My amazing second home birth, with a twist!

Y’all.

Jan 16 my second baby girl was born. My first was born at home so this was our second planned home birth.

pregnancy was very easy. Even as early as my 20 week ultrasound She had her head far down in my pelvis and was well positioned. Her body was on my right side, so my one worry was that if she didn’t move over to the left she might be born sunny side up.

On January 14 in the afternoon I had to lie down for a while because she was moving a lot and it was making me feel nauseous. I was excited because I thought she was switching sides ahead of her due date on the 19th.Woke up on the morning of the 15th with cramping, which lasted through the day, but I was able to clean the house, cook and bake while dealing with the irregular contractions. They started to pick up at around 3 PM when my older daughter got home from school, so I got in the tub. My husband with a candle for me and my daughter brought in her rock collection to give me something pretty to look at.

 I think she might have New Age tendencies. 😂

Contractions were super manageable. I got out of the tub and right away my water broke. Text to the midwife, who said she would come in 45 minutes. She later told my mother that she doesn’t usually come so soon but I seemed very calm and that alarmed her! My husband, daughter, mom, and aunt all sat down to dinner with me on the birth ball eating between managing contractions.

That’s how it went until it was my daughters bedtime. My husband and I took her to bed and read stories with her then we just all stayed in the room while she fell asleep. During my pregnancy I prepared for birth using Hypno birthing in a very half assed way. I would listen to the meditations while I fell asleep and I learned to count quickly up to 20 while breathing in as a way to manage contractions. While my husband and daughter slept, I listened to the meditations and was able to silently worked through the contractions. It helped SO MUCH and the breathing combined with visualizing my daughters head opening my cervix allowed me to not interpret labor as painful at all!!! It also allowed me to immediately recognize when I was in transition - THAT is painful. I woke up my husband (it took two tries between contractions to wake him) and he went to get my midwife and doula, who were dozing on the sofas...everything went quicker than expected!

I had one contraction in the hall, then I went to the bathroom to get in the tub. Say on the toilet to pee and started to push spontaneously! They hurried me into the tub, where the pushing contractions came one after another. Some women say they roar like a lion during this phase...I roared, baaed, brayed, grunted, and basically made every sound in the zoo. She was coming SO FAST! I felt her emerge, and the I expected her body to just easily slither out like my first but instead the next push was just as hard! And the next! On the next one she was out...I only pushed for a total of 10 minutes but it was the most intense 10 minutes of my life. After she was settled in skin to skin on my chest my mid wife said “do you realize what just happened? She was born breech!!!” I couldn’t believe I pushed out a breech baby! Zero tearing and a super easy recovery. I think when she was moving around just a few days bedorwnthe birth she flipped. We are super happy to welcome our newest girl Opal into the world, butt-first!!

Oh, and for those of you who are worried about pooping in front of your loved ones, apparently I pooped a little while pushing and my husband scooped it out of the water because the midwife was so busy with the unusual presentation! 🤦‍♀️🥴🤷‍♀️