painful it gets and I was like this isn't killing me even though it feels like it is. It's not killing me so like this is the worst it's gonna get. I'm not dying so I can do this. It was like this kind of like weird realization that this wasn't gonna kill me and for some reason it's interesting the things you think about in labor and for some reason it just helped so much to like think that during the hardest parts of the contractions and baby was still in the same place at this point still about two inches in still not moving down like I was expecting and every time I was getting to the point where every time I'd have a contraction I would be feeling her head like feeling if it was moving down it would move down during the contraction and then would suck back up. It was so frustrating and I was like just getting more and more like why is she just not coming out so my midwife suggested laying back in the bathtub like on my back and having some contractions like that I was like sure I'll try anything at this point so I laid back in the tub and the contraction started and I shot up. I was like no way am I going to lay down during a contraction ever again. It is like the most painful thing ever. I don't understand why hospitals make women lay down in the beds to give birth because it hurts so much worse. I could never have a hospital birth but nurses would all hate me so much because I would not do that like no way. So I stayed in my kneeling kind of like bent over position because it was working just fine. I started having this urge to like kind of spread my knees out though so I was like still like kneeling but my knees were just really far apart like as far as I could get them and then my heels I was kind of sitting on my heels and then like leaned over forward. It was kind of this weird weird position. So Nana could probably tell that I was getting really close because she started to tell me that if I wanted to have the baby in the tub I needed to be really careful to not lift up out of the water when baby was coming out because you don't want them to come out in the air and then like fall in the water. You want them to either come out in the air and stay in the air or come out in the water and then you can bring them up into the air because they'll suck in as soon as they breathe in air and then they'll fall in the water and then they'll try to breathe in again and they'll get their lungs full of water. So you really want to be careful to not lift yourself up out of the water when they're coming out. So now it's about 5 20 in the morning. With the next contraction I felt the ring of fire and it was like so exciting like I'm getting closer. Something's changed finally. I can feel the ring of fire. It was both terrifying and relieving at the same time because obviously it's like really painful but I'm like something's happening. It was just the very beginning of it just not the full burning just like the very just a little hint of it and the next contraction comes and I give it all I've got. I'm like if I've already felt the ring of fire this is probably the contractions she's gonna come out with and nothing happened. I didn't feel any burning any ring of fire. I was like what why why would I feel the ring of fire and then it wouldn't happen with the next one it was it was kind of confusing but then with the next contraction I felt it really strong and it was like an extra long contraction and I start feeling her head come out and again with this whole labor I had been so quiet with like occasional grunting or growling I tend to like make these low growling noises when I'm having like really strong pushing contractions but with this contraction I let out a yell so I kind of yelled and growled this baby out. It's you just gotta let yourself go with the noises that feel instinctual to me because that's what that baby needs. So 524 is when she's actually born so with that contraction I feel her head come out and then the contraction starts to slow down and I keep pushing I feel her shoulders come out and then I the contraction is like all the way over by this point and I'm just like no I just need this to be over with so I just like keep pushing and her whole body comes out and I was trying to focus really hard on keeping my bottom under the water. It was really hard actually because when you're when the baby's coming out it hurts really bad so you want to like run away from the pain or at least like lift up is like my instinct but I'm like trying to focus really hard like keeping myself lower down in the water. I did accomplish that so I stayed in the water she was born in the water so this was my first water birth which was really fun. She came out in the water and I scooped her up into my arms and Sandana was right there to make sure that I had her tipped up the right way so that she didn't get that water in her nose and I was just so amazingly relieved that she was out and I was done and I started crying and Lou started crying and then I suddenly remembered that we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl yet. This had been our first surprise gender pregnancy so I pulled her leg over and it was a girl and I was so excited because this whole pregnancy I had a feeling it was a girl but it just felt like nice to be kind of like validated and that like my instincts were correct. I've been right about all three of the kids so apparently I just somehow know what the gender is before we find out. Everyone else thought it was a boy and I was like the only one who thought it was a girl which was kind of crazy. We had already picked out names for if it was a boy or a girl so we picked Vivian Louise for a girl so my Vivian Louise had finally gotten here and it's like the most amazing feeling when you're finally through labor the baby's here you can just enjoy them and you don't have to go through labor anymore. So I decided to get out of the tub and move over to the bed where it was more comfortable so Sandana and Lou helped me up and I was kind of feeling like kind of I was kind of feeling weak and so I had Lou carry Vivian she was still attached to the cord and the placenta was still inside me so he had to like carry her kind of close to me but I didn't want to drop her or anything obviously. So we made it over to the bed and Sandana laid out some chucks pads and blankets and stuff so I could lay down. I was starting to feel some really big cramping feelings. I felt like the placenta was like ready to come out. I actually had Sandana traction the placenta a little bit. I tried pushing a couple times on my own and it wasn't coming out and I was starting to feel like really bad cramps and so I just wanted it out so I could just focus on dealing with the after pains. So I had her traction it while I pushed and it came out. I always enjoy when the midwife examines the placenta afterwards and talks about different things she sees. All my placentas have been pretty much perfect. The first two were totally perfect and this one had one kind of interesting thing. I forget the name for it but it's basically when where the cord comes and connects to the placenta there's three veins that are inside the cord but on hers one of the veins almost came out and like attached the placenta in a little bit different of a spot. So it was like the two that were in the cord and then one was like a little out like exposed. So she said that could be one reason why she is a little smaller than my other ones because she could like push against that one blood vessel and kind of constricts like the nutrients getting to her. So I thought that was interesting and just I'm glad that that didn't turn into anything serious. Lou Quentin got my after easting shirt because that really helps with after pains. I will link that down below. I swear by that stuff. You have got to have like at least four bottles on hand. We left Vivian attached to the placenta for like 45 minutes and I laid there and she nursed. She lashed on perfectly the first time and the placenta checked me for any tears. This was the first birth I didn't tear with. I don't know if it was because I was in the water or if it was because Vivian took so long to come down that it just had more time to stretch. But I was so relieved that I didn't tear and it's made healing so much better. So Vivian was 5 pounds 10 ounces. She was just the tiniest little thing and she was 18 and a half inches long. She had a 10 out of 10 Apgar score. The only thing was that one of her hips had a little bit of a click but when Sedona came back the next day the click was gone so it was just really minor. So in total my labor was five hours long and two and a half of that was pushing. So about half my labor was pushing which is just crazy. So that is my little Vivian Louise's birth story. I hope you guys enjoyed. I've been excited to tell it and there isn't going to be a separate birth vlog video this time because we did film a lot of the labor but then when I moved into the bathroom at the end we forgot to move the camera so we didn't actually get the birth on film which is is okay. It's kind of nice to have that just be like a private thing that just me and Luke and Sedona experienced. But I hope you guys enjoyed hearing her birth story and I will see you in my next video. Bye!