My Birth Story

You may be wondering why I'm sharing my story 6 months later. Well, I typed up my birth story the day after I gave birth. Adrenaline was running, I was up with the baby and I wanted to remember the details. At first I couldn't wait to share. And after I replayed the moments, I felt a little embarrassed to share. I'm a yoga teacher and transitioning into being an OT focusing on maternal health. I've read so many books and practiced techniques. I pictured things going different and thought I'd "breathe" my baby out calmly. Well I yelled my baby out lol. I controlled my breath pretty well until transition hit and then boy oh boy! Because things didn't go the way I planned (not just that, baby was early so a lot of things didn't happen like I wanted), I was hesistant to share. But I've had time to digest it and I'm proud of myself. Rather I breathed or screamed the baby out, I did it, naturally like I wanted too and I'm ready to share how it went 😊

If podcasts are your thing, you can listen to my birth story with the lovely ladies who created Birth Stories in Color . There are a lot of details and we also speak about my pregnancy, my providers and our breastfeeding journey. The link is below

https://www.birthstoriesincolor.com/birth-story/2022/11/2/155-an-unexpected-arrival-kelly-barnes

For all you readers out there, here we go!

I was due July 20th but baby girl had other plans and arrived July 1st at 9:40 am.

Noelani Reign Barnes

6lbs 1 oz, 18 inches

Noelani means beautiful one from heaven. She’s our 🌈 baby so we fell in love with it.

I ran 2 miles with my run club on Tuesday, 37 weeks pregnant. On Thursday, I went to work at the rehab hospital Thursday and came home like a regular day. That night, I noticed blood when I wipes and in toilet 7:30pm. I had a little breakdown about her possible coming early. My last day of work was the next day and I had the next week off to finish preparing things for her, run errands and collect the rest of the birth supplies. I'm a first time mom and thought for sure I'd go to 40 weeks, or even longer....sike.

Anyway, at 9:30 pm I felt a trickle- I wasn’t sure if it was pee or my waters breaking.

I texted my midwife and doula. My midwife said labor could start within 1 day or a couple of days. My doula asked if I took a picture of the blood, and I didnt. So she wasn't sure if it was my bloody show or not and told me to text her if I needed her. Since there were no contractions- they both said maybe I had more time- which is what I was hoping. I was praying to God and talking to babygirl asking for at least a day to finish everything on my to do list.

10:30 pm - I had my 1st contraction, which just felt like a period cramp. I ignored it. Hoping it was nothing or that maybe I'd be in prodromal labor, buying my more time. (if you can tell, your girl wasn't ready). I continued to have light/medium ones until 3:00 am that I could handle. I would go to the bathroom and labor as I didn’t want to wake my husband in case he went to work. I was still in denial about labor and was going with everything that I’ve read and heard. That first time moms can take a while to labor, and that things can stall. So I still didn’t think baby was so close.

4:00 am shit got real. The contractions got stronger and longer! 10 minutes apart, to 6 mins apart to 4. But they weren’t consistent and would go back to 6-8 minutes apart. I was nauseous and threw up 2-3x. I didn’t want to wake my team up too soon & they didn’t have a consistent pattern, so I continued to labor by myself in the bathroom until I couldn’t anymore

Around 6:00 am, I woke my husband up and told him we needed to call the team & I didn’t think he’d be going to work today.

At first my doula didn’t think I was that far along, commenting that the contractions weren’t consistent and giving me suggestions on a hot shower and counter pressure from hubby. My husband told her- “she’s going thru it and we need you now” lol. She headed over and told me to call the midwife if they were that strong.

6:30am - I thought I lost my mucous plug earlier when I was bleeding but no, I def lost mucous plug then. Since about 2:00 am, my waters continued to leak during all of this.

My doula arrived at 7:30, and my midwife arrived at 8. Contractions were pretty consistent at this time- between 4-5 minutes apart. My midwife asked if I wanted to my checked and it was my decision. Part of me wanted it, but the other part didn’t want to be discouraged if I wasn't far along. I was in a lot of pain! What if I wasn’t close? How much longer could I do this? 😳. I agreed to the check.

She checked me at 8:30, and I was 7 cm dilated and 100% effaced! That made me feel good that I was progressing. My midwife said she could be here soon. She listened to her heart beat every so many contractions to make sure baby was fine, and she was.

Because we thought we had more time, hubby and I hadn’t gotten the hose adaptor yet and it was sitting in my Amazon cart of things to buy that day- pay day! So my midwife was able to call someone to bring one to use.

The birthing pool was taking forever and my labor was moving fast! They filled it just enough for me to get in but the water was too hot. They began to work on getting cold water in to regulate it.

Back to me- I’m back and forth from the toilet and my garden tub. I’m beginning to loose my breathing patterns as the pain was a lot. My doula helped keep me grounded after I let out a few screams and telling them I felt like I had to push. I vomited again. My doula put ginger in the diffuser which helped. My midwife said it didn’t look like we had time for the pool and if I wanted to do it in the tub. I said yes and I didn't know how much longer I could go thru this pain.

I pushed 3x and she was out! Born at 9:40 am. Placenta came at 10:00am and hubby cut cord.

I tore a little inside my vagina but didn’t need stitches.

My doula said I was the 2nd fastest first time mom she’s worked with. Both of them said it was good I called them when I did because things moved so quickly!

It wasn’t the way I planned it. We were supposed to have affirmations and lights up, and I was supposed to be in the pool. It was supposed to happen later in July when I was “ready”, but she had other plans. I’m happy I was still able to have my home birth and I still gave birth in the water. I bought her earth side and she is healthy and doing well, which is all that matters! That was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve done in life! But it was all worth it! If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Birth Video below!