Floralee Rae Albert was the HBAC (homebirth after cesarean) we had prayed for since the day we found out we were pregnant again. As I sit back and reflect on her birth and how all the events unfolded, I feel so incredibly blessed and humbled.
God blessed us with more than we asked for and let alone deserved – not just a healthy baby but also a beautiful vaginal birth at home just as we had envisioned and worked so hard towards. We are so grateful and still in awe of our blessings!
As I share this birth story, all glory goes back to God. There was no way I could have done any of this on my own. The support and encouragement of Landon, my midwife, and her two assistants as well were amazing, to say the least.
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The story begins at 3 am on Saturday, March 12th, 2022 and it is important to note that this weekend was daylight savings time, so we lost an hour overnight going into Sunday.
I got up to go to the bathroom and took two tinctures of black and blue cohosh per the instruction of my midwife. At 6 am I woke up again and ate some food. Then, I woke up at 8 am with my husband and one-year-old daughter to begin the day.
I had previously discussed with my midwife that I would be taking castor oil this morning to try to start labor. She was in town for a ski race and would wait to see if labor began before heading home.
Related Post: The Birth Story of Harmony Sage
I followed her instructions and recipe and over the course of two hours, I had taken 4 ounces of castor oil. It gave me diarrhea at 12:45 pm and 3:30 pm. She called me around 1 pm and again at 3 pm and I sadly reported that there were no signs of labor so she headed home, an hour and a half south.
After that phone call, I was feeling very depressed. I so badly not just wanted to go into labor and meet my baby, but also for the castor oil to work. I had taken castor oil twice during the final weeks of Harmony’s pregnancy and it hadn’t worked then either. It was hard not to be discouraged and believe the lie that my body doesn’t work properly or go into labor naturally.
However, over the next few hours I noticed my cramping from the diarrhea wasn’t stopping but diarrhea had. I decided to start timing the contractions and realized I was starting labor! God has a funny way of working…
After timing them for a half-hour I called my midwife and told her they were lasting 30-45 seconds and coming every two minutes. She was just arriving home and I said when they intensify a bit more I’ll call her to start coming back up this way.
It was about an hour later that I called her and she arrived at our house with her two assistants/apprentices around 10 pm. She checked my dilation and I was at 6 cm dialated already, which was amazing to me!
I continued to labor on the bed, practicing the relaxation techniques we learned in our Bradley method class until around 2 am (give or take with the time change happening) when the contractions were starting to become too intense to relax through.
My midwife checked me again and I was at 8 cm. I was progressing but the hardest part of labor was just beginning so it was hard for me to feel excited or recognize that I was nearing the end.
Around this time was when my contractions were becoming extremely painful. I was having a hard time handling them and at 4 am I had a meltdown.
I was in transition and was screaming through the contractions. I felt like my body was going to break, I didn’t think I could make it through, and I became close to hysterical. I was begging Landon to take me to the hospital, saying I needed an epidural, and that I couldn’t do it anymore.
Landon was amazing. He kept saying that it wasn’t an option, and it really wasn’t. There was no way he was ever going to take me to the hospital no matter what I said or did and I am so grateful for him. He was expecting this part of labor and he was prepared to handle it.
It was the most intense pain I could have ever imagined and I didn’t have a way to cope with them. Relaxing through them was not an option, we had limited hot water so I couldn’t shower or fill a tub, and it was so uncomfortable to even sit.
The two assistants were amazing during this period of my labor. They constantly rubbed and massaged my legs, back, and shoulders. They encouraged me and reminded me that I could do it!
The birth ball and swaying on the couch brought me some relief and my midwife checked me again at 8 am. I was 10 cm dilated and could start pushing!
It took maybe an hour to just figure out how to push properly, especially with my contractions still being very intense. Then, over the next few hours I worked on pushing in various forms: laying on my back in the bed (which was recommended by my midwife to help with my very posterior cervix), sitting on her birth stool, and also hanging from a sheet we had strapped to our loft.
Hanging from the sheet was actually my favorite position. When I start pushing my contractions slowed down extremely, which is one of the reasons it took so long to get the baby out. I was also exhausted at this point and didn’t believe the baby would ever come out of me. I couldn’t tell that I was making progress and was pretty discouraged.
Then, around 1:30 pm I could feel the baby’s head and worked on pushing her out. I was on the birthing stool with Landon behind me supporting me. My midwife went to work on applying oils, hot compresses, and other things to avoid any tearing.
Before I knew it, the baby was out and in my arms! It was 2:17 pm and I checked the gender…it was a girl! We felt over the moon blessed and it was such a sweet moment of joy! Thank you, Lord, for fulfilling all our dreams and more!
I delivered the placenta next, laid down with the baby, Floralee, and began nursing her. Then my midwife prepared an herbal bath for me and the baby. She measured her, 20.5 inches, and weighed her, 8.5 ounces. The labor ended up being about 20 hours in total.
Then she checked me for tearing, which was only a few minor ones. My midwife said that was a miracle because she was born with both her hands next to her face! After cleaning up our house they left and we went to sleep as a new family of four!
What a truly beautiful experience, I can still hardly believe it is true and happened to me! God is so good.
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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