My story really starts when we found out we were expecting Noah. We knew we wanted to look into having a homebirth. We both knew people who had had homebirths and had nothing negative to say about them, so we did some research and decided to pursue it. While we were in Colorado Springs for Christmas, we met with Dana Savage, a local midwife, and instantly connected with her. Even though she was a bit more pricey than some of the other midwives in the area, we quickly made the decision to book her for our birth, trusting that God would provide. When we went back to Siloam Springs, we saw an OB for prenatal care, but if I had any questions or needed advice, I would just call or text Dana. She was always so helpful and it was a good way to begin developing a relationship with her.
As my pregnancy progressed, we noticed that my blood pressure wasn't really staying stable where it was supposed to. The doctor prescribed me medication to control it, but I knew that it wasn't really as high as he thought, since I monitored it regularly at home and knew that it was always quite a bit higher in the doctors office. I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to your doctor, but I personally felt very uneasy taking BP medication if I didn't truly need it, so I asked Dana if there was anything else I could do to help control it. She told me to eat 120 grams of protein a day, stay well hydrated all day long, and to take a walk everyday. I did that, and my BP was stellar :) I never took the medicine the doctor prescribed and I carried a healthy baby fully to term. That was just one of the ways that God took care of me and Noah throughout the pregnancy.
Right after graduation, David and I moved back to Colorado and were so excited about beginning our care with Dana. However, we knew that we owed her several thousand dollars and had absolutely no idea how we were going to do it. We only had about 4 weeks until our deadline and we really had no money. But God is so big and God is so good. Within a week of graduation, He provided more than enough through various gifts, tax returns, pay checks, and a wedding that David photographed. When we got back to Colorado, we were able to make student loan payments, pay off our balance for OB care in Siloam, pay for unexpected car repairs, and pay Dana in full at our first visit, with money left over. I share that because it was such a HUGE testament to us to how God provides for our every need. He is the provider.
The rest of my pregnancy was pretty good, but very stressful to me at points. There were two times that my blood pressure began to get high again, even though I was doing everything that I had been doing to keep it lower. I began to fear that I wouldn't get my homebirth due to risking out of it legally. The last few weeks, especially, were hard. I just wanted my baby to be born safely, but I continued to pray that we would get to have our homebirth. I was so excited to get to have the experience of staying home for labor and delivery, and having Dana and her assistant as my birth team. And God is good. He gave me the desires of my heart.
On August 14, I woke up at three in the morning and noticed that I was having contractions that felt different than the braxton hicks I had been experiencing for weeks. I layed awake for a while just to make sure that they were real and consistent. They were. At about 5:30 I woke David up and told him that I had been having contractions for about an hour and a half, and they were all timeable (8 minutes exactly, actually). After that we tried to go back to sleep to get more rest but of course we couldn't! We were way too excited. At about 6:30, I called Dana to let her know that I was having contractions. She told me to keep her updated and she would come around 10:30 unless I needed her sooner. I got up and had some breakfast, David went to work (and came right back home again!), and we started to get the room upstairs ready for the day. We are actually living with David's parents and they let us have their room for labor and delivery, and for six weeks afterwards! I took a shower and then my mom came over to keep me company. I was having some back labor but didn't really think anything of it. When Dana arrived, she checked to see my progress and I was making slow but steady progress. She listened to the baby and he was doing great. She also took my BP, which was staying stable (lower than it had been in a few days actually!), praise the Lord. My contractions remained close together but inconsistent until about 5:00. Dana had come back to check me and I was at about a 5. She told me she was going to call her assistant to go get food together and then they would run some errands and come back, since I wasn't progressing too quickly. She advised me to go downstairs and have a good dinner (one of the reasons we wanted to stay home! You can eat!) so I did that.
However, during dinner, my contractions which had been about 4-8 minutes apart were suddenly coming every 2-3 minutes. I was trying to eat but had to keep standing up to lean against something because that was most comfortable to me. I let Dana know and she came right back with her wonderful assistant, Kim. After I finished eating, we went upstairs, where I stayed until the baby was born. Labor really wasn't too difficult for me. Each contraction was painful, but I had a wonderful support team encouraging me through them, and they always went away. I was even smiling and laughing almost to the end! I told David he was blessed to have a wife who was so nice during labor. :) I didn't have back-to-back contractions until the very end. I labored in the bath tub for a while, which was awesome as well, and I continued to make good progress. One of my favorite moments during the last few hours of labor was when Dana said she wanted to pray with us. It was incredibly special as she prayed for me and for our little boy. She knew his name was Noah and prayed that he would be a man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, just as Noah in the Bible did. That moment, just Dana, David, and I, is one that I will never forget. How special to have the woman who delivered our son, pray for him before he even came into this world.
After that moment, things really progressed. I began to wonder when it would be over because I was having a harder time with each contraction. If I had been in the hospital, this is when I would have broken down and gotten the epidural. But it got even harder. When I was about 8-9 cm, Dana realized that Noah was more posterior than we realized. We needed him to come forward so that I would be able to deliver him without any forceps help. Dana had me doing lunges against the bathtub through each contraction. It was incredibly difficult. After that, she and Kim used a sheet to jostle my belly as I let it hang down. It was right after that that Kim felt something click in my back and when Dana listened to Noah's heartbeat again, he had come forward just like we needed him to.
At this point, my water still hadn't broken but I was starting to feel like I could push. I pushed for about 15 minutes trying to help my water break and it wasn't. Dana asked if I wanted her to break the water for me to see if it would speed things up. I was ready to be done so of course I said yes! I got on the bed, she broke my water, and I began to push. It was excruciating, as I had not had any pain medication at all. And even though I had prepared myself for the pain, I hadn't prepared myself for the amount of work it was going to be, accompanied by the pain! But only a couple of minutes later, my sweet baby Noah was born, weighing 8 lbs 3 oz, and measuring 22 inches long. He was also born with his hand on his head, so my "ring of fire" was not just a head, but a head and an arm as well. Thank you Noah for the 10 stitches I received!
At that moment I was so relieved. I held Noah on my chest while I delivered the placenta. Everything was wonderful. I was finally holding my little boy and the pain was over. However, I didn't realize that I was bleeding way more than I should have been. Dana gave me cytotec and pitocin to stop the bleeding and neither one worked. When she tried to find where the bleeding was coming from, she couldn't, so she made the decision to call 911 and transfer to the hospital. During this time, I felt fine, just so exhausted that I really didn't care what happened. I trusted her judgment. She called 911 and they took me to the hospital. David followed with his brother and Noah in the car. Noah's first car ride, an hour after being born!
By the time I was set up in the hospital, my bleeding had stopped. The medical staff didn't even really seem to know why I had come in. They didn't really believe Dana when she told them how much blood I had lost (she figure out that I had lost about 1 - 1.5 liters, which is a lot!). The doctor stitched me up, and three hours after I got there, I got to go home. God was taking care of me the whole time, and I had amazing peace about everything, even the bill we were going to receive (which God again took care of)!
Dana did not tell me until the next day that right before she had called 911, she prayed that God would protect me and stop my bleeding. What a blessing it was to have a woman who believes in the power of prayer to heal with me during my birth. She believes that it was when she prayed that my bleeding began to slow and eventually stop because even the doctor couldn't figure out why I had bled so much or where it had come from. To this day, there is no explanation for why it happened or why it stopped. My situation was more serious than I realized, but God gave me peace, and he protected me. He is good.
This story is so special to me. It is special because I had a successful, natural homebirth without any pain meds. I've never worked so hard or been through so much pain in my life, but I did it. And that was important to me. It is special because God gave me the desire of my heart and let me stay home with Dana, a woman who has become so special to me, to deliver my baby. It is special because as I pushed Noah into this world, worship music was playing in the background, and his family was praying for him downstairs. The presence of God was so sweet. It is special because even though it didn't all go as planned and I had to go to the hospital, it was perfect. God showed me his power and love and protection. If I am able and it is God's will, I will deliver my next baby at home as well. God gave me my birth story as a gift to me, to be part of my story. I never want to forget the night that Noah came into this world.
And PS: I am not against hospitals, doctors, or epidurals. I just didn't want them for me.
I'm gonna have a baby!!
The first chance I really had to just hold him and look at him since I transferred to the hospital after he was born.
During his newborn exam with Dana. He's so little!!
Dana, our midwife and friend. She continues to take amazing care of both of us. I'll be so sad when our care with her is over!
Our handsome little man at 10 days old
Our new little family!
