SOFIA'S HOME BIRTH STORY | The Natural Unmedicated Vaginal Home Birth Of A First Time Mom

Hi, my name is Megan. Welcome to my channel. Today, I want to tell you guys about my daughter's home birth story. Now, just a warning, this is going to be a very TMI video, but birth stories are very TMI. So, just a warning, if that's not your thing, just go ahead and click off this video. I hope you have a great day, but if you're interested in hearing, just keep watching. So, Sophia is my first daughter. She was born about six months ago, and I'm just now finally getting around to filming this video for you guys. And I really wanted to film it before I totally forget everything that happened. And I'm going to be looking at my notes on my phone a lot, because it's been six months since that happened. So, if you see me looking at my phone, that's what I'm doing. So, her due date was December 3rd, 2018, and she wasn't born until two days after her due date. And it was December 5th, at about 8 a.m., and I was still asleep, and I started getting contractions, and they weren't too bad. And I didn't really think much of it, because I had had three pretty intense practice labors prior to this. So, I was like, oh, whatever. I won't get my hopes up, because I've had a lot of practice labors, and they're very annoying. If you've had them, you know you get your hopes up, and it's quite painful, and then you feel like you went through it for nothing, because then they just stop. So, I was trying not to get excited, and they really weren't too bad. I could still, like, talk and walk around for the most part. I would just kind of have to stop walking or stop whatever I was doing when I had one, but they really weren't too bad. So, yeah, 8 a.m. was when I woke up that morning, and I think they had been going on for a while before that, because I had been having dreams that I was having contractions, and then I woke up, and it was, like, real. It had probably been going on for an hour or two before that. So, they just kept going all day, and after a while, I started getting suspicious, but still trying not to get my hopes up, and Luke was scurrying around, trying to finish remodeling our bathroom, because that was my one thing. We were in the middle of remodeling our 100-plus-year-old farmhouse, and our bathroom was completely torn apart while I was pregnant, and I was like, I really want to have our bathroom done, because I'm having a home birth. I need our washer and dryer in the bathroom. I need to be able to wash the towels and everything that you use during labor. It's our only bathroom. I really want to be able to go on the toilet afterwards, and I didn't know if I wanted to labor in the bathtub, so I really wanted the bathroom done. So, he's such a good husband. He was running around, finishing the bathroom while I was in labor, but because I'd had practice contractions, I didn't even tell anyone, not even my midwife, that I was having contractions until later that afternoon. I texted my midwife in the afternoon sometimes, and I told her kind of what was happening, and she was like, yeah, that does sound like early labor, but she said, once they get a little bit more painful, start timing them, and then she would come down once she knew I was in actual labor, because she lives an hour away from our house. So, during all this time, I was just kind of practicing, breathing through the contractions, and visualizing a wave surging, and just comparing that to my contractions. Even though they weren't painful yet, I just wanted to practice before the real contractions came. So, I was just kind of taking it easy. I did some dishes. I watched some of my show. I think I was watching Cartland while I was in labor, and they just continued to get more and more painful over the whole day. And then it was about 9 p.m., and I texted the midwife, and I was like, okay, they're pretty painful, and they last pretty long, and they're close together, so you can start heading down. So, she got here about 10.30. She had to finish what she was doing at home and get her car packed up and stuff, so she got here at about 10.30 p.m. So, I've been, at that point, laboring for like 14 hours, I think. So, already a pretty long time. Even though they weren't super intense at the beginning, they still count because they were exhausting. When she got here, she got all of her stuff unpacked. I was going to labor in the birth pool, so she got it all unfolded and put in front of our fireplace because it was really cold out, and if we had filled up the birth pool right away with warm water, it would have cracked and been not good. So, she had to warm it up by our fireplace for a while, which I was very disappointed about because it seemed like it took forever. But anyway, after she got all that stuff ready, she decided to check me and see how far along I was, and at that point, I was 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced, and the baby was at zero station. So, me and the midwife settled in on the couch and watched more of my show, and Luke went to bed to try to get some rest before the really intense labor started. And I tried to sleep on the couch a little bit, and I really, really wish that earlier on in my labor, I had tried to sleep. Next time, I will know that since I probably will have long labors, I mean, I'm probably never going to be one of those women who has a 2 hour long labor, so I really wish that I had slept some before the contractions got this bad that I couldn't sleep. I was so exhausted by the end, and I really regretted not trying to sleep earlier. At about 1 am, I was finally in transition, and it was getting really hard to relax at all through the contractions, and I was tensing up so bad, I just couldn't even control it, and I was starting to make noises, and I told Sandano to go wake Luke up because I really needed some moral support. And after this point, I lost pretty much all sense of time. I'm just going based off of what Sandano and Luke told me after this, because I was so out of it. I was having a really hard time not panicking during contractions, and it was this weird feeling where I felt like I was stuck. It was this horrible, intense feeling that I just had to endure, and I was like, once the contractions started, I was already stuck in the contraction, if you know what I mean. I don't know if this makes sense, but I just had this horrible, panicky, trapped feeling, like I had to do this, and I couldn't decide not to at this point, obviously. Like, the baby's gotta get out. Yeah, but it was just really interesting. I didn't think I would have that, where I just felt trapped. So, Luke and Sandano started filling up the birth pool, because at this point, it was pretty much thawed out, and I was well into transition. The other reason that I didn't get into the birth pool earlier than this was that if you get into it too early, and you're not well into the transition, is that it can slow down your contractions and actually stop your labor, and that is not something that we wanted to have happen. So, it seemed like it took them forever to fill it up, because it was a really big pool. It took up almost our entire living room. So, they finally got it filled up, and it felt so good. I got in it, and it was really helping. I loved the birth pool. It was so nice, and it was just so soothing, and I could get into whatever position I wanted to, and it didn't feel as heavy, because I was suspended in the water. But I was in it for about 15 minutes, and then I feel the sides start to sag, and I was just so out of it that I didn't even realize what was happening at first, and then Sandano and Luke start freaking out, and we realize that our stupid cat had been playing underneath the tarp that was underneath the birth pool, but she was playing underneath the edges, and she snagged the edge of the birth pool and popped it. Oh, I was so mad. I was mad, but then I was also in so much pain that I just didn't care. It was really weird, but I was just really bummed out to not get to have a water birth, but that's okay. I suppose there's always next time, but that cat's lucky. She's cute. Sandano and Luke had to quickly bail all the water out of the pool before it spilled over our entire living room, so they were using 5-gallon buckets and bailing it out into the bathtub, and it was chaos, and I moved over a couple feet onto the couch, and I was just sitting there trying to ignore everything going on around me. So now it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and I moved to our bed, and Sandano checked me, and I had only progressed to a 9. So even though I had been in transition for 2 hours, I was still not fully dilated. I was still in transition. And so Sandano asked if I wanted her to break my waters. To just speed things up, since I was getting so exhausted, I was just barely coherent. It was ridiculous. So I said yes, so she broke my water, and it was a really strange feeling. Having my water to break, it felt like I peed my pants really bad. But because I wasn't fully dilated, with every push, she had to reach in and pull my cervix out of the way, which was quite uncomfortable, and I did not enjoy that. And TMI, I know, but it's a birth story. What can you do? So one thing I didn't realize about labor was, I just didn't realize where you had to push to push the baby out. Surprisingly, it took me a long time to figure out where to push. You need to push as if you're trying to take a big dump. It's not the kind of feeling that I expected, if you know what I mean. So that took me a little while to figure out. And then the contractions were so painful, that I felt like I was going to die every time I was having one. And I am not a loud person. I am a very quiet person. I never yell. I've never been a yeller or a screamer. And I scream when I'm in labor. I'm not one of those quiet, dignified birthers, which I really thought I would be, but no. I'm pretty sure the neighbors thought I was being murdered or something. After each contraction, I was positive that I couldn't do it again. And I was just so tired. In between contractions, I would fall asleep. Literally, I was so tired. And then another one would come, and I would feel like I couldn't do it. And then I would, because you have to. And then it would end, and I would think, I cannot do that again. That's so hard. And then I would. And you just do it. And you just can't. One thing that helped was to know that with every contraction, you think, okay, this is one less contraction that I have to do later. I'm one contraction closer to the baby getting here. And that really does help. So all this time, since she had broken my waters, I had been laboring on my side on our bed. And I decided that I wanted to change positions to see if anything else helped, even though I was scared to death to move, because the next contraction after I moved was extra painful. So I came out to the living room again, and she set up the birthstool right in front of our couch, and I labored on the birthstool, which was so much more comfortable than the bed after that first contraction, after I moved, obviously. But it was so much better of a position. While I was laboring on the bed, every time a contraction would start, I would yell, like, help! I need help! And then Luke would help me lift my leg up to open up my pelvis, and then he would be there as counter support so I could push against him. And I was like... I feel bad for Luke and Sonoda, because every time a contraction would start, I would freak out so bad, and I would yell for help. And then I kept asking Sonoda, like, how much longer is this going to take? And obviously, she couldn't tell me, because, you know, it varies. Like, she can't really know, because dilation has nothing to do with how soon the baby will get there. But I still kept asking her, and she would say, every time, not too much longer, and I would be like, you said that last time. That's not true. You said that already. And I was getting really mad. But, surprisingly, I kept feeling really bad for Luke and Sonoda, because they would ask me something not knowing I was in the middle of a contraction, and then I wouldn't answer them, and then I would apologize after I was through the contraction that, like, I'm sorry I didn't answer you. Like, I was apologizing for everything during my labor, which was really entertaining. I didn't know that would happen. So anyway, I was laboring in front of the couch on the birthstool, and if I reached down, I could feel the top of her head, which felt really weird and squishy and, like, all wrinkled up. And so I would, like, be having a contraction, and I would reach down and feel it, and I was like, I could feel it coming out. And then my contraction would end, it would, like, suck back up inside, and I was like, no! All my progress has been ruined, and it was, like, so discouraging. I had almost wished that I wasn't feeling it, but now I'm really glad I did, because it was a really cool experience. But at the time, it was a little discouraging. So now it is 6.15am. I have been in the pushing stage of labor for three hours. Ugh. That is a really long pushing stage. I think most of the time, it doesn't take that long. So all of a sudden, with a really extra painful contraction, I could feel her, like, coming out, and I could, like, feel things tearing, and it hurt really bad. And I felt her head be born. And afterwards, Luke told me he was watching her be born, and he saw her head come out, and all he could think was, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that fit through there. Like, he was in such shock. Then, my next contraction came, and nothing happened. Like, she was just there, with her head out, and it was like the rest of her body was stuck. And so I guess what happened was her shoulder got stuck on my tailbone, because years ago, I had a horse training accident, and I fell on my bottom, and my tailbone got bent, so it was, like, bent in the wrong direction, and so she was stuck on it. So Sandana had to, like, reach around and, like, kind of snap it back into place, which did not feel very good. So then she just came sliding right out. It's the most interesting, like, feeling when they come out. It's, like, slithery, and it's a little strange, but it's so cool. And then there she was, like, all bloody and gooey and perfect, and Sandana handed her to me, and I just, like, scooped her up, and I sat back on the couch on some pads that Sandana laid there, and I just started crying. Like, it just was such a relief. It was just done. I had done it. I had died like I thought I was going to. And my baby was there, and she was so beautiful, and ugh, I just sat there looking at her and crying, and Luke was staring at her and crying too, and it was just the most special moment. So at this point, Sandana told me what time it was, and I was shocked that I had been laboring for that long. Like, you kind of lose all sense of time while you're in labor. Like, it seemed like so long, but then when I heard that it was that time, I was like, man, that took a long time. Like, I was just really surprised. Then Luke cut the cord, and Sandana helped my placenta be born, and it was really cool to see the placenta, this organ that's been keeping Sophia alive for nine months. It's just a really fascinating organ. So Luke and Sandana at this point helped me stand up so that I could move to the bed and start resting and just get Sophia nursing, but when I stood up, blood started gushing out, and Sandana realized that I was hemorrhaging, and so she helped me sit back down, and she had to put a pill up there to, like, stop the bleeding, and she, like, stabbed my thigh with a needle with some sort of thing to stop the bleeding. I'm not sure what all that stuff was, but it was, like, kind of chaos for a minute, and she was, like, pushing really hard on my stomach, which really didn't feel good to make my uterus contract to stop the bleeding, and it was really scary. Like, afterwards, I was just thinking, man, I don't know what we would have done if she wasn't there. Like, I could have died. Like, it was really scary how much I was bleeding, and it was just, like, pouring out. So, while all this was happening, I offered Sophia my breast to see if she could start nursing, and she just latched right on right away. We had, like, no problems getting her started, and it was just so special and perfect, and she did so good, and she was just so content while all this chaos was going around trying to get me to stop hemorrhaging. So then she finally got the bleeding stopped, and I was able to move to the bed, and then Luke got to hold Sophia for a while. She was, like, all wrapped up in blankets and heating pads to keep her warm, because it was really cold outside. This was, like, one of the coldest nights this whole winter. So, Nano checked me, and she found three tears, so it took a long time to be stitched up, and at this point, now, I'm pretty sure the labor's worse, but the stitching up was horrible, because I hate needles. Like, I was really not sure which one I hated worse, the labor or being stitched up, and they're both horrible. But she finally got me all stitched up and all ready to go, and then because I'd lost so much blood, I felt really lightheaded, and she tried to get me to eat a banana and drink some water, and it was really hard to eat. I just really didn't feel like eating at that point. So, so Nano took her measurements. She was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 20 inches long, and so Nano got all of the birth mess cleaned up, she got all the bloody holes all put in her bathtub so that we could clean them later. She made sure we were all good and comfortable and had everything we needed, and then she left, and we were, we decided to try to take a nap, and I was just, like, so pumped up on adrenaline, and so excited that my baby was here that I, I think I maybe got an hour of sleep, and I've been awake for 24 hours, and then I got an hour of sleep, and then after that, I was awake for 12 more hours, because we had all the visitors, and I was awake that whole day, and, yeah, I was awake for a long time. And then, after we tried to take a nap, we came out to the living room, and just, ugh, we were just in such shock and disbelief that she was finally here, and she was just so perfect, and she was just a really chill baby. She slept for a long time that first day, which was quite a mistake on our part, because then she didn't sleep that night, because she had her day of the nights mixed up, but we got that figured out. So, overall, it was a very different experience than I had expected. I didn't know it would be quite that painful, but it was still such a special and empowering experience. I just can't believe how amazing women's bodies are that we can do that. Right after the labor, I was like, I am never doing that again. We were just having one kid, and then I think it was only a month or even a couple weeks after, I was like, okay, I really want to get pregnant again. I have the worst baby fever right now. So, you really do forget it. No matter how bad your labor is, you really do forget it, and it really helps to talk about it, talk to people about it, write it out, talk to people about it in a video. It really helps digest it if you talk about it. So, it was just such a special experience, and I can't wait to experience again with our next baby and see what's different about that one. So, I'm sorry it took me so long to get this video filmed and out to you guys. I know I've had so many requests. This is my most requested video ever. So, I hope you guys enjoyed this birth story, and I really enjoyed telling it to you guys, and home birth is just such a special experience. I mean, any birth is such a special experience, but it's just I'm really stressed out in hospitals, and I loved being at home and just being able to relax right away and having just everything we needed right on hand. Thank you guys for watching this video. It's probably a pretty long one. I post three new videos a week on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7 a.m. Mountain Time, and I will see you next time. Bye! you