erica’s birth story

Erica’s birth was beautiful to witness. A true testament to the hope that when you surround yourself with the right people and you’re in the right space your body will thank you for it, and that’s exactly what happened! Enjoy her birth story below!

Photography by the amazing: Natalia Maria Photography

In the weeks leading up to the birth I had a horrible time sleeping because I had so much rib pain and could not lay flat. I woke up every hour or two and would move from the couch to the recliner and back to bed trying to get some rest. I was feeling really done being pregnant, a feeling I never experienced with Colbie because I was induced at 38+1.

When I was 39 + 6 (a Friday) I had a midwife appointment – we discussed how long I would go and if/when I would want my membranes swept. We decided we would wait until 41 weeks, and as I left I joked Sunday would be a good day to have the baby because my doula would be available that day and Quinn wouldn’t have to return to work on Monday. A few other people had mentioned Sunday as the day too. So I waited.. still hopeful that baby would come before – I felt like I couldn’t manage the lack of sleep for much longer.

Low and behold at 40+1 weeks, Sunday morning I was trying to sleep in the recliner and I felt something similar to a period cramp around 6am. Prior to this I had MANY Braxton Hicks contractions but this felt different. I had one probably every hour (?) they were hardly noticeable and difficult to track but for some reason I felt like today may be the day. After all we were still hoping for Sunday. But, throughout the morning they went away. Becoming even less frequent but I did notice a small amount of mucous when I went to the bathroom.

I texted my birth team around 8:15am that I had very infrequent contractions and increased mucous – just to let them know it may be the day. But they stopped for a while. Quinn and I decided to send Colbie with her grandparents in case things did progress but we had wanted to run a few errands that morning anyway so even if it didn’t turn out to be labor, we still thought it would be helpful to have Colbie with her grandparents. They picked her up and we headed to Target to get her some gifts from the baby and pick up a charger from my friend’s house. During this time, I did not notice any signs of labor or increased pain. I felt off, but not like I was in early labor. We left my friend’s house around 11am and went to grab lunch before heading home. We stopped in a drive through because a burger sounded good. While in the drive through things started hard and fast. All of the sudden I was having painful contractions every 4-6min apart lasting 45sec or so. I started my contraction timer at 11:08. I started feeling very stressed about being stuck in the car and wanted to get home as soon as possible. When we got home at 11:40 I texted my team that I was starting to have regular contractions and pinked tinged mucous but I could still breath through them. It was less than comfortable in the car but manageable once we got home. But they started getting closer and my app told me to go to the hospital.

Quinn and I debated when we tell everyone to come. I felt like it was too early because things were just now starting to feel like labor and I didn’t want everyone to come when I still had so long to go. But the contractions were starting to take all of my focus and energy. Quinn decided to text everyone to come around 12:10. The doula and midwives showed up at the same time around 12:40. The photographer had a long drive so she would arrive later. When they got here I was on the birth ball on hands and knees breathing as best I could through the contractions. They checked my vitals and I agreed to have a cervical check so that we could assess a starting point. We went downstairs to the room I had set up to labor and birth in. My midwife, Tess attempted to check me at 1:05 pm but I was too uncomfortable laying on my back. I asked her to stop the exam. She could assess that baby was very low and I was very effaced but she didn’t get the dilation before I asked her to stop. We had no dilation to work off of, but I was feeling like the contractions were getting harder to work through and I could no longer focus on the people around me well.

We decided to go upstairs to the master bathroom to trying to labor in the shower with the birth ball around 1:30pm. Up two flights of stairs we went… very slowly. As we were heading up stairs Natalia, the photographer, arrived. Sarah, our doula, was so helpful and trying to get me into comfortable positions and offering different ideas. The shower just wasn’t doing it for me, I was cold and I preferred my hands and knees rocking vs sitting on the birth ball. After a few contractions we decided to get out of the shower and head back downstairs.  Once downstairs I continued to rock on my hands and knees leaning on the birth ball while Quinn did hip squeezes and Sarah offered verbal support and read my affirmations to me. Around 1:50pm I started to feel rectal pressure but was stilling feeling like we had lots of work to go. At 1:59pm I asked if we could try the labor tub for comfort. They said they would start to fill it but that it was loud so we should go labor upstairs while the midwives worked to fill it. A cruel joke, they just wanted me to go up those stairs again…  

At 2:04pm I got halfway up the first flight of stairs and my water broke all over the carpeted stairs (a nightmare of mine….) the water was clear and babies heart rate was still good. We decided to try to go back down the stairs to the labor room. I instantly started to feel out of control and started to panic. I felt so much pressure but there was no way in my mind it would be the baby already. I got back down the 4 stairs and her head started to emerge. I was still wearing a dress – I don’t think anyone expected baby to be here that quickly. As I was trying to walk, she started to crown and we had her right there at the base of the stairs while I was still standing at 2:07pm. The midwives worked to lay down chucks pads and get towels. Quinn caught her as he had planned to – he handed baby to Tess and she handed her up to me and I sat down. I leaned against Colbie’s (my other daughter) small slide that happened to be there – they placed pillows on it for comfort.

There we did skin to skin, cut the cord after it stopped pulsing and birthed the placenta. I requested active hemorrhage management, so they gave me two doses of Pitocin. After the cord was cut and placenta was out, we moved the couch nearby to assess bleeding and tearing. I had one small tear that did not require suturing. I felt on top of the world. We moved upstairs after being cleaned up and got into bed with our baby. The midwives worked to clean up the space while we cuddled with our baby and processed her quick entrance into the world. After they came and did the measurements and assessment on the baby.

Sarah prepared some food for me to eat, and Natalia stayed for a while to get photos. We felt so loved and supported. My friend Ashley, who I had wanted to come to the birth but it progressed to fast, arrived shortly after and we all joked and laughed about how quick everything went – the birth team would be home by dinner!

Overall, this home birth experience was life changing. During my pregnancy I had so much anxiety on and off about this. Being a NICU nurse, I did not feel like I could share my plans with many people and worried about all of the “what ifs” and potential issues. I had to work very hard to overcome my anxiety and trust in my body. I know this experience could be magical and it was. I owe so many thanks to my birth team, Sarah, Natalia, Tess, and Alicia. I am so grateful I got the experience the art of birth and the power of a woman’s body in her own space.