The Accidental Unattended Homebirth

-----Disclaimer: While I haven't actually typed this post yet, it is going to be a birth story. That means that there will likely be some blood guts gore and TMI. So if you are the weak of stomach, skip this post. Really though, I'm going to and keep it pretty tame, but one never knows for sure.---------

I'm pretty sure most of you know this already, but I'm no longer pregnant!! Soren Joseph was born Dec 1. He weighed 9 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long. I think most who read this also know that I had an accidental unattended homebirth. What does that mean? We didn't make it to the Birth Suite and Aaron caught this baby. Here is the story.

Monday night at about 9p my water broke. (Here comes one of those TMI moments.) To be totally honest, I wasn't sure if my water had broken or if I was just really wetting my pants. (Come on I was nine months pregnant, and I wasn't due for another five days AND I had convinced myself I was going to go over. Long story short denial isn't just a river in Africa.) I wasn't having any contractions at all, so I decided the best thing to do was try and sleep for a while. I knew that if this was it, I was in for a long night. Aaron suggested I call Rebecca, my midwife. Instead I called Trisha. She's a friend of mine who was going to watch the kids for me. I figured Rebecca was used to phone calls in the middle of the night. Trisha, hopefully, not so much. That, and I have this complex. My family won't believe me, but I don't like people to see me in pain. A friend of mine used to call me a bird. I guess they do the same thing. I can be in intense pain, someone walks through the door and I smile and pretend it's all okay, then go back to bawling once they leave. I just don't like to bother people. BIG MISTAKE.

Anyway. At about 9p I went to bed. At 11p I woke up to use the bathroom. Still no contractions, but I decided that my water had broken for sure. Aaron was still up, so I told him to go to bed and I crawled back in bed. I couldn't go to sleep though. I was laying there thinking of all the things I had to do before we could head to the birth suite. After about 20 minutes of that, I decided to get up and get us ready. Still no contractions. So I gather up the kids socks and shoes and coats. I watched a little TV (gotta love hulu.com). About 1a I started having contractions. Nothing too major and a good 7-10 minutes apart. About 2am I discover my mom is on facebook and start chatting with her. (No, it's really not odd that my mom is up at 2 in the morning. It is kind of funny that she was on facebook though.) I chat with Mom for a while and about 2:45a the contractions start slowing down so I tell Mom I'm going to try and sleep some more.

At that point I get up and start moving and so do the contractions. Still 6-8 minutes, but getting stronger. I'm still walking and talking through them. At 3am-ish I go wake Aaron up and ask for a blessing. After that's done he get's dressed and goes out and starts the van and pulls it up to the door. We figure we'll leave it running while he loads it so it's warm for the kids. While he's loading I call Trisha and let her know we're headed that way. (You may notice at this point I STILL haven't called Rebecca. In my own defense, when I asked her how much warning she needed she told me a half hour. That's about how long it takes us to get from here to there. I figured we'd let her sleep as long as possible and call her on the way out the door. Again BIG MISTAKE)

We've got everything loaded except the kids and all of the sudden I'm having serious contractions fast and hard. Umm oops. I tell Aaron to call Rebecca... finally, yeah, I know. He calls her. About two minutes later I tell him he better call her again and tell her we're not going to make it. He calls her and, I kid you not, says "Hi this is Aaron again. How're you?" WHAT? I yell from the background. "Would you knock it off with the freakin' pleasantries?!!!" (In my own defense, I'm pretty sure I was in transition at that point. And really I'm grateful he was able to remain that calm.) Anyway. Aaron tells Rebecca we're not making it, and she tells me I have to decide, hospital or homebirth. There's the new Riverton IHC hospital about 15 minutes from her or Rebecca would high tail it out here as fast as she could. She also does homebirths, so that really isn't that weird other than needing to stop and get the stuff she'd normally have already at my house. I think at this point I tell Aaron there is no way in...ummm..Hades, I'm getting in that car. Okay then homebirth it is. I think at this point she must have given him some "just in case" directions (don't drop Baby, get towels, put baby immediately skin to skin with mom, DON'T cut the cord)

Brief pause to explain my house. It's kind of set up in two different sections, "front" and "back." To get from front to back you have to go down a long hallway. Up front there is the living room, kitchen, family room, bathroom and laundry room. In the back are the bedrooms and a bathroom w/tub. That's how the kids were sleeping through all this.

Anyway, I'd originally planned on a water labor and birth. So once I decided I wasn't getting in the car I sent Aaron to start running water in the tub in the back for me. While he's gone I realize I need to push. (That really isn't as big of a deal as it sounds like. Jael I pushed for 2 hours, Anson 1 hour, Shad 20 minute. For me it's not a one push thing) So I start pushing. Meanwhile Aaron gets back up front and I tell him he's going to have to catch this baby. He looks at me and says "Now?!" yup, now.

Gratefully Aaron is a good catch. Baby arrived at 3:54a. The cord was over his shoulder, but thankfully not around his neck. Aaron hands him to me and I check boy/girl and start laughing. We were all pretty sure this one was a girl. Anson actually corrected my mom once when she referred to baby as "he." I looked at Aaron and said "It's a boy! Did you see that?!" I think I spent the next 15-20 minutes just chuckling over the whole accidental unattended home birth and that he's a he not a she. Well, that the hormones might have been a factor.

Rebecca showed up shortly there after and shut the van off for us. She cleaned us up, and the mess we'd made. She weighed and measured. She took good care of us.

Honestly the whole experience was pretty nice. We didn't have to leave the house for another two weeks. We got to just hang out on the couch. And for the first time I got to be there when the kids found out there was a new little one. That was pretty memorable and lots of fun.

Reactions have been funny. Most people think I'm some sort of superwoman. That's really funny since it's just that I was too dumb to know when to call the midwife. I think my sister-in-law Sarah's was the best though. She wouldn't believe Aaron. I had to talk to her and point out that we'd called on the home number before she'd believe us. (Hi Sarah!)

Long story short, next time we'll just plan the homebirth and save ourselves some trouble.