We do it at home: A Birth Story.

I have not yet participated in this months SPC, simply because I have not been around any cool bathrooms... And the thought of shoving all the dirty laundry out of the way so I can set up a picture has been less than appealing to me. Maybe next week... But my sweet friend Jenica suggested I use a photo from one of my births, and although they are not pictures I took myself I thought it was a good idea. So I did :) Just a little warning though, for those of you who might get offended easily or something... There is some side boob showing in the photo's. You can't see nipples or anything like that but I am obviously not clothed in these photo's. I don't get bothered by such things, and while I doubt many people would be upset by these pictures... Some people may not be so ok with a little nudity. I love these pictures, and so I want to share them. And that being said, You have been warned :)

Some of you may be aware of the fact that I have three kids. And of those people who know this, some of you will know that I gave birth to all three of those kids in the comfort of my own home. That's how we do it around here. We fill up a children's swimming pool with nice steamy warm water in the living room, or bedroom... I hop in, and a little while later I emerge holding my new baby. Simple :)

Well, this last time around things went a little differently. We thought that my labor would be blindingly fast like my second one (the one where my midwife didn't make it in time and me and the hubby did it ourselves). So as soon as my water broke, we were in super fast motion getting everything ready. We phoned Pam our fantastic Midwife. We filled up that pool as fast as we could... And then we waited. And waited some more...

With my first two pregnancies as soon as my water broke it was go time. Baby was coming and baby was coming NOW! With Kayden I was in labor for just over 4 hours from first contraction to baby out. With Jett I was in labor for only 1 hour from first contraction (water broke on second) to baby out. See why the midwife didn't make it? ;) With Kael things went a little differently...

My water broke. We spazzed out and got everything ready... And nothing happened! I had maybe 3 of 4 little contractions and then they just kinda stopped. Pam arrived and we all just kinda sat around waiting for the party to start. A couple hours after she got there we all decided to go back to sleep for a while... no reason being up all night if we can be sleeping right?

Well, after about 5 hours of nothing Pam comes in to check and see how I am doing. I roll over onto my back so she can check me, and suddenly we are in business. A HUGE contraction comes rolling through me and I tell her its time.

Now, at this point the water that has been sitting in the pool for a little over 5 hours is cold. So, I get in the bathtub to wait for Chad to add hot water to the pool... no such luck. We should have known. As soon as I got to the tub there was absolutely NO moving me. My body was already pushing involuntarily as we moved me from my bed to the tub. If I remember correctly, we had just enough time to fill the tub, with me in it before Kael made his debut in this world. I only remember sitting up, bracing my legs on the wall and Chad's shoulder as well as I could. Screaming because at the last second I got a terrible leg cramp, and then I was catching my baby. All 9 pounds 3 ounces of him. Like I said, its a party!

He was adorable! He was born with a full head of WHITE hair. Not just peach fuzz either, it was at least 2 inches long on top. Kinda explains his pretty long blonde hair now :)

Anyhow, these are my two favorite pics of that day. Kael is literally seconds old in these photo's... I can't be sure, but I think we have not even cut the umbilical cord yet. We always wait a while to do that.





To see other peoples Self Portraits just click HERE.