Baby Stephens
I had my first two babies in the hospital it is not possible to describe how fulfilling it was to have had Lilly at home. The care we had with our Midwife Sherry Hopkins was wonderful she has become a close friend even now more than a year and a hafe after the birth of Lilly. She took the time to listen to whatever concerns I may have had and answered all of our question. Sherry helped my husband feel comfortable with having a home birth which is a small miracle in itself.
On January 14th 2009 I went to Sherry office at noon, she did a quick nonstress test, because of going pasted my do date I asked sherry to stripped my membranes, however there wasn't much to strip, most of it had already separated. As soon as we left we went to Jack in the Box and I had a hefty lunch. During lunch I started having contractions, so about 30 minutes after having my membranes stripped. For the next couple of hours I sat on the birth ball in my bedroom and pumped each breast for 10 minutes at a time. By about 3 I was having contractions about every 4 minutes, so I called my midwife Sherry, and explained that they were regular but not painful. She said she would come by and check me at 7. By the time she got to my house my contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and I was 7 centimeter dilated.
For the next couple of hours we all kinda hung out in my room, my husband, my midwife, and a lactation counselor, she took pictures the whole time. Then all the sudden my contractions started to get painful. My husband sat on another ball behind me and pushed on my back during each contraction. I changed positions a couple of times to kinda move things along. Finally Sherry had me to do a couple contractions on the toilet and that's when my mucus plug came out. I went back and sat on the ball and did 2 or 3 more contractions there. Then I got up on the bed (the only time I got on the bed during the whole labor) so she could check my progress. Sherry just barely gauged that I was complete before I had another contraction, I turned on my side because it hurt too much to be on my back and I couldn't get off the bed. I had another contraction about 30 seconds later and with that one I had to push. So I started to push and my husband got up to catch her. As her head was emerging my water broke and sprayed all over my him, lol. I started pushing at 11:46 pm and she was born at 11:51. She was 19 3/4 inches long and weighed 9 lbs even.
We had a very happy home birth my two older girls were able to participate, my husband loved it, truly incredible. If anyone is considering a home birth please talk with Sherry. Sherry and everyone at Your Happy Homebirth and Well Rounded Momma were amazing.
