The months and weeks prior to my birth I had been practicing the Spinning Babies® daily exercises. I had done some of these before my first birth, but added the full 40 minute stretch routine to optimally prepare my body for birth. The changes I felt in my body were amazing compared to my first. I had so much more confidence and gratefulness for my body and what it was preparing to do!

I’d also felt God speak to me that the theme of this birth would be water and a symbol of refreshing rain washing over me in waves (the contractions). The symbolism seemed so beautiful to me, although I was not really sure how that would play out during my labor.

On February 26 at 12:00 am on the dot, I woke up needing to use bathroom. I was 41 weeks and 1 day exactly to the minute! Before I was able to roll over to get out of the bed, I felt a trickle down my leg. This couldn’t be my waters leaking could it? It was too subtle. But surely I wasn’t peeing myself!

I got up and slowly walked to the bathroom as more fluids tricked down my leg. At this point I was certain it was my waters breaking.

I snuck back into the bedroom to grab my phone to call the midwife and my husband asked what was wrong. Upon telling him I thought my water had broken, he responded “oh no, “well let me get some sleep!” He was remembering how long my first labor was (77 hours) and knew he would need the rest!

My midwife instructed me how to test to see if my water had broken, but after swapping, we were both a bit unsure. We discussed my options and decided to treat it as if it had broken and we came up with a plan. She would come to my house at noon the following day to check me. Until then, I’d take sanitary precautions to avoid infection and try to get some rest.

Upon water breaking, labor usually begins on its own within 12 hours. Little did we know how quickly the upcoming events would unfold!

I laid back down and tried to sleep, but was so full of excitement that we may be meeting our baby girl within a day or two!

Then the waves began. So subtle at first I was unsure they even could be called contractions. At this point it was about 1:45 am, just shy of 2 hours since my waters had broken.

I decided to head to our couch so I could use my phone to track the waves and not disturb my sleeping husband. I knew he’d need the rest, still expecting a LONGG labor like my previous!

Sure enough they were true contractions and were about 10-12 minutes apart at this point! I was ecstatic and tried my best to get some sleep between each one. They were very bearable, and I even fell into some deep sleep between most of them.

Around 6 am, my husband and son awoke and we chatted about the events of the night. As we talked and I shared a smoothie with my son all of the sudden out of no where, waves began hitting me every 2-3 minutes but lasting only about 45 seconds.

My midwife had suggested that true cervical dilation doesn’t really happen until waves are about 1 min long at 5 minutes apart. Well I had surpassed the 5 minutes but the contractions didn’t seem quite long enough.

Nonetheless, something told me to ask her to head our way since she had about a 2 hour drive to get to me! My husband took our son to his day sitter and I tried to tidy up our home to busy and distract my mind!

But at this point, I was having to stop every 1-2 minutes to breathe through the waves. I could not long just ignore them and keep going with tasks. I prayed for my husband’s quick return and a speedy trip from the midwives.

My husband got back and began to make a pot of coffee and the smell immediately made me sick to my stomach. Not knowing at the time, but I believe I had reached transition at around 8:45 am and things just picked up from there.

I remember my husband telling me not to be surprised if things really go fast now, he already knew my labor was going to be different this second time around. He later admitted to me that he was pondering how he was going deliver our child on his own without our midwives! He knew instinctively that I’d already hit transition!

I tired to relax as much as I could, swaying and circling my hips to help bring my baby down and to full relax my muscles through the waves.

Our midwife’s assistant arrived around 9:00 and began getting the birth pool ready. I don’t think she realized far along I really was at this point or the speed that would be needed to get that tub prepared in time.

About 20-30 minutes after her arrival, I had the urge to use the bathroom. Waves really started to pick up when I got to the bathroom. My daughter’s head was coming into my pelvis at this point, but I still had not realized this since I was expecting a much more drawn out labor similar to my first.

I felt the continued urge to have a bowel movement, but could not. It was a very uncomfortable feeling but I just stayed in the bathroom hoping it would pass.

During that time my midwife arrived. It was about 9:45 am. She could immediately see how far along I was by my breathe, the intensity of contractions, and the speed at which they were coming. We had previously planned to let her only check me only one time during my labor, but when I asked she said I think you’re almost there, I don’t think we need to check anything! Your body is doing great, exactly what it’s supposed to!

I kept asking when the birth pool would be ready because I was craving the relief the water may bring to me through the waves. They told me they were working on it, but it wasn’t looking like it would be ready in time. My heart sank!

She and my husband to convince me to come back into the bedroom (my husband knew I didn’t want our birth vlog footage in our VERY un renovated bathroom) and my midwife knew once baby was born, things would be easier in the bedroom and I wouldn’t have to transfer rooms after just giving birth!

I still had the urge to go to the bathroom but after much persuasion, I slowly walked back to the bedroom, having about 2 very intense waves during that walk with my husband holding me up every step of the way.

As soon as we walked into the room a specific song came on my birth playlist. Prior to my labor beginning, God had spoken to me about my birth and waves and water calmly crashing over me. The song that was playing was “You Make Me Brave” by Amanda Cook.

Part of the lyrics state:

“As Your love, in wave after wave

Crashes over me, crashes over me

For You are for us
You are not against us
Champion of Heaven
You made a way for all to enter into

Your love, in wave after wave
Crashes over me, crashes over me
For You are for us
You are not against us
Champion of Heaven
You made a way for all to enter in”

The perfect description of what was happening as my body brought my baby down wave after wave and the courage and strength God was giving to me.

Relief fell over my entire body and I knew it was time. I felt confident, at peace, and fully in awe of what my body was about to do!

I got onto hands and knees on our bed (this was just an instinct, I hadn’t thought about it prior) rested my head on my husband’s shoulder and let my body push. The fetal ejection reflex took over. No one was counting from 1-10 for me like at my first hospital birth. I just felt my body pushing my baby down with each wave.

I did ask my midwife for confirmation of what was happening at each step after each contraction and she calmly told me I was crowning, the head was out, etc. The mood in the room was just so calm and peaceful this entire time.

The moments were intense but so bearable because my body was left alone to do what it naturally was supposed to! (With my first birth I remember this phase being so intense because I was 76 hours into my 77 hour labor with a forced induction. Pitocin induced contractions are nothing like natural God-created contractions!)

After about 3-4 pushes from my body, my baby was born! She was laid upon my chest and we enjoy her for those first beautiful moments. The room did not flood with 10+ nurses or doctors all ready to poke and prod as us. No one was checking our vitals or asking us tons of questions. We all just felt a beautiful peace and sense of relaxation compared to my first birth.

My husband was in awe at the difference in our home birth and previous hospital birth and how calm the environment this time around!

We saw God’s glory and favor in every aspect of our daughter’s home birth. By trusting my body in the way HE designed it to give birth, I was honored to see him meet me during every single moment of this birth. HE gave me confidence, peace, and pure joy as I birthed our daughter.