Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Joel's Birth Story



My husband and I were stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, CA when I found out I was expecting again. Our son, Joshua was 15 months old and I was very excited that he would soon have a little buddy to play with. I was eager to try a home-birth after my first birth experience which ended in a caesarean. A couple friends of mine referred me to a great midwife. She was very friendly and had years of experience. I liked her right away and she made me feel very comfortable. Something that I truly enjoyed throughout the years of using her (total of 4 pregnancies) is she has a passion for educating her clients. She encourages ladies to borrow her books and DVD’S on various topics such as; natural birth, water birth, breastfeeding, vaccines, VBAC, and risks of epidurals. She also focuses more on nutrition and supplements as ways to avoid many problems that can arise during pregnancy. 
My pregnancy went very well. I went to the chiropractor regularly and practiced good posture (this is difficult for me, I love to slouch) to avoid having another breached baby. My only complaint in this pregnancy was that I felt the baby extremely low and lots of pressure during the last few weeks.
On September 18th I woke up at 5:00 am with contractions. My husband woke up at 6:00 am for work and found me in the kitchen preparing dinner. I thought if I was going in labor at least I could have dinner made ahead of time. I felt my contractions getting more intense so my husband stayed home from work. My sister in law came around 9:00 am to pick up Joshua. I remember her saying how excited she was and that we would probably have dinner together that night with the new baby. I thought that this was absolutely impossible after having endured my first labor which was 26 hours long.
I called my midwife around 10:00 am to inform her that I believed I was in early labor. I continued getting my home in order and prepared for a homebirth. Around 12:00 pm I felt labor really picking up and let my midwife know. She said she would be heading over soon. At 1:00 pm my water broke and labor was more intense. My midwife said she was on her way and told us to fill our water birth tub. My midwife who lived over an hour away arrived at 2:00 pm. She checked me and said I was 8 cm dilated and that I could get into the water. I got into the tub and instantly felt relief from the pain. My midwife’s assistant arrived around 2:30 pm. I began to have a desire to push and my midwife said that I was fully dilated and encouraged me to push. I knew I was able to deal with contractions from my first labor but I was very nervous about the pushing stage since it was new to me. I remember it felt like I was pushing for a long time.  The midwives and my husband were being very supportive the whole time trying to make me feel more comfortable. Once my midwife said the baby’s head was almost out I felt greatly encouraged and I knew I could do it. With one last push my baby was born and immediately placed into my arms. It turned out my sister-in-law was right and we were able to enjoy a nice dinner together.
Joel Thomas Jimenez was born into the world September 18th at 4:17 pm. He weighed 7 lbs. 2 ½ oz. and 19 ¾ inches long. He was such a calm sweet baby. I’ve heard from several women that their baby’s temperament coincided with how easy or difficult their labor went. This has been true for me, so far Joel has been my easiest labor and easiest baby.  My recovery went very well, it was so much easier than having a caesarean. I’m truly grateful to the Lord that I was able to have a natural home-birth.            


                                                                                                                                                                                                         






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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Amazing birth story. Thanks for sharing!

Raani said...

Looking forward to the next post!