dora grace's birth story

I was sure that I wouldn’t go into labor before 40 weeks. I was completely prepared to go nine days over like with my 2nd and 3rd. Of course I was ready! It was hot, I was huge, and I was keeping my house unnaturally clean. *This was a part of homebirth that I hadn’t thought about ahead of time.

My 39th week of pregnancy I served in the nursery for VBS. On Friday afternoon I was so surprised to have my bloody show. I was so excited! My due date wasn’t until Monday. All along, as I always do, I had been listening to and reading birth stories. Each time I gain more wisdom from these women’s stories. My new realization this time was that I could maintain control or at least steer my labor more than I had ever considered or attempted. Labor wasn’t this freight train I had to jump on at the first opportunity. I spent months considering this and praying very specifically for what I wanted labor to look and feel like. I was confident it would be painless. I wanted to labor in the morning, looking out at our beautiful mountain view in a sunshine filled room after a decent night sleep.

Friday evening after VBS I texted Nichole and told her that I could probably get labor going and have a baby that night. She kindly recommended resting instead. I put my feet up and enjoyed knowing that we’d be meeting our girl before too long. Also, the whole length of my pregnancy I had been praying with a friend who was due a few weeks after me. Without sharing her whole story, we both were praying for God’s will, without knowing at all what that looked like. Saturday I rested again and fell asleep praying for my friend. 

I woke up around 2:30AM having a gentle, painless, but definitely REAL contraction. I was also entirely convinced that my water had broken and that if I moved an inch there would be a mess and that contractions would pick up and I’d be on that train. I really wanted more rest and didn’t want to call Nichole in the middle of the night. So, I laid there snoozing and noticing contractions every 10-15 min until about 5:30 at which time I had to pee and it wasn’t too early to get started. 

My water had not broken so I let everyone sleep, I went down and cleaned up the kitchen, just enjoying being the only one who knew. They continued 10-15 min apart with no pain. I could so clearly feel every muscle involved and I breathed through them. I told my husband as soon as he woke up and then we both enjoyed the secret for a little while. 

At 7AM my friend sent me a picture of her baby. The Lord had answered her prayers in ways we could’ve never imagined! He is so good! I had woken up with “Holy Forever” stuck in my head and after hearing from her I was just so thankful. I’ve never felt so full of the Holy Spirit, I don’t have words for it, it was just such an amazing holy day. The sun was pouring in and our kids were in and out while my husband made us all breakfast. Contractions were about 5min apart, I was breathing in, visualizing different beautiful things, praising the Lord for each one. 

At no point did I want to “ramp up” labor. I knew I could but I realized I didn’t need to. I was so relaxed and everything was very calm. 

Nichole and her friend, another midwife, arrived around 11. My mom came and hung out for a while then took the kids to her house, just a few minutes away. I don’t think the contractions got much closer than 3 minutes apart. I was focused and worshipping, but also welcomed comic relief in the form of the contraction app having pop-up ads and other sweet, funny moments. 

Around 11:30 I felt baby moving down so I caught my husband when he came to check on me and said I think baby’s coming! 

I knelt next to our bed and gently pushed. I did get stressed about the potential pain which caused me to lose my cool for a minute.. but anyway, baby came and we met Dora Grace! 

She was so peaceful, with lots of dark hair, and pinked up beautifully. We waited until the placenta came and then climbed into bed to snuggle. My mom brought the 3 big kids (7, 5, & 2) back and they all climbed up to meet her. It was truly the sweetest for them to meet her when she was less than an hour old. It all just felt so right, so natural. We could feel the Lord there holding us in his hands and blessing this new life. This gift from God.  2Timothy 1:6-7