The Precipitous Homebirth of our 3rd Baby

Zac laughed at me when I told him I was mildly contracting and probably could have slept through them, but decided to write a journal entry to the baby instead. What I should have been doing is calling the midwife, apparently. 

I hope you enjoy the birth story of our 3rd baby. She was our second surprise gender and second precipitous birth. Our first homebirth, because after our second birth – you could not convince me to leave my house in transition, which is pretty much were my labors seem to begin. Here is a little look into how we brought baby Griffin into our arms!

Please note: *I’ve included PG birth photos on this post. Feel free to stop scrolling if you may be sensitive to labor details or photos.* No hard feelings, I respect your boundaries.

A little before 3am on March 12th, I woke up to potty and when I got back into bed I felt a mild contraction. I was 40+2 and prodromal labor is my body’s favorite way to labor, so I didn’t get my hopes up just yet. They continued as I laid on my right side, so I timed a few… 2.5-3 minutes apart. But they were so mild I could have slept through them. Because I get so prodromal at the end of pregnancy, I always second guess myself. So I put up the timer after timing 3 and rolled over to my left side and continued to journal and rest. 

On the 3rd contraction on my left side I heard the “POP!” and swiftly jumped out of my bed at 3:16am because if I know one thing about my body in labor it’s that once my water breaks, it’s game over. I made it to the tile floor of our newly renovated bathroom ( a whole story for another time – thanks to a shower leak and flooded sub floor… They assured me they would finish this project before the baby came and they just barely made it by that deadline, praise Jesus.) 

I contemplated showering off and cleaning up the floor and letting Zac sleep just a little longer, but then the next contraction came and I got out the words “Hey babe, my water just broke” as calmly as possible but also knowing we weren’t in this for the long haul. Zac jumped out of bed and before his eyes were even opened, he called our midwife from my phone and luckily for us, she was already awake and could not sleep so she hurried out the door knowing my history of precipitous birth and her living 45 minutes from our home.

After he called the midwife, he had the sheets stripped and replaced with new ones, he turned on the twinkle lights and brought my water to the shower and stayed for some counter pressure. I think I fall more in love with him every single time we have a baby. 

He woke up some more and went to find the thermometer for the tub that I reached out of the shower to start filling. I was stuck in a hard place knowing that if I stayed to labor in the shower, I would not have enough hot water to fill the tub so I shut the shower off and went to the bathroom but the unfortunate part about your water breaking is that the fluid just keeps coming with every contraction and I sure was not going to put pants and a pad on at this moment. I just went and stood in the shower with it off and the top of my head leaning against the towel handing on the inside towel hanger and swayed my hips right to left throughout contractions. I also added some pelvic tilts between the contractions. Listening to my labor playlist and leaning into intuition I found a good rhythm and was truly at peace. I remembered thinking to myself, I can do this, I was made to do this, and thank goodness I am not in a car right now heading to the hospital. 

If you knew my birth story with my second, you know why I had these thoughts of thankfulness. 

Contractions became transition, I know because I had a moment to breathe before they started. I shot off a text to my midwife who was probably driving 90 down the highway at the time that things were definitely active, but we are doing fine! Oh and I remembered to tell her about my sister’s dogs on the front porch so they didn’t scare her in the dark when she came in.

She shot back her ETA, then I sent my sister a text that I was in labor since she was staying in our guest room so she would know to intercept the big girls if they woke up, turns out, the oldest was already in bed with her. I set my phone back down and kept laboring away. 

Zac would come in between getting things situated and apply some counter pressure to my sacrum and that was welcomed support. My body quickly began to move into pushing. One contraction felt a little pushy and I vocalized a little differently, a tell tell sign, and the next it was definitely pushy. I told Zac to check the temperature on the tub once more because I needed to get in now or I was going to have the baby on the shower floor. He gave me the go ahead and helped me over into the tub. He looked at his watch and it read 4:00am at that time. I dropped into the back of the tub on my knees with my hands and head leaned over the back for a moment and the pushing contractions continued to take over for two more and I felt our baby move down and out. I reached down and felt the top of her head. Knowing what I know about birth, I knew to slow it down. I breathed out of my lips and welcomed the ring of fire. I heard my sister’s dogs bark just before that push and knew our midwife had made it so I relaxed knowing she would be in shortly. Zac was right by my side with his hand on my back ready to help catch the baby. Our midwife, Kaitlyn, walked in and he calmly informed her that the head was out and being the dreamy midwife she was, she didn’t say a thing and just stayed back and began to video. I had not even looked up to see if she was in the room. She left us undisturbed, just as we planned for this birth. I was not sure how much of the head was out so I knew I would go ahead and push alongside the next contraction to birth this baby on out. I pushed once alongside my body, and then lifted my left leg up and pushed again alongside the urge my body sent. Out came our sweet baby into my arms under the water at 4:05am. The cord was around her neck so as I pulled her up, Zac and Kaitlyn helped get it over her head and landed her onto my chest. I looked down in awe at the little cheesy babe, with great color, and a little cry rested peacefully on my chest with Zac’s hand on her back. We sat in awe, and I slowly moved to sitting down with my back leaned against the side of the tub to rest. 

I looked up at Zac, and asked if he wanted to find out the gender! I love surprises because of this moment, right here. I finally made eye contact with our midwife and asked her to video and I tilted our little baby back and sure enough, She is a GIRL! Added our 3rd baby girl to our family! Zac was not shocked in the slightest, and I just informed him that our oldest daughter was indeed right and she would be pumped when she woke up to meet her! 

One thing I really wanted for this birth was to birth my own placenta. So I remained in the tub and awaited the birth of the placenta. I went ahead and latched Griffin to work alongside my contractions that were still very uncomfortable. But I continued just to remain in awe of her and soak her in with Zac in those moments. At some point the assistant midwife arrived and was so quiet coming in that I didn’t even know she was here. 30 minutes had passed and Kaitlyn asked me how I wanted to move forward. I felt my cord and it was done pulsing. I gently pulled to see if it had released, and it gave downward movement back to confirm it had. So I moved up to my knees to allow gravity to do its job and gave a few little pushes and out came the placenta into the water. I lifted it like a trophy, because let’s be real, my body didn’t just grow a whole 8lb 3oz baby, it also grew the organ that sustained her. I felt as though my body should be just as respected during the birth of the placenta as it was for the birth of our daughter. So I researched, worked with my midwife and planned accordingly so that I would have that moment of conducting my full delivery. 

Not always does a birth plan go just how you want it to. Birth is such an unknown mystery. The Lord knows the ins and outs of every single birthday. I, for that reason, held this birth with very open hands. I have seen a lot and if there is one thing I know it’s that birth cannot be controlled. I am extremely blessed that the birth of Griffin went so smoothly and that I was able to have the undisturbed home birth I dreamed of and I don’t take that for granted. 

Soon after I made it back to bed with my placenta in a bowl beside me and my baby in my arms, there was a little blonde 4 year old that heard her new sister’s cry and came crawling into bed with us at 4:45am. She was smitten. She helped with the newborn exam and we weighed her sister, she helped her daddy cut the umbilical cord, she helped Kaitlyn measure her head and how tall she was. She even got a whole tour of the placenta that she had only heard me talk about! She was just as in awe as we were. It was perfect timing. 

Around 9:00am, another sweet blonde 2 year old rounded the corner and joined the party in bed. She looked and looked at her baby sister and took her all in. She loved her little toes and assured us that her feet were little too, but a little bit bigger. 

Birth is a miracle. Every single time. No birth is ever the same, each one being unique for what that baby needs. Being a doula, I was asked multiple times if it would be harder or easier this time. And I understood that valid question because people would wonder if it would be easier in the sense that I had more knowledge this time, had more experiences to pull from, and was more involved in the birth community for support. But harder in the sense that my expectations would be higher, my requests and dreams would be loftier and it would be hard to not hold what I wanted so tightly and be disappointed if I didn’t get the birth I wanted. 

But here is what I know after becoming a doula…

Birth can simply not be controlled. The Lord knows exactly what each baby’s birth will look like and He loves them more than I can even comprehend. I know who holds tomorrow, and there was no need to worry about every little detail.

I planned for the dream birth that I wanted, but truly was able to relinquish control this time and had such a peace this pregnancy, birth and postpartum to just take each moment as it came. 

So while I understood what people were asking, I would just respond with “I just have peace and I’m not going to hold expectations too tightly, but use my knowledge to make the best decisions I can for my body, my baby and my family.” 

Being a doula is such a gift and I love serving moms in these sacred seasons. I wish every woman could experience an empowering birth that brings them closer to our Creator.