Birth story - Codi and baby Harbor

*Trigger warning* - Use of the term contraction as not negative for me.

It was 2:30 am on Saturday morning and I woke up with contractions, very mild contractions I was 40+2 and it has felt like a little Braxton hicks again for the millionth time. I tried to sleep but it wasn’t happening because they kept coming and I knew we had a game to coach/play so I was starting to worry. I started timing them and around about 5:30 am I took a little nap but at 7am they were still happening so I started timing them and woke Becky up.

I text the midwife and asked her if I could go coach my softball game because I thought today might be the day, she said certainly that it would keep my mind off the contractions. I stopped timing them and went to my softball game, the contractions tapered off while I was coaching and I only had a few that made me bend over in pain.

We had everything planned there were going to be Alicia (My pretty much sister), Phoenix, Stella, Becky and the two midwife’s, Cheryl and Asia at the birth. We were so afraid of how Stella was going to handle this all and knew for sure we’d need an extra hand with her in plus I wanted Alicia to be there in that moment. However, we all know life never works out that way. It ended up being that Alicia was unable to make it, due to an emergency with her daughter (my niece). We started freaking out because we were unsure how we would do this alone but we can do hard things and I knew we could do this (I mean we had to.) So now we had to shift focus and let whatever happened happen.

We got home and walked and walked a lot, I was nervous that it was just Braxton hicks I was having so we went and walked as much as we could around our neighborhood and did curb walking. I spent time with my kids and let them play in the backyard. 8:30pm came rolling around and the contractions came back intensely so I got into the shower and then took a warm bath. The bath slowed my contractions down a little bit so I was able to nurse my toddler so she could go down to sleep. We put both of the kids to sleep and it was about 10:30pm and the contractions were so intense I could hardly move, I tried everything to do the miles circuit but absolutely could not. Honestly the only position I could possibly do was backwards on the couch with my face on the top of it pressing in, that’s pretty much where I stayed for the next hour and a half. Becky finally told me we needed to call the midwife as by this point the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. The midwife and her assistant and photographer arrived at 11:30 by that point the pain was so intense I was digging my chin into the couch, closing my eyes and making whale noises to ease my pain it’s what my body just did naturally.

Everyone was setting everything up and I remember thinking I probably was nowhere near close to having a baby I didn’t know that I could do this anymore. I was convincing myself I was probably at a 3 maybe 4 at this point. My midwife had me go sit on the toilet and boom I felt everything move down and I had “the bloody show.” Sitting on the toilet, while in labor, is no joke I remember telling them I wanted the hell off that toilet now and I didn’t want to sit down.

I felt fluid coming out, we got back on the couch and through me sitting up and contracting more fluid was coming out. I also so felt so nauseous and threw up in the sink. I told everyone I couldn’t do this anymore and I wanted to go to the hospital and they said, ‘uh your going to have a baby in the car if you leave now.’ However, I didn’t believe that because they hadn’t checked me and I was still convinced I was nowhere near that point maybe still at a 3.

Everyone rushed around trying to get the water in the birth pool whilst the midwife asked if I wanted her to check me. I prepared myself to be very upset by what she was going to tell me but she told me I was a 9 and that it was time to get into the tub. I got into the tub and it felt so much better I got in there at 12oclock, I had about two contractions and then my body started pushing on it’s own. I’ve never felt something like that it felt so much better after every push, that was until I felt the head coming through. It burned so much but he started to come out very fast and once I got the head out a little it was relieving however, he was stuck on his nose and his shoulders weren’t coming out and I could tell everyone was starting to worry. I had to flip over quickly so the midwife could flip him and pull him out faster.

Finally all the pain was gone and he was on my chest although I didn’t know baby was a he yet .. I thought by the feeling of his butt it was for sure a girl. We waited a while to hear and the midwife turned him over and said, ‘y’all look,’ and I saw he definitely was a boy! Becky said nooooo it’s a boy .. and the rest was history. Well except the fact he pooped all over us, all over everything, it’s even on Becky’s hand in the video. I got into the bathtub with him for our herb bath and we enjoyed him the rest of the night. It was so beautiful so amazing and definitely makes me want another baby.

Home birth was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life and I would do it over and over. Thank you so much Cheryl and Asia for being amazing the entire pregnancy and listening to my stubbornness about coaching and Phoenixs tournaments, thank you also for telling me I could do it and being so great during labor!