Sadie’s Birth Story

I’ve NEVER been someone who wanted to have a baby naturally. Nope. That’s not for me. Until I saw a facebook add. The add claimed that it was possible to have a baby naturally with hardly any pain. I called bull crap, and clicked on the add. After watching the free webinar I was convinced enough to buy the mama natural course. That was my first BIG step, in Sadie’s birth story.

 

Clayton and I would watch a mama natural course together, taking note and talking about different things. After learning everything I was determined to have a natural childbirth and advocate for no interventions as long as the baby and I didn’t need them. 

 

After making this decision, we realized we needed to hire a doula. So we interviewed three, and fell in LOVE with Elan. From the minute we met with her, we both felt super comfortable and loved how assertive and “take charge” she seemed. So we hired her! 

 

Quickly after hiring Elan, Clayton and I realized that the provider we were currently with wasn’t supportive with our birth plan of going natural so we then started hunting for a new provider and fell in love with the midwives at Seasons medical center. 

 

We officially had our full team put together. Clayton, Elan, and either Marie or Suzanne would be the midwife to deliver Sadie. Now I just needed to work on preparing my body for her to come naturally. 

 

So every night I would do spinning babies with Clayton (look it up if you’ve never heard of it before). At 36 weeks I started to eat 6 dates a day. I had two cups of red raspberry leaf tea every day. And as I went past my due date and induction was approaching I started walking 3 times a day in the freezing cold. As well as go up the stairs with Joyce on my back.

 

Nothing seemed to be working. I wouldn’t have been discouraged if I wasn’t trying to avoid being induced, but I really didn’t want pitocin. So, Elan suggested the midwives brew.

 

Basically, the main ingredient in a midwives brew is castor oil. I was scared to take it because I thought If I did I would have extreme diarrhea on top of pushing out a baby. But i did it anyways. Mixing the castor oil with apricots and almond butter. It was so gross. I figured that maybe it would give me a few contractions and that’s all. Little did I know that within 2 hours of taking it, I’d be in full labor.

 

I took the midwives brew at 10pm, went to bed at 11, and woke up at 12:30 screaming! If you could rate contractions from a 1 – 10, 10 being when your in the last phase of labor (transition) before you need to push, I was at a 10. I had no prep. No warning. Just insane pressure that made me scream. 

 

Somehow, even though Clayton was sleeping right next to me, he slept through my first three contractions. Haha he must have been very tired because I was yelling. After having three, it mentally hit me that i was in active labor, so I quickly tried to get on the ground to try a different position that might help me through the pain a little bit more. 

 

That didn’t work. I was starting to panic, but i really had to pee. So before the next contraction could come I ran to the bathroom, peed, then jumped in the shower. By this point Clayton was up and was helping me work through each contraction (we called them pressure waves). Then I threw up.

 

This is where I’m SO GLAD we got the mama natural course and hired a doula. In the course they talk about how “throwing up” is a sign that you’re in transition and soon it will be time to push. I believe an angel brought that to my memory, because at the time i was not thinking straight at all. When I had that thought I immediately told Clayont to call Elan. 

 

As he was calling her I was in so much pain that I started hitting my head and fists on the shower while I was screaming. Yeah, I was a mad woman. Elan could hear me on the phone and told Clayton to get me to hospital asap. I was going to have this baby really soon. 

 

Elan stayed on the phone and coached Clayton to help me out of the shower, get some clothes on and get downstairs. We got some cheetah onesies on me, then right as I got to the bottom of the stairs another contraction hit. 

 

Luckily my mom was already at our townhouse for the weekend so we had someone to watch Joyce. As Clayton frantically ran upstairs to grab some last minute things we needed, my mom helped me through my next contraction. 

 

I’m pretty sure I screamed in her face while clawing up her as she held me. My poor mom, that must’ve been so scary to see. As my Mom and Clayton helped me to the garage another contraction hit that was so strong I refused to move. I even screamed at the top of my lungs “I don’t want to move” when they were trying to get me into the car. 

 

Once it ended, my body started to push. I don’t feel like I made the conscious choice to push, rather my body just started to do it. Kind of like sneezing. 

 

Elan could tell I was pushing and instructed Clayton to put me in the middle section of our minivan where I could be on my knees. She also tried to get me to not push, by telling me to do “horse lips” and breathe out. I remember trying to do it, but not. In the end I just kept pushing. 

 

Clayton drove like a mad man. I remember looking out the back window watching everything rush by us, while screaming and pushing, while listening to Elan’s voice. So many things all at once. 

 

Right when we got to the hospital, there were two nurses with a wheelchair to greet us. I had just finished having a contraction and was so exhausted. The nurses were trying to encourage me to get out of the minivan. One even said “it’s too cold to have this baby outside”. With that I forced myself onto the wheel chair right as another contraction started. 

 

It was like a scene out of a movie. They were rolling me into the hospital and needed to get me to the third floor, all while I was screaming and pushing the whole time. 

 

Once they got me into the room, they immediately put me on the bed, checked how dilated I was and told me the baby was crowning. There wasn’t enough time for my midwife to get there, luckily Doctor Meredith lives right next to the hospital and barely made it. 

 

Once he got there Doctor Meredith told me to focus on pushing, to which i yelled at him “ I am pushing!!” then he said “no you’re not pushing, you’re screaming. Now focus on pushing.” Man that pissed me off. But, it helped me because I was determined to prove to Doctor Meredith that I was in fact pushing. 

 

Three pushes later, Sadie was out. I remember Doctor Meredith saying “Now that’s a big baby!” And she was. 9 pounds 11 ounces, magically I didn’t tare at all! 

 

They immediately put her on my chest and she stayed there for at least an hour. An hour of snuggles in between extreme body shakes because of the intensity of what just happened. Even though it was so intense and I wasn’t able to use a lot of the prep I did (hypno-birthing, different positions) I’m still so proud of how she came into this world. I was able to keep my goal of having a natural child birth without any interventions. So with that, I want to have a at home birth for our third baby. I’ll just need to make sure I tell the midwife when I’m taking the midwives brew so were all prepared!