Penelope's Birth Story
The funniest part of birth is trying to plan all of your family to be there for the main event. I learned quickly that is a hard task! We had several family members fly into town to help support us for our birth. Miss P was due on June 3rd, and after watching all our family members come and go, I didn’t go into labor until June 17th, 2 weeks past her date. All but one family member was gone.
Our sweet sister Lauryn was scheduled to fly out the day she was born and when I finally had signs of labor, she thankfully stayed longer to help. She had her own home birth a year before and was an amazing addition to our midwives Tiffany and Amy. I was very easy going throughout the pregnancy, but when the 2 weeks past my date came around, I started to get very nervous. I really didn’t want to have my baby in a hospital. I decided to get acupuncture to help things along. And boy did it work! In the middle of the night my mucous plug dropped.
I felt so happy something was happening! I didn’t want to wake my sister and my husband. I figured they should get their rest to help later when it counted. A few hours go by of mild contractions 4-10 minutes apart. So my sister woke up around 4am and when I told her what was happening, she hilariously got me up and outside and we did exercises all around the neighborhood. Lunges, squats, galloping, sidewalk-walking, you name it! She bossed me around and was determined for me to have this baby, TODAY! We were all eager and it was so great to have a cheerleader. I’m telling you I don’t know if this baby would have come so fast without us galloping around the neighborhood!
As soon as we got back to the house my hubby was still asleep and I had a quick snack and thought I might try and nap before things got real intense. As soon as a laid down the contractions got more serious and my hubby woke up to my lady labor noises. From here on out I really didn’t have much concept of time. I quietly labored through each contraction as they became closer together and harder and harder. I remembered what they taught me in class and just tried to stay focused. In this time my family called my midwives and got the birthing tub all setup. I can remember feeling my body changing and opening up for that baby. This is when my mind woke up from the trance to say HEY a baby is about to come out! I decided to get out of the tub for a break and that’s when it was noticeably time to push.
Tiffanie checked my dilation and I was ready to go. At this point it was inconvenient to get back into the tub, so I stayed on the bed instead. Even though I was quiet up until this point, for some reason I decided to scream the baby out of me on every push. Despite being in pain, it was absolutely incredible. My water broke on the second or third push. My baby came out in 5 pushes and about 15 minutes. She was a tiny purple slimy ball of love. So cute and perfect with big feet and the cutest face. PURE BLISS holding that baby. It couldn’t have gone better. What a team of amazing people helping me and my family do this.
Throughout the entire process my sister Lauryn was updating the family live time through Facebook messenger with pictures and all the info. Reading the message later was so wonderful. I got to see the process through everyone else’s perspective and it really made the family happy who had already come and gone and missed the baby’s birth. We still use the same message feed to update the family on Penelope and life in general. It has become SO special to us since we cannot be together every day.
They told me later how they were glued to the computer while Lauryn updated them step-by-step. What magic. Meanwhile I had no idea any of that was going on for obvious reasons! Our home birth was amazing and we are looking forward to round 2 with Tiffanie.