Home Birth Story of Chloe

Just as my midwives predicted, the birth of Chloe would be much different than my first child - Coral.

Coral was a 12 hour labor, including over an hour of pushing, and "resting" due to a swollen cervix. That was two and a half years ago.

Chloe decided to come a week late, which I secretly knew.

The pregnancy was problem free - as was my first - and I would have been okay with being a permanently pregnant woman.

Thursday April 9th, I went into my art class room with a feeling of elation. I was excited to be at school, was ready to teach my students, and beaming with happiness.

I had a midwife appointment at 4:45, and was told I had no change to my cervix. Baby was still high, and cervix was quite closed.

That night Bryan and I did our normal routine, got Coral to bed, watched some TV, and fell asleep at 10pm.

10:30pm, I was awakened by pressure in my bottom, so I went to the bathroom, and then went back to sleep.

At 11:00pm, I had the same sensation.

It was so strong in my bottom, that I figured I had to use the bathroom again, although nothing came out.

From that point, I had contractions every 10 minutes for the next hour and I was finally able to empty bowels. I became excited about the thought of having baby Chloe soon.

Around 12:30am, the pressure in my bottom ceased, and the contractions stayed consistent to the front of my stomach.

Around 2am, I decided to time the contractions, since I was too excited to sleep. They were five minutes apart, and very manageable.

I jumped on Bryan and told him, "I'm going to have a baby this morning!!"

He assumed I had a dream, and kind of rolled over. He mumbled, "why do you say that?" I told him that I had contractions every 5 minutes, and that woke him up real fast.

He made sure I was not in serious pain, and then started to inflate our waterbirth tub.

At 2:30 I called my midwife, and told her I was probably in labor, and contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, being 30 seconds to 1 minute long. She told me to keep her updated. None of my contractions needed attention, so I cleaned up the house and joked around.

At 3:00, I squatted with a contraction, and my water popped out. There was not a lot to it, but it was clearly amniotic fluid... and this time it was clear!!

I called the midwife back, and she told me to keep her updated.

Contractions went to 2 minutes apart.

Bryan almost had the tub filled, and now I was officially in labor.

Everything else before was just being uncomfortable, and now it was show time. I squatted with as many contractions as I could, to encourage the baby to move down. I was rapidly losing my plug and had a bloody show.

At 3:30, I told Bryan to call the midwife and tell her to come.

By 4:30 I was in quite a bit of pain and occasionally felt the urge to push. I was trying to wait for our midwife before getting in the tub, but I couldn't take it anymore, and jumped in. The water spread my contractions out to about 5 minutes and our midwife - Liz - arrived.

I was between 5 and 6 cm... I was seriously discouraged.

During my labor with Coral, I had the urge to push, but pushed too early. My cervix swelled during that labor, and the labor was extended by five hours. I was determined not to let that happen again.

What felt like an hour was actually 15 minutes, and I asked to be checked again. No change.

I noticed I hadn't used the toilet in a while, and got out of the tub. The contractions out of the tub hit me hard, and came with only a minute break.

It was only 5 minutes later, and I asked to be checked again. Liz gave me a "look," but did anyways. I was between 7 and 8cm.

I suddenly realized the water in the tub was slowing my progress, and I labored for the next 30 minutes out of the tub.

Bryan was staying strong and silent - that's what I wanted - and left me to work my magic while he observed. He picked up on all my non verbal requests, bringing me bites to eat, or sips to drink. He made sure to kiss me and encourage me following my hard contractions, something I am a glad for.

By this point I was wondering how good an epidural would feel - although I can never see myself getting one - but quickly realized it would be so uncomfortable to be in an ambulance.

Bryan and Liz gave me encouragement to get through the last part, and distracted me from my bad thoughts. They reminded me that I was practically 8cm, almost there. I begged Liz, "so that means I can't push?", since I had the urge to push during every contraction.

I was currently in the tub, and decided to get myself out.

I looked at the clock and made a mental goal to be done with labor by 8am, it was only 6am.

I went into the bathroom and had a contraction on the toilet. I couldn't resist the pushing urge, and just pushed. I suddenly had pressure everywhere, and the one minute rest in between contractions went away completely.

A few minutes later, I waddled back to the tub and told Liz I couldn't fight the urge to push - only five minutes after I had asked her - and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "okay, try it."

Bryan looked at me and said, "Remember what happened last time" - in regards to my cervix being swollen - and I just gave him thumbs up.

Liz asked me if I was going to push with my next contraction, and I just said, "we'll see."

That next contraction, I didn't push. But the following one, I did. Liz quickly checked me, and said, "well, you're about 10cm, so just start pushing."

My previous labor had over an hour of pushing, and so I expected at least 30 minutes.

I asked Bryan to turn on our camera and waited for more contractions to come.

A few minutes later, I pushed through one contraction and Liz kept her hand close to me to check baby progress. I asked her once how long she thought it would take, and she said maybe three pushes. I didn't register the answer, and then said, "what?" and asked her again.

I told Bryan to wake up Coral, and he went to get her.

With my next contraction, I pushed very well and had a slight sensation of crowning.

Liz told me to lie back and said the head was out. I couldn't believe it and reached down to feel her soft hair in the water. It was magical.

Liz sternly told be to lie back the best I could, I needed to push her out quickly. I was confused on why I needed to lie back, but tried to recline. Realizing I could not lie back, Liz told me to get out of the pool, I had to lie on the ground. Confused, I struggled to get out of the tub, holding on to my baby's head that was already born.

Liz told me I just needed to push, the shoulders were stuck. With much assistance from Liz, the shoulders and rest of the body were born. I didn't even realize it, the burn was minimal.

Still confused on why I was asked to get out and lie down, I realized that Liz was hooking up Chloe with an oxygen tank, and telling Bryan to "rough her up." She was not breathing.

Within the minute, Chloe came to life.

The entire time Coral was ecstatic and yelling, "look, baby!!" She witnessed the entire birth of her new sister and wanted to give her kisses immediately.

I asked Liz if I had torn and she was unsure. She checked and was surprised to see I hadn't.

Chloe weighed 9lbs 2oz and was 21 inches long with a head circumference of 13 1/2 inches. She nursed at the first chance she got, and again an hour later.

My labor was recorded at under 4 hours, and was a big difference from my first labor.

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