Dexter's Birth Story (a first baby, born at home) Written by His Mom, Samantha

Saturday September 24th, my due date. I knew this was only an expected date, but I wasn’t expecting to go into labor that day.

 
It was a nice day, Spencer and I slept in, he cleaned, I got a nap, we rented a RedBox movie and we took a walk in the park.
During the movie I started feeling what really seemed like labor pains, but I was skeptical still. I got in contact with my midwife, Liz Derry, right away and told her what I was feeling.

 
 On our walk I was sure I was in early labor, it was about 6:30. When we finished our walk we knew we had to get home, and Liz had suggested that I get on my hands and knees to make sure Baby was in the best position. When we got home we started thinking about all of the things we needed to do to get ready. Spencer started to make room for me to get on my hands and knees in the living room. I felt another contraction coming on and I just couldn’t stand to be in the living room, with all of the noise and activity that was going on. So I got up and went to our bedroom. I tried getting on my hands and knees but contractions were so strong I decided to stand up to make them feel better. Spencer was in the kitchen at this point trying to get dinner ready.

I thought to myself, “okay, this is it, here we go” Contractions came every minute, getting more intense. Spencer soon came in with dinner and had me try and eat in between contractions. He was in contact with Liz, and her and her crew were shortly on their way. Contractions were so intense and Spencer was by my side for all of it, rubbing my back and comforting me in anyway we could think of. I remember thinking that they were just too close together, I felt like I had no time to rest in between. I had about a minute and I really relished that time. I kept asking Spencer when Liz was going to get here, and the good news is each time I asked he could tell me a lesser time.

 
 My contractions were really just so painful I didn’t know what to do anymore and I thought maybe Liz could somehow make the pain less. I was definitely in labor land by this time, I had tried positions in the bed, I went from leaning on the entertainment center in the bedroom, to leaning on the counter in the bathroom, to sitting on the toilet, to the shower and I had gotten sick a couple times.

 
Liz, our Douala and Photographer arrived between 10:30-11:00pm. 
By this time I was completely nude and on the toilet. Liz came in and asked me how I was doing. There I was completely exposed and I didn’t care.
I labored for the next 5 hours. Contractions were hard and there were many times where I felt like I wanted to give up, and knew I couldn’t. I just wanted it to be over. At times I let my fear get in the way, and I stopped relaxing. The pain was so much worse when I wasn’t relaxed. I moaned out loud when I felt like I couldn’t handle the pain. I changed positions quite a few times, showered and got sick more times.

When I wasn’t feeling contractions I felt pain in my lower back and for hours I felt like I was in constant pain. I had no concept of time since contractions started, but I remember mile stones. The big one was when my water broke, it was reliving physically and mentally. There was still more work to be done, but I knew we were closer. Then after a few more hours (I’m guessing here) I felt like I needed to push, and when I did I didn’t feel the contractions as much, it was so relieving. It felt like just minutes of pushing, but Liz recorded an hour from beginning to end.

 I started off pushing in a sitting position on the shower floor. After a while Liz had seen no further progress so we moved to the bed with my knees bent. I started off pushing and felt progress, then after a few contractions
It felt like I was trying to push something that wasn’t ever going to budge. We moved to the side of the bed, Spencer was sitting on the bed supporting me, holding me up and I was squatting. Liz said I made huge progress just from moving from the bed to the squat. After just a few pushes I could feel Baby crowning, and then in a few more pushes he was all the way out.  I could feel the stretch and burn with each push and I almost kept pushing when I didn’t feel contractions, just so it would be over.
 It was 4:13 am and Liz handed me my Baby Boy. We waited until Baby got the remaining blood from the umbilical cord and not long after I delivered the placenta.

 Delivering the placenta was a breeze compared to everything else I had just gone through.

 Baby and I eventually took an herb bath together and got cleaned up. We then weighed, measured and checked Baby’s reflexes.
I don’t remember exactly what time Liz and her crew left, but It was around 6am I think. Spencer, Baby and I went to sleep around 7.
It took me awhile before I could fall asleep, and as soon as I did I was awake again. It was around 9, I got up and got some cereal.

We didn’t officially decide on a name for Baby until later that day. We decided on Dexter Lincoln.
 

 I am so grateful that I was able to bring Dexter into the world without interference. My labor was hard and the pain to that degree wasn’t what I had imagined, but it was all worth it and it taught me so much. I am happy about this Birth, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.

Liz was such great support through out my entire labor and I will be using her for any future births!

(all images provided by www.tiffcphotography.com)