Breck's Birth Story
Since the beginning, I was sure this little guy would make an early appearance. But, I didn’t want to set an expectation because everyone says you usually go full-term with your first. But, something in me would not let me sit the heck down since 33 weeks😂. We got everything ready pretty early and I’m so thankful.
Anyway, my body has known since 35 weeks it didn’t have much longer! The night before I went into labor I couldn’t sleep because I remembered we needed diaper trash bags for our diaper pale 😂. Nesting was at an all time high.
At 4 a.m. on March 31 (he didn’t even want to wait until his birth month lol) I woke up with period-like cramps that were pretty uncomfortable. The first one woke me up, went away, and then came back so I knew it was happening. I had intense Braxton Hicks with any kind of exercise/walking since 28 weeks. These were NOT those. I’ve also had severe pelvic girdle pain since 28 weeks as well, which is everything shifting as his head made its way down. So, I knew my body was prepared. About 4 days before he was born the pelvic pain subsided so I knew that meant everything was the right size and ready!
After the 4 am contractions began proving they were consistent, I called my mom and her husband who delivered babies for years and they told me to just keep monitoring it, but I told my mom she should probably book a flight!
I laid down
and tried to rest but had to get up and go to the bathroom 3 times so I just stayed up. Then, 5:30 am rolled around and I had been texting my doula who updated my midwife that they were consistently 6-7 min apart lasting a minute. She told us to call for our birth pool!
Brody and I hadn’t set up our lights for the birth area yet, so he did that and then we folded 4 baskets of laundry we had been avoiding lol, and I just keep walking around organizing and keeping myself busy.
I took a bath at 6:30 am and continued early labor there and asked my doula to come over at 7:30/8. At this time, they were 4-5 min apart lasting 40 ish seconds. My midwife was on her way, the birth pool was being set up, and the I had to really focus and breathe through surges. Leaning over and swaying my hips and deep breathing was how I got through it. I was in early labor for 4 hours and active labor for 3.
I got in the pool at 10 something and labored there where the surges were basically on top of one another. I only got through them by deep breathing I learned in my Hypnobirthing classes, and by holding onto Brody. His sweet calming and motivating voice and strong arms holding onto me gave me confidence and helped me know I could do it even moments came where I was unsure.
I didn’t know when to push because I wasn’t checked during this process or at all before. My midwife told me to trust my body and when I had the urge to push when there was a contraction, to trust my body and push. At around 11:20 , I knew what she meant. Man is FER (fetal ejection reflux) is a REAL thing. It’s like when you have to throw up, how you can’t control the involuntary response, that’s what I experienced.
I pushed for 25 min, and we felt his head and I was motivated to keep that part short so I went for it after my midwife said, “you know when you’re working out and you have one more rep? That’s where you’re at.” The athlete in me was like LET’S FREAKING GO.
Then, his whole body came out along with his head at 11:45👶🏼. My birth photographer, midwife, doula, and husband whispered the whole time, trusted me and encouraged me, motivated me, and never once made me feel unsafe. It was exactly what I asked for. The lights were dim, everything was quiet and my worship labor playlist was playing in the background the whole time and gave me all of the peace I needed.
I cannot express how important visualization is to manifest what experience you want. If you’re giving birth anytime soon, protect your mind. I listened to The Birth Hour podcast from week 28 onward, and only listened to the positive home birth stories. I didn’t let anyone have any say in the experience I wanted that didn’t align with what I wanted. I knew I had to have control over that, or the experience and others would have control over me.
The craziest thing was, I declared The Hand of God by Ernstly Etienne my birth song very early on when I decided to do a home birth, and guess what song Breck was born too? No joke. He came out while that song was on, and the playlist was on shuffle.
This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It wasn’t easy for me, but the whole time my brain knew I could do it and those who I chose to surround me knew it too.
