Home Hypnobirth Number Two - Featuring Mr. Chubby Cheeks Ryan

This was baby number 3 for me. I took the Marie Mongan hypnobirthing classes before I had my first. He was born in the hospital using nitrous oxide for pain relief. It wasn't a bad birth by any means but I did have many moments of fear, mainly of the unknown, that caused things to be more painful than I think they could have been. I also followed medical staffs advice when it came time to push, instead of listening to my own body.

Baby number 2 was born at home with a midwife after reviewing my hypnobirthing materials; it was an amazing experience.

So, here we were with number 3. I didn't re-read the hypnobirthing book this time but I did listen to my affirmation and rainbow relaxation tracks nearly every night from about 15 weeks on. I also drank 3 cups of red raspberry leaf tea a day, by the end of the pregnancy. I exercised throughout most of the pregnancy and saw a chiropractor for the last month and a half. I felt great, best pregnancy so far.

I was feeling confident and excited about this babies birth.

We were set up for another homebirth with the same midwife as last time.

I had the fairy lights up in the bathroom and around the bed. I had my affirmation cards printed and hung up. A little "Birth, Nailed It" onesie hanging in the bathroom. Newborn pictures of my first two babies in view and the new babies tiny little cowboy boots on the windowsill; all to give me motivation if any tough moments hit.

I had been nesting for a solid two months and every cupboard and drawer had now been re-organised (according to the Marie Kondo method) and every baby supply I may possibly need was in place. I had newborn and 0-3 month clothes for both genders washed and ready to go in a tiny dresser. I even had the perfect first pair of pj's set out for each gender. I was ready!!!!

Fast forward to a week past my due date. Everyone was pretty anxious about when this baby was going to come, everyone but the birthing team that is, we were all just patiently waiting.

I work out with a group of ladies at the local church in town. Since the time change (4 1/2 weeks prior) my kids hadn't been getting up early enough for us to go, and to be honest I wasn't super interested in working out anymore anyway.

Well, this particular day they got up early enough that we could go for part of the time. Dillon (my 4 year old) had been asking to "go to the church to play" nearly every day. So we went down and just hung out.

My friend asked me if I wanted to go hang out at her house while Dillon was at preschool. I knew the only thing waiting for me at home was a dirty kitchen, so in an effort to avoid that, my 2 yr old (Hayley) and I headed over there. We sat and chatted, mostly about babies and pregnancy.

At 10.45 am I had a contraction and thought, yep, that was different, there was definitely some downward pressure with that one. At 11.15 am it was about time to pick the kids up from preschool. I had had about two more contractions by then. I said to my friend, "I think I should probably call Sam (my husband) and maybe my midwife too. Do you think you would be able to keep Hayley and pick Dillon up from preschool and keep them for a while?" I told her I would let her know how things were going.

So I called Sam from her house and told him he might need to come home. He's a cowboy and was scheduled to be gathering cows pretty far from home that day in a place that had spotty cell service. Luckily the plan had changed that morning and he was actually very close to home.

As I got in the car and drove off I had another contraction and another on the 10 minute drive home.

When I got home I called my midwife (Casandra) and told her I thought she better head our way as I'd had about 4 contractions in the past 1/2 hour. It was now 11.35 am. We live in a very remote area and she was on the road by noon, at the beginning of her 4 hour journey.

Sam called again to see if he should come home, I said he should.

I started busying myself getting the bed prepped for delivery but contractions were coming fast now, and intensifying, ranging from 2 to 4 minutes apart. I felt like the excitement of getting ready was intensifying them. No-one was there yet, I didn't want to have the baby alone, so I thought I better lie down to try to slow things down.

Cassandra also sent me a text saying to lie down and see if that changed them.

It did change them, but only in the fact that it made them painful, I could feel they weren't causing progress of my cervix. They just hurt instead! I breathed through them and waited for Sam.

He came home, checked in with me and said his plan was to clean up the kitchen and take a shower and would that work? I said yeah as I was handling the contractions and trying to hold off as long as I could so that Casandra would make it.

A while later I thought, yes I can handle this but it sucks, when I would stand and let my body do what it was supposed to the contractions didn't hurt. But Casandra wasn't there and Sam wasn't ready yet.

Tub, I thought, they say the tub can stall out your labor if you get in too soon, perfect! Sam ran it and I got in, I didn't have a contractions for 10 minutes and thought, great, it's working.

Casandra texted to see how it was going. We told her we'd tried to slow them down by lying down but they were still coming every 4 minutes or less and that I'd just got in the tub to see if that helped. The text was at 1.40 pm.

Pretty soon contractions ramped back up to every 2 to 4 minutes. The tub wasn't working.

I wasn't very interested in trying to hold them off anymore. So I pretty much asked Sam if he was okay with us having the baby alone and very soon?! He said he thought he was okay with that and what other option did we really have?!

He called his cousin (Rocky) who was set to assist the midwife at the birth. My last baby was born at night and I think we all fully expected this one to be too. Rocky was working and asked Sam if he wanted her to come home, he said "err, I'm not sure" she said "well, put it this way, how comfortable are you delivering your own baby?" He said "pretty comfortable I think" she said "okay, well call me if you need me, I can come home if you want me to"

Sam busied himself getting the bed ready and familiarising himself with the birth supplies.

I had been considering birthing in the water but didn't love the idea of being in there with all my own bodily fluids. I needed to go to the bathroom so I wanted to get out to do it.

The idea in my head was that I would do that and my water would break on the toilet too, like it did with Hayley. That would be a convenient way to contain mess. Then I would leisurely move to the bed Sam had prepped and have the baby there.

Ok, here we go... Sam helped me out and on to the toilet, pausing to work through two contractions on the way. I sat and did my business and then my water broke with a contraction. Perfect, I thought, now for the stroll to the bed.

The next contraction came and with it the babies head to the point of crowning. This is almost exactly how my last birth went and Sam was terrified I was going to have the baby on the toilet. I saw the same look in his eye this time too. This one was faster and the thought crossed my mind also, so I basically leaned off to one side with only one leg on the toilet, and was raised up on my other tippy toe, holding myself down there so there was no chance of the baby sliding out in to the toilet.

Last time I made it off the toilet and onto the floor on my hands and knees next to it and had the baby there. This was my new plan.

I remembered how hard that transition was and how it took a few contractions to get it done and two people to assist me. I knew I didn't have time for two contractions, so I basically bailed off the toilet onto the floor in one big effort.

Okay, time to have a baby. About two more contractions and the head was born. I felt the neck and the cord was loosely around it. I said "Sam, the cords around it's neck" he said "I know" I said "can you get it?" He was trying but my body pushed the baby out at the same time.

Sam said "it's a boy" the baby took one breath right away but didn't follow with another, if I kind of pushed on his chest he would take one breath but not continue on his own.

Sam asked how I was as I have a history of postpartum hemorrhage. I said "the babies not breathing right, I need the nose sucker" Sam had it out but not out of the packet. He had put plastic gloves on in his official role as baby deliverer, but now they were hindering him getting the bulb syringe out of the package. He finally tore them off and got into the packet. I suctioned his mouth and nose and Sam called Rocky.

She told us to stimulate his feet and kind of rough him up a little. We got him breathing well and both breathed a sigh of relief. He was still pretty purple, Rocky asked us to send her a quick video, we did and she said he looked great.

Sam and I suddenly thought we should see what time it was. As close as we could figure he arrived at 2.20 pm.

Now on to me, with my two previous births I had postpartum hemorrhages, the placenta needed to be pulled from the birth canal and I needed Pitocin to stop the bleeding. We had Pitocin on hand this time but I also had plans on how to try to prevent the hemorrhage in the first place.

I brought baby boy to my chest skin to skin and got into a squatting position leaned up against the bath. Hoping the skin to skin would bring on a contraction to birth the placenta and that gravity would help it along. It worked perfectly and I delivered the placenta within a couple of minutes of moving. I was so pleased.

We put the placenta in a bowl still attached to baby and moved to the bed so he could explore nursing. He latched on brilliantly and we settled in to wait for the midwife who was about an hour and a half away. The oxytocin from the nursing worked just as it should and meant my uterus continued to clamp down to keep bleeding to a minimum.

We monitored my bleeding and made a consultation call to Casandra. She said everything sounded normal, so we continued to quietly wait for her arrival. All three of us in disbelief about what just happened.

I snapped a quick picture and sent it to my friend Laura who was watching our two older kids. That was at 2.55 pm. Laura said she'll never forget thinking, I wonder if she is really in labor, and then receiving a picture of the baby. I know I was shocked too. I never imagined when I left her house that I would have a baby in my arms within 3 hours!!

Casandra arrived, obviously could see that all was well and we spent quite a while recounting the whole experience.

She checked me out down there, there were no tears or grazes and she said it didn't even look like I had just had a baby!

I settled back down to watch the cord cutting and newborn exam. We used a neat little rubber band for the cord instead of the nasty bulky plastic clip. Casandra checked him out and he pretty much slept through the whole thing!

Sam and I guessed he was going to be 8 lbs even. They put him in the sling and Sam lifted him. They said 8 and 3/4!! I was in shock, I said, "you mean, as in 8 lbs 12 oz?!" My first was my biggest at 7 lb 11 oz and my little girl was only 6 lb 11 oz, I couldn't believe how much bigger this boy was.

He continued to sleep and I got up to take a shower, which felt amazing! It had been a very hands on birth for me and I was covered in blood, pretty much from head to toe, with a little meconium smashed in between my toes for added measure!

Sam and Casandra cleaned up the bed and the bathroom while I showered. I put my glamorous postpartum panties and PJ's on and went back to a nice clean bed to snuggle with our new baby boy.

Sam and I had struggled to agree on a boy name, we were team green. So we had decided to go with the one I liked if Sam hadn't come up with another one we agreed on before the baby was born.

I knew he didn't like the name and it wasn't sitting great with me to make him use it. I told him we had till the next morning to come up with something. Being team green we had been calling the baby "it" for nine months and I was anxious to finally give him a name.

The next morning I was browsing a homebirth Facebook group and was feeling a little envious of people that had documented their births with a photographer. There was a post with a huge amount of birth pictures and I started looking through them. In there was a shot of the dad's feet; complete with painted toenails. The dad, Ryan, already had a little girl. It struck me that Sam's only little girl already had total control over him and will definitely one day paint his toenails. So the name of Ryan hit me emotionally and I wanted it for our boy. I googled it and saw that part of the meaning of the name was "noteworthy" and "significant". I certainly think his birth was noteworthy and significant. Sam and I talked about it and we actually agreed. So Ryan Gilbert Matheson it was.

There were so many little things that made it all work out so perfectly... That I decided to go to church to see everyone and Laura invited me over so I had the opportunity for her to watch my kids. That Sam's work plans changed that very morning so he was close enough to come home in time to set everything up. Finally that we had Rocky to consult with while Casandra was in the cell phone dead zone portion of her journey.

This was birth number three, homebirth number two and I have been so lucky to have had progressively wonderful births.

Our family is now complete and the only sad thing about that is I won't get to deliver another baby. Although with a labor that lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes from first contraction to delivery I would likely be birthing alone and I wouldn't want the experience without my wonderful husband present.

Sam said he had secretly hoped the midwife wouldn't make it so it was just him and me. Careful what you wish for babe!

Mission accomplished, Matheson family complete!