Wisconsin home birth: Ravanna

I awoke at 12:30 AM Monday June 5th from cramping. It felt like menstrual cramping and as it wasn’t very intense I decided to try and keep sleeping. By 2:00 AM the contractions were becoming more intense so I woke Robert up and told him to start timing them. The contractions were all in my low back and moderately painful. Robert and I worked on getting the birth area set up. We set up the birth tub, started a crock pot meal, and pulled out our birth supplies. My contractions soon became regular with a duration of a 1-1.5 minutes and 4-6 minutes apart. We reviewed our “who to call” list that included the midwife, her assistant, our photographer, my mother, and Robert’s sister. We weren’t sure which midwife to call because our regular midwife LeAnn was out of town but she had stated if it was late enough Sunday evening she wanted to be notified. We decided to try LeAnn first. She told us she was still out of town and to call the back-up midwife. We called her only to be told she was already at a birth and she offered to call another midwife. That midwife was at a birth as well so our back-up midwife called ANOTHER midwife from farther away and sent immediate help in the form of her apprentice and Sarah, a birth assistant.

Wisconsin home birth: Brooks

I had spent the last few days cleaning everything in the house from top to bottom. Baseboards, vacuumed and mopped under every piece of furniture, scrubbed toilets, windows. Had finally gotten it all done, and as I was going to bed on the 30th, I had that same feeling I had had with Willis: “Now he can come. And I think he might.” But with low expectations.

I woke up that night a lot to use the restroom. When I got up the fourth time, I wasn’t sure if it was back pain or the urge that was actually waking me up. My restlessness was keeping Willis and Tom up. I told Tom that I thought labor was getting closer. I had tried lying down again, but realized I had increased back pain that I couldn’t sleep through or be comfortable through. I told Tom I was going to go take a shower around 5:30am. Things so far were pretty similar to how Willis’ labor got started too, just with less intensity. I wasn’t sure if I was having strong Braxton Hicks or light real contractions, but as I made it to the bathroom downstairs to shower, I realized they were coming every two minutes and lasting nearly a minute, and I wanted to let my midwife LeAnn know. I sent her a text around 6:15am with what I was feeling and that something was happening, just not sure if they would fizzle out. Around ten minutes to 7am, I sent my mom a message that I thought labor was starting so she could start the 2+ hour drive to help us with Willis. I had a few more texts and phone calls with LeAnn, and around 7:10,  she decided she would come out to the house as well.

Not only are my prenatal visits in depth, a venting session, informative even with the 3rd, and downright comfortable... she lets the littles help and listen to their baby sibling!!! This home birth 'thing' is by far is the best choice (x3) that I have made for our family! 
Thanks for being awesome LeAnn!! 

Minnesota home birth 

After 21 hours of labor, we had CFL at home on September 6. My labor began with my water breaking on Tuesday at 10:15 p.m. (September 5). After contacting the midwife, we went to bed and tried to get some rest. Contractions began around midnight and by 4 am, they were becoming regular. I was nauseous and throwing up intermittently (this continued throughout my labor, making it difficult to keep food and liquids down). Dehydration was a concern but I kept drinking liquids between every contraction.