The Fast + Unassisted Home Birth Of My Son Dimitri

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This birth of my second child was a total night and day difference to my first labor and birth! Just about as different as you can get! So settle in with a cup of coffee and hear about the fast and unassisted home birth of my son!

Leading up to the birth I had been having prodromal labor starting before 37 weeks. Which was kinda annoying considering I thought I was going into labor every day.

I had days of feeling really grumpy and impatient and some days of actually doing quite well. Just enjoying the rest of the pregnancy, but it felt like a constant back and forth.

It didn’t help that this pregnancy had been a lot harder than my first. A lot of pelvic problems and pubic bone pain specifically.

But even though I was in a lot of pain, I do still really enjoy pregnancy. I love having a huge belly and feeling all the kicking inside! I just worried that since I was always having contractions that I wouldn’t know when I actually went into labor! Haha!

The night of March 1st we went to bed just as usual. I had been having a constant period cramp type feeling in my hips and back. But that wasn’t anything new so I didn’t think anything of it.

March 2, 2020, 12am

A contraction woke me up. It felt a little different than all the other ones I had been having for weeks. It was deeper and stronger.

I got up and went to the bathroom and walked around a little, then went and layed back down. Feeling the contractions and trying to decide if this was the real deal or not. Once I layed down and had a contraction in that position it was almost unbearable, I felt so claustrophobic!

12:30 am

I decided to wake up Luke and text my midwife. Luke asked me if this was the real thing and I still wasn’t totally sure at that point. But after the next few contractions I knew it was. My midwife said to time them and that just seemed so daunting. It took me a little while to get up the courage to start timing them. Like it took too much concentrating to get through the contractions for me to think about anything else like timing them.

I timed about 5 contractions and they were all about 60 seconds long and 60 seconds apart. My midwife said she was on her way! She lives an hour away and part of me knew that she wouldn’t make it in time. But I felt so peaceful and confident about my ability to birth my own baby.

We had a list on the fridge of things that needed to be done once I went into labor. Things like, cover the windows in the living room, change the sheets, get out the birth supply box, etc. In the 30 to 60 seconds in between my contractions Luke was running around like a maniac trying to do all the things. I finally just told him to not worry about it, that the stuff just didn’t need to get done. Because during contractions I needed him to be there!

My brain hadn’t really realized how fast this was going, but my instincts seemed to kick in and my body knew exactly what to do. I remember going over to our kitchen entrance because it’s just sub floor in there and didn’t matter if it got all messy.

I was standing there, bending over, holding on to the baby gate Luke built in between our kitchen and living room. Every time I would get a contraction I’d gasp “help”, and Luke would run over. I needed him to support my upper body so that I could relax all my abdominal muscles, but I still needed to be standing. I felt so bad for him because I knew he would be getting tired really fast, but it was making it so much easier for me. He would hold onto the stud on the wall with one hand and had his other arm supporting underneath my arm and chest.

I started dripping a bit of blood on the floor, and Luke texted the midwife to ask about it. She said it was probably from my cervix opening so fast.

In my last labor I was extremely vocal and screamed through the 2 hours of transition and 3 hours of pushing, so I was worried that this time I’d be really loud too. But I was quiet as a mouse for most of the time. As I got closer to pushing I started growling, this deep guttural primal noise that I had never made before. But I was so glad I hadn’t been as vocal because Sofia slept through everything!

During each contraction it was like a freight train was moving through me and it took everything I had to not panic. It was one of the most intense feelings I’ve ever experienced. At the peak of a contraction I would just keep telling myself “this is the worst it’s going to get and you can do it”. Then afterwards I would say ” one less contraction I have to do later!”

I remember being terrified that the midwife would get there and tell me I was only 1cm dilated! But looking back that was totally ridiculous, because at that point I was already 10cm! Haha!

I started leaking amniotic fluid and we realized that my waters had opened.

1:30 am

It had been an hour of transition and I started feeling like I needed to poop. My body kept bearing down and pushing with every contraction without me doing a thing. After a few of those I reached in to see if I could feel him, and he was only an inch or so away from the opening!!

After that I felt more confident in actually pushing along with the contractions, because before that I hadn’t realized how far along I was.

Luke kept mopping up the blood and amniotic fluid between my contractions, and putting clary sage essential oil on my lower back and wrists.

I think I only pushed a couple times when I felt the “ring of fire” and he was crowning. I instinctively squatted down. As his head came out I almost lunged forward to try to get away from the burning pain. But then I reached down and felt his head as it came out. It felt so small and then expanded right after, it was the strangest thing!

His head just hung out there until my next contraction and then his body slithered out. I still had my hands down there so I just caught him and pulled him up to my chest. He started crying and I turned him over and checked his face to make sure he could breathe.

I stood up and wondered why his cord was so short. I discovered that it was going up over his shoulder behind his neck and back down over his other shoulder. So I unwrapped him and pulled him closer.

I sent Luke for some waterproof pads and clean towels to lay on the couch so I could sit down. He ran and got it all ready, and I quickly walked across the rug to the couch so I didn’t drip too much. I find it amazing that I was with it enough to give Luke directions, with my last birth I was so out of my body that I would never have been able to do that!

And he was here! Just like that!

Not long after I had sat down, our midwife walked through the door and said “sounds like there’s a baby!” She set about making sure we were all good and then started cleaning up stuff while I snuggled with Dimitri and Luke changed our bed sheets. Dimitri latched right on and has been a champ at nursing! He had nursed both sides within the first hour!

I started shaking so bad from all the adrenaline and it took all my concentration to hold still and try to get the shakes to go away.

45 minutes later

My placenta still hadn’t come out and I was starting to feel some really bad after-pains. I felt like it was ready to come out but I couldn’t get any leverage on it to push it out. So my midwife offered to help with tractioning the cord to help it, and I agreed. I felt it come out and it plopped into the kitchen bowl that we had ready.

She wrapped it in a chux pad and set it on my lap since It was still attached to Dimitri. We left him connected for over an hour, which was exactly what I was hoping for! I hadn’t been able to do that with Sofia because my cord was really short and then I had hemorrhaged.

After all that we were about to move over to the bed but I felt something really gooey and sticky on my hand and we found that Dimitri had pooped meconium and peed all over me! They got some warm cloths and cleaned us up a bit and then after that Luke cut the cord.

The cord was stained brown a little bit and she said that it was because he had meconium in the waters. But my labor had been so fast that he never had a chance to breathe it in. Looking back, I wonder if that’s why it was so crazy fast, if my body knew it needed to get him out quick to keep him safe.

We then moved over to the bed and the midwife checked to see if I had torn. I had some slight first degree tears in various places and one second degree tear on my perineum. It was torn in a way that if left that way would leave a flap that could catch on things, so I decided to have her stitch me up. Definitely not my favorite thing ever! I absolutely hate needles. But I knew I’d be glad in the long run after it was over.

Then she weighed him and took all his measurements, put him in a onesie and gave him back to me so I could nurse him some more. He was 7lbs (14 oz smaller than my first), and 20.75 inches long.

5:30 am

My midwife had finished all the cleaning and it looked like nothing had ever happened, besides that we had a baby. She left us to just snuggle in bed and try to get a little sleep before Sofia woke up. Both the kids actually let us get a couple hours in before we got up and that was so nice! And we were the only few people in the world that knew what had happened the night before and it was so special!

When Sofia woke up Luke brought her down to our bed and we introduced her to her brother. She was so interested in looking at him and quickly started giving him tons of kisses! It was the sweetest thing and I’m so glad she took to him so well!!

Sometime that afternoon Luke steamed and cut up my placenta and put it in the freezer so I could start taking them as pills as soon as possible.

God has blessed us so abundantly! We have two healthy little children and the labor and birth went so smoothly!

I feel so empowered after this last birth especially! I’ve gone through two very different kinds of labors and succeeded in my goal of a natural unmedicated home birth for both! The contractions from the fast labor were so much more intense, but I handled them as they came and didn’t let myself panic. The empowerment I feel from catching my own baby is unlike anything else! My body is totally capable of everything that needs to happen to bring a baby earthside.