Wisconsin home birth: Willis

My midwife recommended that I write out my birth story and my thoughts on my birth. I already have run over it so many times in my head that I am more than happy to oblige.

Monday morning around 3:30am I had started feeling what felt like a menstrual cramp in my  lower back turn into a charlie horse in my stomach and run all the way to the top of my belly. It kept coming every 20 min or so. I started whimpering because it was quite intense. Tom sleepily put his hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me as I started to cry that I wouldn’t be able to do this if this was early labor and it only got more painful from here on out. (As it turns out, these were my hardest contractions to manage. It was only at the very end did I think the contractions were comparable, but it might have been because I didn’t have time to breathe through these early ones and woke up in the peak of the contraction). I decided I was starving so I got up and showered and made myself a protein shake. Then I went back to bed. I had another contraction that Tom tried to comfort me through that ended up with me in the bathroom puking. I text my boss that I wasn’t sure if I would be at work today but not to count on it, then text my midwife that my contractions were 9 min apart and lasting a minute, and then went back to bed.

Rochester, MN home birth: Kyla

It all started one week ago, the morning before her due date. Ironically, I tried not to tell people Kyla’s due date, since it’s so easy to get fixated on that date and feel anxious as it approaches or disappointment as it passes. I woke up around 2 AM on Sunday, March 6th with some cramps and just restlessness. I got up every hour until 8 in the morning and then slept in. Nick and I spent the rest of the day relaxing around the apartment. My mom, my sister Dawn, and nephew Everett came to visit in the afternoon. We got coffee from the coffee shop below our apartment and went for a walk outside. The cramps and frequent trips to the bathroom continued throughout the day, but I was still in denial that this could actually be the start of labor. My midwife LeAnn called me around 6:30 pm and I told her things were fine - no noticeable pattern of cramping, but they were slightly stronger than earlier in the day.