Tag Archives: home birth
Final Midwife Checkup
On Tuesday I had my final check-up with my midwife, and it was SO bittersweet to know it would be my last appointment with him. Bill came to my home at 1 day, 3 days, and 7 days postpartum to check up on me and Harvey, but this final check was done at his home. […]
Birth Odds & Ends Wrap-Up
Below are a few more details about our home birth that I thought I should take a moment to document. More specifically, I’m trying to think of any miscellaneous pregnancy and/or birth decisions and procedures that we might have approached or done differently than the norm, sometimes because of the home birth scenario, and sometimes just […]
My Home Birth By the Numbers
6:34am: the time Harvey was born 4 hours: amount of time that passed from the 1st contraction I timed until Harvey was born 15 minutes: how long I pushed (as opposed to 2 hrs with Stella!) 7: # of contractions I pushed through (according to my midwife – I don’t remember this at all!) 5: […]
Harvey’s Home Birth – Part 2
Read Part 1 Here (The day before birth and 1st & 2nd stage of labor, 2:34-6:34am) This second part of Harvey’s birth story is about the 3rd stage of labor (passing of the placenta) and the check-ups during Harvey’s 1st week of life. ***** 6:34am: Neither of us cried when Harvey was born (we didn’t with […]
Harvey’s Home Birth – Part 1
On Sunday, January 12th at 6:34am, our son Harvey Adam was born into this world via the most perfect home water birth experience I could have ever asked for. My husband, initially on the fence about the entire home birth idea, has spent the days since telling everyone how awesome it was (200% better than […]
Prepping the Toddler, 39w4d
My go-to home birth guru friend Arch Mama wrote this great post about a year ago about what they were doing to prepare her son for the arrival of his baby sister (and I adore the story of how the birth actually unfolded, complete with big brother greeting his sister to this world with a Hi, baby! on her […]
35 Weeks
Phew! I had my bi-weekly midwife appointment yesterday at his house, and he sent me home with a birth tub! If that doesn’t make shit feel real, I don’t know what does. My next appointment will be at 37 weeks, and it’s actually the home visit appointment so that my midwife and his wife (and […]
Insurance
Phew… so the insurance conundrum is an ongoing issue here, and really, most of it won’t be resolved until AFTER little man comes, because so much of it is dependent upon when he comes and what my stupid insurance actually ends up covering (if anything). This will be super boring for y’all, but I need to write […]
Under Pressure?
Last week I laid on my couch, relaxing deep into my first self-hypnosis session of HypnoBabies for this pregnancy, and I was suddenly struck by this feeling of being under pressure. It’s an odd feeling, because I felt so calm & confident going into my first birth, and I had such a good experience… but now […]
Open, Relax, Release, Peace
This post is my contribution to PAIL’s October 2012 Monthly Theme on Birth Stories. The prompts on this month’s theme asked readers to explore how their birth experience(s) affected their parenting and future plans. I already wrote out my daughter’s birth story in a LONG three part series here right after she was born nearly two years ago. […]
29 Weeks & Our Home Birth Supply List
Well, this is starting to get really real, folks! Yesterday after my 29 week midwife appointment, I walked out with all of my bi-weekly appointments scheduled through the home visit at 37 weeks on December 17th. Eek! I also had a list in my hands of everything I should start getting together to have on […]
Medical Choices During Pregnancy
Before my ALI journey, I had a pretty basic idea of what conception, pregnancy and childbirth entailed. You decided you were ready for a baby, you got pregnant, you went to your appointments and did what the doctor said, you went to the hospital and had your baby. BAM. Easy peasy, right? When things took […]
The Midwife
mid·wife /ˈmidˌwīf/ — A person trained to assist women in childbirth My midwife is a man. I’m guessing that most of you have never heard of a male midwife, but seriously you guys – my midwife rocks. He has been delivering babies in this rural county that I live in since 1983 – that’s 30 years! That’s […]
