Born in Prayer

Sweet Baby Nick was born in our prayer room. Whaaat? I had a baby at home? I did, and it was wonderful! (wonderful and painful, but still amazing).

Nine years ago when we had our son Mack in the hospital, I had a rough experience. Listen, I’m super thankful for hospitals. But after lots of research and prayer, we decided to go a different route this time.

We had the most incredible midwife and doula (aka birth coach), and we felt really confident about our decision.

On Thursday, May 9, hours after my appointment with my midwife, my water broke and the show began. Well it really began a few hours labor when the contractions started.

It was raining hard, and the news talked about flooding. We have been flooded in here before, so Ty went and got the small rowboat ready. Thankfully the rains stopped and we didn’t have to use the boat to get our midwife and doula to our house! 🤣We laughed about the midwife that took a rubber swan to a birth. You can read that story here.

I labored on my own for a few hours before waking up Ty for support.

Then around 3am we called in Catherine (doula) for extra support. My contractions had slowed down a bit, and I wasn’t progressing. Nick wasn’t descended into the right position anymore. Catherine used a fancy chiropractic tool on my back and I felt Nick turn sideways and descend (it wasn’t pleasant). 🤣

After that things happened quickly! So quickly that Jennifer, my midwife, almost didn’t arrive in time.

I had imagined a peaceful home birth with praise music playing and maybe some candles glowing. That didn’t exactly happen for me.

Catherine asked which room in our house was the most confortable, and I said, “our prayer room.” Its a small room off our bathroom that was originally used for exercise (not by our family). 🤪

I labored in the prayer room until the pain was so intense that I vomited EVERYWHERE. All over the carpet. All over Catherine. I still feel bad about that! 😬

Then I went into transition and the contractions were so intense and back-to-back. Catherine and Ty helped me hobble into the shower in my clothes. At the same time they were quickly cleaning up the mess, changing clothes, and calling Jennifer.

The next thing I know I’m crawling out of the shower and back into the prayer room. I remember Catherine asking me if I felt like I needed to push. I said, “yes!”

It was the craziest thing. Once I started pushing the contractions no longer hurt. Yeah! I was so ready, but Jennifer wasn’t here yet. I asked Catherine how she felt about delivering our baby, and she said she could do it. She’s a ninja doula and has delivered babies before.

She started preparing everything, and in came Jennifer just in time. After only a few pushes, Sweet Baby Nick was born.

Jennifer used her own ninja skills to quickly unwrap the cord from his neck in between pushes, and out came our healthy baby.

I sat back against the wall in our prayer room filled with relief and awe. Did that just happen?

Birth is so incredible. For me, unmedicated birth was even more powerful. I was really amazed that my body could do what it did.

I got to recover in my own bed with my family with me. Mack and Ty cooked me waffles for breakfast, and I devoured them after a long night of labor.

Jennifer and Catherine worked like birth fairies cleaning up and taking care of Nick and me. Earlier that day Jennifer guessed that Nick weighed 6 1/2 pounds. When she weighed him, he was right at 6 pounds 8 ounces. She’s good!

It’s still hard to believe that we have a baby! Ty and I regularly look at each other and say, “we have a baby!” What an incredible gift from God that we did not expect. And while the past few months have been quite challenging with Nick’s reflux issues, we are full of gratitude that he’s in our lives.

“For nothing will be impossible with God."

‭‭Luke‬ ‭1:37‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This was our theme verse for the year. Mack kept reminding us of this verse, because he was hoping for twins. 🤣Sweet Baby Nick is plenty for us, so thank you Lord for not surprising us with twins. 🤣Amen?!

Blessings,

Sarah

Midwife: Jennifer Kelleher

Doula: Catherine Shaver