Sept 15th, a day which will live in infamy (lol)

On September 15, 2016 my wife sent me a text message with this picture showing that she was pregnant. My first response was, "Who is the father?" jk. Let me just say that we were not trying. We certainly were not "NOT TRYING" either. We knew that we would take the same route that we have in the past, a home birth experience and here is our story... 

Planning for a birth is inherently difficult. It’s the final stage of a series of steps biologically designed to send a strong message that you’re not driving the boat any more. As we’ve discussed in our previous posts, we decided early on to do a homebirth. Keep an eye out for a post on my (overwhelmingly positive) thoughts on homebirth in general…

I honestly don't know what initially drew me to the idea of home birth but pretty soon after we found out we were pregnant with our first child I asked the only couple I knew who'd had a home birth if they would talk to us about their experience and possibly provide a reference since there were no home birth midwives in our area. We'd had a few appointments with a local OB and weren't impressed with the service or lack of patient education. It was as if there was a path that all patients took and that's what we were expected to do too. So when Kellie agreed to meet with us (despite our home being 90 miles away from her!) my husband and I jumped at the chance to learn more about our home birth options. The one question he had was "what do we do with our dogs"...haha! But our biggest concern was definitely the distance - she reassured us that it would be no problem and as the pregnancy progressed we completely trusted her.

Hi Kellie!

I am doing great!! I LOVE being Wren's mommy!!! It is the best ever!!! I am so so thankful I get to be a mom and that Wren is our baby. I had high expectations of being a mom but they have been FAR surpassed!! Wren is sitting up now, just got her first two teeth and has just started to try solids (we skipped the rice cereal!)... really she is just tasting them for now... she still likes mama's milk best! Breastfeeding has continued to go SO WELL praise the Lord!! We both love it :)

Lynne Marie was born at home on April 7, 2008. She was actually my second child. Since Lynne’s birth was a VBAC, I’ll give a quick rundown of Hank’s birth, my first child, since I believe it adds a lot to the story of Lynne’s birth.

Baby Sharon's birth story starts, unofficially, in the middle of the night on Wednesday, September 7, 2011. Baby Sharon weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 19 inches long. She was bright eyed and so alert just taking in all of her surroundings. She had her little fists right up by her jawline and I could imagine that was her favorite position while I was pregnant with her.

My sister and my husband were kneeling in front of me. I had each by an arm, and they coached me through the contractions and encouraged me during the breaks. Kellie was on her way, and I remember my sister talking on the phone with her a few times.

With Craig's hands in mine and him cheering me on with each push Quin was born in the water at 10:01 and placed in my arms. I was on top of the world. I accomplished my goal! After I held Quin for a while I was helped out of birth tub and into bed.

Nora is our second child. She was scheduled for a c-section birth at the Women's Hospital of Texas in Houston, since her brother was a c-section baby. My husband Sunil and I weren't happy with the way Aron's birth turned out, since the doctor went to c-section route too easily. We also felt we weren't really informed, and were rather forced to follow the hospital's policy. I was fully dilated, my husband could see his hair, his heartbeat was strong and normal, and I only pushed for 2 hours. Yet the back-up doctor said it's enough to make it a c-section birth. The reason was because Aron was stuck in transverse arrest, which most likely was caused by the epidural I had taken. I wish I knew at the time that it had the potential of numbing my cervix muscles too much.

Our birth was everything we had hoped it would be, spiritual, joyful, and drug free. Kellie was such a patient and calm motivator through the whole birthing process. She helped support me every step of the way before and after the birth. She really left the birth decisions up to us and it really felt like it was in our hands as the parents instead of the medical industry. We were educated and informed of all the options every step of the way. I felt so incredibly lucky to have had such a healthy birth free of intervention and in the comfort of my own home.