00:08hi friends jade from sweet softies here i'm excited to share with you my birth story today
00:15um i finally got a chance to um basically get all these chores cranked out and my little one
00:22is now sleeping she has gone down for a nap so now is my golden opportunity to share my story
00:29with
00:29you um i had my baby two weeks ago and um a little before that i shared a video on
00:35reasons why we are
00:37choosing a home birth spoiler alert here we did go through with a home birth but i will have to
00:44say
00:44the whole experience was very crazy and dramatic and unplanned so um the good news is that the baby
00:54and myself are healthy and happy and everything turned out great but let me go ahead and share
01:01my story with you i'm gonna start off with the morning of my baby's birth um at 10 a.m
01:07i had my
01:0739 week prenatal appointment at the birthing center i go to and my midwife was doing my cervical check
01:14and um she noted that i was three centimeters dilated and that i've already lost my mucus plug
01:21and there wasn't a membrane anymore so in other words baby was very ready to come and she wouldn't
01:28be surprised if baby were to come in the next several days so she did say that if um i
01:33wanted
01:33to encourage labor um she had something called the midwife sprue that she could let me try out
01:39and um it contained it's a concoction of castor oil um which i'll have to say i've heard some terrible
01:47things about castor oil and i asked my midwife about the safety and efficacy of it and she reassured
01:53me that it was fine um but i will say that if i were to go back in time i
01:59would not take it again
02:00anyways um it was a blend of castor oil and lemon verbuena and verbena excuse me and um what else
02:10there
02:10was peanut butter for protein and some juice in there as well um basically we would mix all these things
02:16together into a smoothie and drink that we would take all of that as um one dose and then a
02:23couple
02:23hours later take a second dose of the same thing now um pumped up to get labor started i went
02:32home
02:32with that concoction and i ended up delaying it for um several hours i went back home and thought i
02:41would
02:41use the time to tidy up the house get ready for the home birth um there were there was a
02:49lot of
02:49organizing and last minute things to take care of so um by the time i was ready to take the
02:55midwife's
02:56brew it was around one o'clock in the afternoon and i'm it took the first dose my midwife did
03:03warn me
03:03that it would not be a pleasant drink at all and um i think that was an understatement it was
03:09the
03:09grossest thing i've ever tasted and i had a hard time swallowing it um i took the first dose like
03:18a champ though and um didn't really feel much going on in the hours after just a bit of mild
03:25cramping
03:26but taking that amount of oil into a i mean even though it's blended into a smoothie was uh
03:32pretty horrific anyhow um after the first dose i proceeded to continue tidying around the house
03:43and get things ready at around 4 15 um i finally started to drink my second dose um i really
03:51tried
03:51to check it down without throwing up because i already knew what it tasted like and it was really
03:57hard to keep it down um but something about the second dose um really kick-started labor so
04:05after taking it um and letting my stomach settle for a bit i started feeling some pretty intense cramping
04:12and um my husband went to pick up my daughter um from preschool as normal um around 4 50
04:24and around 4 58 um was when i felt my first contraction and it kind of went from just feeling
04:31some mild um some cramping getting progressively more intense to suddenly getting that labor contraction
04:39it was still tolerable i used breathing techniques and um it really helped me to count my breaths
04:46the first few contractions were fine um when things started to pick up a bit more and get closer
04:52together i texted my midwife to let her know and she recommended that i download a contractions
04:59uh counter app which i did and i started tracking it and it was funny because after like three
05:06contractions i got the message saying you need to head to a hospital right now and so it was about
05:14um 5 15 when i felt like the um cramping was pretty sorry the um contractions were pretty intense
05:23so i filled up the tub um partway with some warm water and um that really helped me a lot
05:31with um
05:32managing those contractions i found that changes in temperature really helped so i ended up pressing
05:39my cheek against like the cold um you know countertop of my bathroom and that really helped me and then
05:47i would shift between that and then going into the warm water in the tub which really helped as well
05:52my husband jen got home at around 5 35 and um when he came um to where i was upstairs
06:01in the master's
06:02bathroom i was like in the tub and i was like oh my gosh my contractions are getting really intense
06:09and he commented saying wow that's this happening way faster than the first time around so he helped
06:17me by um squeezing my hands and we tried that counter pressure in the back didn't really go well
06:24so we just alternated between squeezing hands and using the hot tub
06:44while i was laboring away um and my midwife was already in her car trying to get to our house
06:50unfortunately it was that late afternoon time um when everyone is going home from work so she hit a
06:58bunch of traffic and um she called um my phone and um my husband jen put her on the line
07:06and she
07:07basically was like okay jen you need to call 911 on your phone uh get the medics here because
07:15we were looking at an unassisted birth at that point good thing she gave us that advice because we um
07:22jen
07:22immediately put the medics on the phone and at this point it was about 5 40 5 45 and um
07:30my contractions
07:31were getting so intense and i could actually at around 5 45 i could feel the baby crowning and um
07:39i had
07:40gone into the pushing phase already it was insane because i really didn't imagine labor to progress
07:48so fast i felt like that immense pressure in my pelvic area um i knew she was going to be
07:55here
07:57very soon and we had no professionals around us at all except on the line so my husband um
08:07so jen was like okay um i need instructions on how to deliver the baby and thank goodness we had
08:14my midwife jody lynn and the medics on the line they basically um coached him through catching the baby
08:22my mind was so um distracted with what was going on with my body that i wasn't tuning into the
08:30conversation on the phone at all i was not um i was probably hearing things but i was not listening
08:38and following along wasn't processing and um just so focused on the sensations um that i was going
08:45through the physical sensations so it was a blur for me that what happened was jen basically caught the
08:52baby as i pushed her out in two pushes it was head and then her shoulders came out and he
09:01said that
09:02um she was incredibly slippery and there was just a lot of fluid everywhere uh thank goodness we were
09:09in the tub because that was uh that minimized the mess but um jen caught her saved her from crashing
09:18down into the tub and quickly um brought her up he her umbilical cord was actually around her neck
09:27so he was very quick in untangling that and um i heard the cry almost right away and we were
09:34both so
09:35relieved at that point um of course there she was completely covered in fluid and blood and i just um
09:44once she was out um i just kind of my knees got really weak and i just had to sit
09:51down i was um feeling
09:54incredibly um out of it at that point i wouldn't say dizzy really but um i just mentally was very
10:03zoned
10:03out very tuned out from everything going on um so it was 5 49 when baby was born and uh
10:14jen had her
10:15in his arms he was holding her um and um jody lynn my midwife said to put the baby on
10:23my chest
10:24um which he did right away and i was i remember just holding the baby like thinking what had just
10:30happened and the medics um at that point got to our house immediately came to attend to the baby
10:39and someone was there to check my blood pressure and check my vitals we were so grateful and so
10:45thankful that baby was okay um she actually had apgar scores of nine nine so we were oh just really
10:54relieved that everything turned out fine for her i was cleared by the medics and my midwife um came
11:00pretty soon after um when she had arrived she um helped me kind of um get up from where i
11:08was sitting
11:08in the tub um clean myself off kind of helped me transfer to the bed from there um just was
11:16able to
11:17lay down and just hold baby for a little bit um got checked over so many times i did get
11:25a shot of
11:26pitocin to kind of slow down my bleeding and um that helped a lot i was very i was actually
11:32in stable
11:33condition um but i think they wanted to give me a shot of pitocin just in case and um i
11:40was feeling
11:40pretty good at that point um my midwife helped me um take the baby and she and jen both washed
11:48the baby
11:49together um so that we could clear her of all that um gunk and uh blood from her body she
11:58came out to be
11:59a pound heavier than my firstborn um she was seven pounds and uh 20 inches actually the same exact length
12:07as my firstborn so that was pretty cool to see um but oh my goodness like again that was such
12:15a crazy
12:15experience for both my husband and myself because we were um not planning for an unassisted birth at all
12:25um and we had no idea labor would just go that quickly it all happened in about 50 minutes
12:32um from my first contraction to to the baby's birth and um it still blows my mind just thinking about
12:42it
12:42so with that we welcomed our baby girl yumi bell into the world and jen and i are so excited
12:50um big sister lena
12:52rose just loves her so much too it's been great seeing lena rose become an older sibling she is so
12:59much more
13:00independent now than at almost four years old than she was um you know just a year or even two
13:06years ago
13:07and she's been just loving and helpful and it's so great to finally complete our family thank you so
13:16much for listening to my birth story um as crazy as it was i hope that you enjoyed um getting
13:23to know what
13:23what happened after i had posted about my uh plan to do a home birth and um even though it
13:30was um
13:32totally unplanned the way it happened and we didn't get to take any photos we didn't get to
13:38um really document any of it at all which was um honestly quite a bummer for me because as my
13:45last birth
13:46i really wanted to um have some photos but we were just honestly so grateful that everything
13:52turned out wonderfully and um baby's healthy that's the most important piece so um definitely grateful
14:00for that so until next time bye
