Facts:
*I do not have cows in my front yard
*I do shave
*I do not have a full garden of organic food
*I eat gluten
*I am not crazy...at least not that I'm aware of :)
For most people the two words "home" and "birth" do not go together! When I first heard of homebirths I thought, "wow, those people are intense. I could never do that." But low and behold, baby #4 was a homebirth! (I also have said that I'll never own a minivan, and that is now in my future...sadly, I can't wait for those easy and really convenient sliding doors!). I also used to think of "homebirth" for those super organic, hippie people. I am not super organic (I do love organic food, but for me personally I am more an "in moderation" type girl. One night we'll have organic meat, veggies & fruit, and then the next night we'll devour some Chick-fil-A...or even sometimes McDonalds...I know it's so bad for you, but it's also really good!).
So why homebirth? There were multiple reasons, but a good friend of mine had a homebirth last year for her 3rd child and her experience was really good, really relaxed and the transition with her kids was easy, so I started to really pray about if this was something that would work for our family. My main reasons for wanting to do it were these:
1.) My babies may like to stay in the womb forever, but when they are ready to come out, it's REALLY fast. With Saylor we made it to the hospital 25 minutes before she was born. She was my first totally drug free, 100% natural baby...and that was not by choice. Of course I always talked about wanting to go natural, but with Aidan & Roman I had epidurals because, well..because they were available and I had never mentally prepared myself to go drug-free. In my mind I was thinking, "why go drug free if there are drugs there?!" But after having Saylor, I LOVED doing it naturally. Was it easy and pain-free? No, but it was an incredible feeling and after having her I felt awesome. I got up and took a shower, by myself, and I really wanted to go home and start our lives as a family of 5 instead of having to stay in the hospital for another 24 hours. So with a homebirth the weight of worrying if we'd make it to the hosptial on time or if Josh was going to deliver this baby on the side of the road was lifted and I felt much calmer. Just knowing that all I had to do was relax at home and my midwives came to me was so nice.
2.) Kind of a follow-up to #1, but I am not a fan of hospitals and don't like to stay there unless it's totally necessary. With the boys I understood why I had to stay because since I had epidurals I needed the extra help and recovery. But with Saylor, after she was born I immediately wanted to go home. I felt great and I wanted to snuggle with my newborn in my own bed. Plus my poor hubby would prefer being in our bed instead of on the "pull-out bench" that he got at the hospital...not to mention they don't feed the husbands. Also, I was excited about the transition being a lot easier with all the kids.
3.) RELAXING. It stresses me out to rush to the hospital, beg for them to take you seriously that you are in fact about to birth a baby right in front of them, and then after the baby is born you have a nurse coming in every 2 hours to check your blood pressure, check the baby, etc...so you get no sleep (for the record, I delivered my other 3 babies at Kennestone and really loved it! The nurses there are all great and my choice of homebirth had nothing to do with not liking the care I received at Kennestone...I would highly recommend them to anyone!).
4.) Yes we have insurance, and I'm not going to get political, but our deductible and costs for labor and delivery tripled since last year when we had Saylor. Of course money is not even a consideration when it comes to having a healthy baby. Any mom would say that. But for us, it was a bonus that homebirth was a lot cheaper than going through our insurance at the hospital.
Below in the pictures (do not freak out! They are not graphic...do you really think I would ever put something like that for all to see?! Lol. They are regular pictures that went through our homebirth and none that are scarring to you or me ;), I'll talk about how our homebirth went for those of you that are curious :)
So why homebirth? There were multiple reasons, but a good friend of mine had a homebirth last year for her 3rd child and her experience was really good, really relaxed and the transition with her kids was easy, so I started to really pray about if this was something that would work for our family. My main reasons for wanting to do it were these:
1.) My babies may like to stay in the womb forever, but when they are ready to come out, it's REALLY fast. With Saylor we made it to the hospital 25 minutes before she was born. She was my first totally drug free, 100% natural baby...and that was not by choice. Of course I always talked about wanting to go natural, but with Aidan & Roman I had epidurals because, well..because they were available and I had never mentally prepared myself to go drug-free. In my mind I was thinking, "why go drug free if there are drugs there?!" But after having Saylor, I LOVED doing it naturally. Was it easy and pain-free? No, but it was an incredible feeling and after having her I felt awesome. I got up and took a shower, by myself, and I really wanted to go home and start our lives as a family of 5 instead of having to stay in the hospital for another 24 hours. So with a homebirth the weight of worrying if we'd make it to the hosptial on time or if Josh was going to deliver this baby on the side of the road was lifted and I felt much calmer. Just knowing that all I had to do was relax at home and my midwives came to me was so nice.
2.) Kind of a follow-up to #1, but I am not a fan of hospitals and don't like to stay there unless it's totally necessary. With the boys I understood why I had to stay because since I had epidurals I needed the extra help and recovery. But with Saylor, after she was born I immediately wanted to go home. I felt great and I wanted to snuggle with my newborn in my own bed. Plus my poor hubby would prefer being in our bed instead of on the "pull-out bench" that he got at the hospital...not to mention they don't feed the husbands. Also, I was excited about the transition being a lot easier with all the kids.
3.) RELAXING. It stresses me out to rush to the hospital, beg for them to take you seriously that you are in fact about to birth a baby right in front of them, and then after the baby is born you have a nurse coming in every 2 hours to check your blood pressure, check the baby, etc...so you get no sleep (for the record, I delivered my other 3 babies at Kennestone and really loved it! The nurses there are all great and my choice of homebirth had nothing to do with not liking the care I received at Kennestone...I would highly recommend them to anyone!).
4.) Yes we have insurance, and I'm not going to get political, but our deductible and costs for labor and delivery tripled since last year when we had Saylor. Of course money is not even a consideration when it comes to having a healthy baby. Any mom would say that. But for us, it was a bonus that homebirth was a lot cheaper than going through our insurance at the hospital.
Below in the pictures (do not freak out! They are not graphic...do you really think I would ever put something like that for all to see?! Lol. They are regular pictures that went through our homebirth and none that are scarring to you or me ;), I'll talk about how our homebirth went for those of you that are curious :)
Quick little Maternity session
My cousin Bethany took these pictures to document the blessing of our 4th baby! (We did another one with the sign Piper in case it was a girl)
I love this one
Family of 6
Our Homebirth Story
Aidan was 4 days late, Roman came at 11:57pm on his due date (barely making it!), and Saylor was a long 8 days late, so naturally I figured that this baby was going to be LATE. But after doing a billion squats at Crossfit on Friday night, my water broke at 12:30am on Nov. 9th...a day early!! I woke Josh up, he called his parents to come get the kids and our dog and we kissed them all goodbye and told them that they would have a baby brother or sister in the morning. My 2 midwives came to our house within 30 minutes and started to set up their stuff and the stuff they had asked me to get. It was easy, relaxing and exciting! This picture is an hour after my water broke.
Contractions. They came pretty much immediately after my water broke. They started off small and far apart and progressively got longer and closer together. The method for natural (for me) is to pray, repeat scripture, breathe, go to your happy place and RELAX. Josh was my rock. I am far beyond blessed by having him as my husband.
After the contraction! The first 4 hours weren't bad...
I'd have a contraction and I'd totally relax while Josh supported me. He was timing the contractions for me so I knew where I was in the grand scheme of things. One of the major perks of homebirth is you get to walk around your house, eat, do whatever you want. We hung out in the kitchen and talked and joked around in between contractions, we walked up and down the stairs, we listened to music (I had Phil Wickham playing...I love his voice!), I ate and drank juice...its so nice to not be hooked up to anything and be free to do what makes you the most comfortable. Periodically one of the midwives would check the baby's heartbeat, but it took 2 seconds and she would do it in between contractions.
This heat pack was what helped me through the contractions! My friend Lisa let me borrow it and it was so nice. It smelled like lavender and the heat really helped me relax. Josh would hold me up and hold the heat pack on my back. He was amazing. He also would speak scripture to me to help me stay focused on Jesus. My favorite verse was, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3
After 4 hours of "easier" labor, I transitioned and started to push. This was the part that caught me off guard. With all 3 of my kids, when it was time to push I only had to push a few times and I had a baby! So, I was thinking that this was going to be a few pushes and we'd have a baby in the next few minutes...but I was wrong! After an hour of pushing I had a moment where I told Josh I didn't know if I could do this (I was worried that I was going to have to keep pushing for hours on end, and pushing is not easy! However, our bodies are amazing and God designed us for birth. When I had a contraction I'd push along with it and as long as I was relaxed, it didn't hurt. Then I would get a minute or so of total rest. Josh even said at one point I was asleep during my rest. It's crazy to me that our bodies go into a deep relaxation period to rev up before another contraction...it was incredible to experience. But after an hour I was done experiencing the pushing!!). Josh told me I could do this, I've done it before and I was almost done. That was all I needed to hear and I felt much better. 30 minutes later baby Maddox Knight was born!!
**I pushed for so long because he was all tangled up in his umbilical cord and not all of my water had broke, so it suspended him up there. The cord was wrapped around his neck, crossed his body and had his hand stuck in it, and wrapped around him. My midwife was AMAZING. She never freaked out and I had no idea anything was wrong. She gently unhooked the cord from around his neck before his body came out, and then she sort of "somersaulted" him to free him from the cord. He came out perfect :) **
Maddox Knight, born at 6:38am (only 6 hours of labor). The best part was when Josh told me, "It's a BOY!!" It was so fun not to find out the sex of our baby until he came out. It made the whole experience different for us and it was a really special moment between us :)
Daddy and his 3rd boy :) Our house is officially going to be wild!
It is amazing to me that this sweet baby started off so extremely tiny in my womb and 9 months later is 8 lbs 1 oz. God is so good.
Checking him out. Right after he was born I got to hold him while we waited for all the blood to stop pulsing in the umbilical cord (you don't want to cut the cord too early because that blood is rich in nutrients and really important to the baby). Then Josh got to cut the cord :) After all that my sweet midwife Jenny checked everything.
I love how they weigh him!
Sweet Maddox joining our family :)
My 2 midwives Margaret and Jenny. They were incredible.
They checked him out, cleaned up everything and then by 8:30 they were gone. It was so great! We got to sleep in our own bed with our new baby! Jenny came back the next day to check on us and she comes back at 2 weeks.
Meeting Maddox
Cathy & Mike brought the kids over around noon to meet baby Maddox! They all loved him :)
Oldest & youngest
Roman is obsessed with his new brother...he even shares his toys with him!
Say loves having a real, live baby doll! We were worried about how she would react, but she has transitioned perfectly. She's now a part of the big boys group, and loves that they now include her (maybe because she's not the baby anymore?!), and she loves holding Maddox.
Cute smiley girl
"The Cathy's!"
Nana holding her 4th grandchild!
Our first picture as a family of 6!
Mike and Cathy!
Seesha
Uncle Tommy
My Aunt Jill was in town for a few days and picked the perfect time to be here! She got to meet baby Maddox :)
Kensi girl
Bethany & Aunt Jill
I love this little girl like she was my own :)
Sweet little face
Pappy and Maddox
My mom and dad
Foreshadowing a family of 4 for Kyle & Bethany?! ;)
Shelley and Richie!
Aunt Em - she also got engaged the same night Maddox was born!!
Sarah holding Maddox (and baby Ellison! She's due in 5 weeks!)
Our sweet friends Steve & Sarah! We can't wait to meet their first baby in a few weeks :)
I absolutely love having a newborn again. Sometimes I can't believe we have 4 kids. That was not our plan, but I'm glad that we didn't stick to our plan because it was no good lol! God's plan is much better and we've grown so much in the past 5 years by being in God's Word and truly having Jesus the center of our lives.
So, overall having Maddox at home was incredible and I would definitely do it again and recommend it to anyone! The birth was great, transitioning to a family of 6 has been the easiest out of all the kids, and I feel really good! But I have a MAJOR disclaimer: "to each his own." Each mom is different, each pregnancy is different, and in the end it doesn't matter how you get your baby, we're all moms! For me, homebirth was great. For someone else, it may not be something that works for you. In the long run, a healthy mama and baby are the most important thing!!
Here's a part of a song called "I Will Worship You" by Aaron Gillespie. I sang this song everyday for the last week before I had Maddox and the Lord had these words in my heart during the birth of our precious gift:
"You are the anchor to my soul,
Draw me to You and don't let go
Only Your love can make me whole
Jesus, I worship You
Jesus, I worship You"
So, overall having Maddox at home was incredible and I would definitely do it again and recommend it to anyone! The birth was great, transitioning to a family of 6 has been the easiest out of all the kids, and I feel really good! But I have a MAJOR disclaimer: "to each his own." Each mom is different, each pregnancy is different, and in the end it doesn't matter how you get your baby, we're all moms! For me, homebirth was great. For someone else, it may not be something that works for you. In the long run, a healthy mama and baby are the most important thing!!
Here's a part of a song called "I Will Worship You" by Aaron Gillespie. I sang this song everyday for the last week before I had Maddox and the Lord had these words in my heart during the birth of our precious gift:
"You are the anchor to my soul,
Draw me to You and don't let go
Only Your love can make me whole
Jesus, I worship You
Jesus, I worship You"
