Written by Jasmine
Arlo's birth story! On wednesday May 20th (40weeks & 4 days) I had contractions on and off throughout the day- but they were easy to ignore and I spent most the day outside with our 5yr old playing, hoping to keep contractions going. I also kept myself covered in the clary sage oil I had purchased from Sandra a few days prior. By around 6pm I started timing my contractions, which were around 5min apart and lasting only around 35 seconds, and were still not very intense. We ate dinner, put our son to bed and I was assuming baby would arrive some time the next day in the morning or afternoon. Around 9pm we set up the birth pool so it would be ready, and my husband went to bed around 10pm. I sat on our couch with candles and scrolled social media and texted with my sister and a friendcontractions were stronger, but still not very alarming. That changed at 11pm however when I had one large, very intense contraction which broke my water. I immediately sent Sandra a text and woke up my husband so he could start to fill up the pool. Contractions were now about 1-2 min long and about 2min apart, and were very strong and needed concentration to get through. Once we had some water in the pool I immediately got in- the warm water helped immensely! Sandra and Becky arrived at 11:45 and by then my body was already starting to push. Hearing them quietly come in and their calm, lighthearted way of asking my husband questions and getting things set up was a HUGE relief, I felt like I could allow baby to come now that support had arrived. I kept my eyes closed while laboring and used my husbands hands and the edge of the pool as leverage when my body wanted to push- hearing Sandra & Becky's quiet encouragement was just enough to know things were going well, without feeling distracting. (our 1st birth at the hospital was VERY different- lots of people touching me, lots of talking among themselves between pushes, and loud cheering and counting while I pushed- it was very distracting for me) Baby Arlo came out with his hand up on his face, which was rather painful- but after only an hour and a half of active labor, Arlo was born at 12:36 that night- less than an hour after our midwives arrived! With baby Arlo on my chest he and I relaxed in the pool for a bit while Sandra cut the cord and once we were ready, my husband took the baby and I worked on getting upright to push out the placenta. Sandra helped me out of the pool, dried me off, and helped me over to the couch were we could relax and start nursing. It was so amazing to be in my own home, where I knew my older son was asleep soundly in the other room, and where we could take our time bonding before weighing/measuring the baby. No strangers in and out of the house, and I was wearing my own clothes and using my own bathroom. Such a huge difference from my first birthing experience. In the morning our older son woke up and was able to meet his new baby brother- it was such a wonderful experience and I will forever be grateful we were able to bring Arlo into the world in our home.