I guess since Baylee is almost 2 I should get on with writing his birth story!

We planned Baylee completely. I used the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. I charted and we got pregnant within a few cycles. We used the same Midwife. Shannon Stellhorn. We highly recommend her! I also had a doula which I relied on 100% this birth. With this pregnancy I gained 60 pounds! 60!????? I don’t know how that happened but oh well. Pregnancy went well, I did not have GD or GBS which was good. I did have prodromal labor for like three weeks! That really sucked and on many occasions I called the midwife thinking I was in labor. We knew we wanted to try and have a baby by December 31. I was already measuring a month ahead and we knew he was going to be a big baby. So right after christmas I was 39 weeks and we started trying the homeopathy and membrane strips. I went the following week to Dr Mann and got accupuncture and accupressure. Within two days on New Year’s Eve I started having hard contractions at about 5am. I texted Shannon to tell her and she said it was probably wishful thinking and I should get some rest. I could not rest however because I actually was in labor. I texted the doula and asked her to come. The doula texted Shannon to ask her if I was in labor and then Shannon got with me and I sent her a picture of my face because she can tell if I am in labor by my face. LOL. So she said she was coming over and the doula as well. I called my mother in law to come and pick up Samuel because I knew that I did not want him to be there for the birth. he wasn’t even two and I don’t think he would have handled it well.

So everyone arrived kind of all at once. My contractions were like 3-5 minutes apart and lasting like 60 seconds. They slowed a bit amongst all the chaos. Shannon was finally able to check me once Samuel had left. She found me to be at 6cm dilated! After things calmed down my Doula and I went on a walk to help pick the contractions back up, remember I was on a deadline;) . The walk worked and we went back home I made some cookies and popcorn I think. After a little while we had the birth pool ready and I got it. I was in the pool for a while and my water actually broke in the pool on its own. I was not able to push well in the pool and we moved to the bathroom for a few pushes. Later we moved into the bedroom and as soon as I got on the bed on my knees I told Shannon I could feel a lot of pressure. Within a few minutes the head was out and I was having a lot of trouble pushing the rest of him out. I changed positions onto my hands and knees and and she tugged him and he finally came out. She told me she bet he was 10lbs. He was born kind of grey and was not breathing right away so Shannon quickly gave him oxygen for about 30 seconds. Then he pinked up and was fine. I however was not fine. I was hemorrhaging. Shannon passed the baby to the Doula and gave me a shot of pitocin and a cytotec and some various oils and herbs to stop the bleeding.  It did stop but I lost quite a lot of blood about 1000cc she said from the looks of it. I had a 2nd degree tear and she numbed me and sewed me up. Finally while drinking a placenta smoothie I was able to hold my new baby!

Baylee Christopher Holbert

Born December 31, 2014 at 4:33 P.M.

23 inches long and 9 1/4lbs