Two In the Hospital and One at Home

At home, in labor with #3

I thought I'd give you some insight into how I went from two hospital births to a home birth, and how my thinking changed along the way.

My first pregnancy was rough. For the most part I hated being pregnant. I was really sick and in and out of the hospital the first few months. I didn't take a lot of pictures of my belly with my first, so I took a lot with my second and even more with my third. With my first pregnancy, I had an OB in town and delivered in the local hospital. I really did not like to be in the car when pregnant so I didn't want to drive far while in labor. I had thought about a midwife but was told it was better to go with an OB the first time, because you don't know what will happen.

Looking back, I wish I had used a midwife with all my babies, but that's okay. There were things I knew I wanted to do, even with the first one. I wanted a natural labor no drugs; I just didn't like the idea of drugs while in labor or a huge needle in my back. I knew I would breastfeed and use cloth diapers. I researched the breastfeeding quite a bit and cloth diapering some. I didn't do a lot of research on natural birth; just read a few stories and knew that's what I wanted.

In hospital with #1

As the time drew closer to the due date I kept hearing, "You usually go over the due date with your first." So I was waiting to pack my bags until I was closer to 40 weeks. Well, at 37 1/2 weeks my water broke while I was watching TV that evening. I was not even packed yet! Looking back it was quite funny. I was running around the house with a towel between my legs trying to get things together. The towel did not do much; I changed 3 times before we left for the hospital. I now know that I could have stayed home longer after my water broke instead of sitting in the hospital for 17 hours before she came. I didn't even feel my contractions  until 5 hours after my water broke.

Baby #1 - Lily

I hated the monitor I had to wear and the IV I had to have in. I did find out, however, that my husband was my best support in labor. I also found out why I didn't want drugs. I ended up getting some, but not an epidural since they didn't do those at that time. Instead they gave me this other stupid drug that did nothing for me cause I was so far in labor, so it just made me mad. It just numbed my bladder so I couldn't pee after I gave birth. That sucked. Oh, and I didn't want any pictures of me in labor. I wanted ones of the baby but not of me. However, my Mom did snap a few pictures of me in labor, and I am glad now that she did. I came a long way from that to having a professional birth photographer at my last birth, and now thinking that birth is beautiful.

I did breastfeed and cloth diaper, and along the way I learned why those things were good things to do.

With my second I was hoping things would be different. I was sicker that time and thought "I am not doing this again." I had my bags packed at 37 weeks and hoped I would go into labor early with this one too. I went to 39 weeks with her, and thought I would die of uncomfortableness.

Baby #2 - Emma

The labor was super fast and the hospital was even an even worse experience than before. The hospital staff acted as if they didn't know babies could be born that fast and maybe they didn't! Its a small hospital but when you go to the hospital you do not want the doctors and nurses to be freaking out. So when I found out I was pregnant with my third I wanted to do it my way.

I had joined an online group and heard a lot about home births and I had gotten closer to my now best friend who had a home birth with her third baby.  She got pregnant at the same time I did, so we talked a lot about home births and other natural things. At that point, after two pregnancies, I knew that I could have had more of a say in what went on through the whole thing from start to finish. So, after finally getting over the "I don't really want to me pregnant" stage, I found a wonderful Midwife and had a good pregnancy that I actually liked, and a wonderful home birth. I'll talk about my third pregnancy in the next post.