Xavier's Homebirth

This is a little late I know, since my baby is now just over 1 year old. But, everybody loves a good birth story, right!
So here's mine (my most recent that is):

and just for fun, here's my favorite pregnancy photo
Shepard and I are both showing off our bellies

I started having mild contractions early in the day on Oct.2. They were really sporadic and didn't last long, but I was still excited and had the feeling my little one would be coming soon!

Around 7 or 8pm my husband and I took our older son to my mom's to stay the night there since I was starting to have stronger contractions and knew it would be that night.

I sat around waiting for things to get stronger for a couple hours (drank my super strong raspberry leaf tea. It tasted horrible, but I managed to swallow about a cup and a half)

Around 11 or 11:30 I decided to get into the birth pool 'cause I was bored and wanted labor to start. And, that it did! The contractions started getting stronger and closer together right away, and kept progressing. I had David time them when I was really feeling things happening, and they were 5 minutes apart, so I told him to call my midwife. He did, and she was on her way.

here I am about an hour before he was born. Can you believe I'm still smiling!?

Right before my midwife got there I started feeling like my body needed to push. So I did. I was so surprised at how fast it was all happening! When she got there she talked me through the contractions, 2 I think. Then, when she was in my kitchen getting supplies ready I felt his head coming down. I told David, who was sitting beside the birth pool, holding my hand. And, with a look of shock he yelled to her.

Even with how intense I appeared David still thought I was kind of exaggerating, since I was pushing for a couple hours with our first son. But not this time!
So, I pushed my tiny guy out and my midwife placed him on my chest.

Here we are right after he was born

My sweet Xavier was born at 1:08am, and I actually got some sleep that night!

This was an awesome birth experience. I was in active labor for only about 2 hours.

And, I have to mention that I attribute much of the ease of this birth with the herbs I used during pregnancy, labor and after the baby was born. I drank lots of raspberry leaf/nettle tea during the last 3 months of my pregnancy, during labor, and after. And used Blue and Black Cohosh the day that I went into labor (one is known to soften the cervix, the other is known to begin labor, and that they did!)

Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed, was the book that really helped me.