YA'LL I DID IT! My entire pregnancy I spoke it into existed, I KNEW as soon as I found out I was pregnant that I wanted to have a home birth and I DID! So, I didn't plan on it being unassisted at first but when I reached out to the midwives in my area they were full, so from there I knew that I was going to plan to still have a home birth. My husband, luckily, was down for it in the beginning so I didn't have to do a lot of convincing, although I am not sure if he took me seriously.

Prepping for the Birth

So, I knew I needed a birthing kit so I ordered one from Amazon. It had most of the things we needed, I knew the main thing I wanted was the clip for cutting the umbilical cord (if that's what I decided to do). It came with chuck pads which were very helpful and saved my mattress!! We also watched a lot of unassisted births on YouTube and this was very helpful because after a few we were pretty confident that we could do it. I knew my mom was going to be there as well. My plan was to have a water birth so I also brought a pool.

Laboring

I knew this was my last day being pregnant. & IT WAS! GIIRLLLLL and I was too happy it was! Long story short, I hate being pregnant so I was counting down the days! My mom and I had a day on the town and I had already started my maternity leave at the beginning of that week. I told my mom and husband that tonight was the night (it was Nov 23rd and I was too determined to have this little girl before Thanksgiving so I could enjoy my food!!!) Sure enough around about 9:00pm I started feeling the labor pains, they were pretty inconsistent at first but as the night progressed it GOT REAL! My labor pains were a lot more intense this time around versus when I was pregnant with my son so I was hoping that I wasn't going to labor long. With my first birth my water broke and I immediately began to give birth so I had it in my head that this would be the same. It sort of was. I labored all night and at about 8am is when it got pretty intense, I knew it was coming but my water also hadn't broken yet so I thought it was weird that I had the urge to push but MY WATER HADN'T BROKE. So, by this time I was getting a little worried and wondered if this was all above my head and wondering whether I was crazy for trying to have this baby at home. Not to mention the contractions were kicking my butt to the point where I didn't even want to get out of bed. I'm all freaking out asking my mom and husband why my water hadn't broke yet and freaking out some more because in one of the videos we watched the lady water didn't break and she was pushing and her baby came out in the sac and although it looked cool in the video I did not have time for that to happen to me, I needed this to work out perfectly (or really close to it).

At some point my water FINALLY broke and from there it was game on!!! My husband was now Dr. Husbae and my mom was my coach and cheerleader. YA'LL....IT WAS HAARD! Wayyyyy harder than I remember it being the first time. When I got to the 'ring of fire' I was ready to quit and keep that girl up there because I was done!!!

From here it was smooth sailing, We called my 3 year old from the next room and told him his sister's head was out and asked if he wanted to see it, he replied 'No, thank you, please.' We proceeded to ask him what he was doing and he said 'On his tablet.' We guess he knew his limits and he wanted NO PARTS!

 once her head was out with the next push she slid right out! They laid her on my tummy and she immediately started crying and it was so great to know it was finally all over and my home birth was a success! Welcome to the world Hazel-Monae!! 

To keep the placenta attached or to not keep the placenta attached

This was an ongoing debate for half of my pregnancy, I wasn't sure which one I wanted to do. Out of all of the things this was the thing that frightened me the most. I was afraid for us to cut it but I was also afraid to leave it attached. Well, when I delivered my placenta, it burst, so I decided we would just cut it, So my mom sterilized my sewing scissors, clamped the cord and cut it. It wasn't as hard to do as we thought (and we YouTube it just to have some guidance). I bagged it to keep it just in case the doctors wanted to take a look at it.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. As you can tell I never made it too the pool, I did not want to get out of the bed or do any of the laboring exercises I was just really waddling in my pain (haha) I do wish I would have been a bit more motivated to get up but I was in my head too much. Other than that I don't regret it and if I wanted more kids I would do it again!!

Thank God up above

I had EXCELLENT support but the biggest one of all THANK YOU LORD! For allowing me this great experience, none of this would have been possible without you!!