Our oldest, Genevieve, turned 5 last week. Insert the usual I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE IS ALREADY FIVE here. I have always said I was going to write down her birth story somewhere since it was so shocking to everyone involved so here I am finally getting to it.
If you have read any of my birth stories, you know I love using natural medicine and especially love midwives and the work they do. When I found out I was pregnant shortly after our wedding in February 2014, I called my mother’s former midwife whom she had used for her last 3 homebirths. She told me she had recently retired and recommended one of the midwives that she had trained, Jaymee. We met with Jaymee shortly after and really liked her so we decided to start care with her and so began our pregnancy/midwife/homebirth journey.
My pregnancy was healthy, fairly easy, and uneventful (thank goodness.) Little did we know, that would all change at the birth, haha. I spent my time reading homebirth stories, reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth (excellent book btw which is totally inspiring and got me pumped up for birth!), taking baby bump pics every week with a pregnant co-worker…you know the usual pregnancy things. We took a one-day childbirth class which was quite helpful and even hired a doula who was great!
I ended up starting my maternity leave a few weeks early since I worked as a financial accountant in downtown Houston and wanted to make sure I was actually home when I went into labor. The week before my due date, I even mowed the whole lawn hoping it would get things going. No such luck. The birth pool was set up and ready to go and around 40 weeks and 4 days, on a Saturday, we went to a park and walked through a few trails to try to get something going. Still nothing.
The next morning though I started having contractions while I was at church since it was a Sunday after all. They weren’t very consistent but finally something was happening and baby was moving like crazy. We even went to Main Event that Sunday afternoon where I watched family have fun bowling while silently experiencing random and pretty painless contractions. They continued through the night but ended up stopping by Monday morning. Eventually they started again in the afternoon and I remember making some dark chocolate chip cookies to celebrate and to have to welcome baby hopefully soon!
The faces she made! 
Monday evening things started getting more intense and I ended up calling my doula around 10pm. She helped coach me in what to do to get things going a little more. I walked around the driveway, up and down the stairs, and used some pressure points to try to get baby further down in the right position. Little did I know she wasn’t in the right position, ha. Contractions were still sporadic and not exactly consistent although they were getting intense. I labored this way for awhile on my exercise ball and of course let my midwives know what was going on.
I have no idea what time it was but at some point, I laid down to get some rest and my water broke! Now things were really happening and getting intense! My midwives were also attending another birth in north Houston over an hour away.
At some point they were finally on their way. I think it was around 2am at this point. Adrenaline caused me to start shaking and the pain started making me nauseous so my doula recommended using some essential oils to help and they did! Peppermint was amazing for nausea!
Finally, about an hour later, my midwives arrived and I got into the birth pool for some much needed relief. I labored this way for a couple more hours and at some point my body started pushing on it’s own (commonly called FER or the Fetal Ejection Reflex.) At this time, my midwife asked if we were born bald since she said she could see a bald head. I have no idea if I said anything. Shortly after this she realized that wasn’t a head, that was the baby’s BUTT!
Night that Lil Matthew was born.
Baby had been head down the whole pregnancy but apparently decided to flip at the end and come out frank breech! Normally this would mean an automatic transfer for a first-time mom which would most likely mean an automatic c-section but it was too late at this point.
The next few minutes seemed liked hours. I remember my midwife saying breech means hands-off. She was on her phone pretty quickly, I’m assuming reminding herself of the breech protocols and texting other midwives who have more experience with breech birth. Jaymee was calm through it all and I never had a reason to worry.
Pretty soon my body was pushing like crazy. Baby’s heart rate dropped at one point and they put an oxygen mask on me. Shortly after this, the heart rate didn’t look good, probably because the cord was getting pinched due to the position she was in, and Jaymee said it was time to call an ambulance. I remember asking if the ambulance was for me or for the baby and received no answer. I don’t know if anyone heard my question or if they didn’t want to answer and freak me out. At this time, I was so glad I had a doula too. She was doing great at keeping me calm and my husband was also doing great at being my support. The doula ended up calling the EMT’s.
P.S. This is one of the reasons why you always have a sheet with your name, address and all the rest of the info you need taped to a wall in plain sight for if there is an emergent situation and someone needs to call the paramedics for you.
I think that call made me determined and within a minute, I pushed with all my might and baby was born butt first and with a little help from my midwife to get her legs and head out as she was basically sandwiched. Good thing babies are super flexible!
2 years old 
4 years old
Jaymee asked me to turn over, put baby on my back, and started rubbing her and giving her oxygen. She did end up suctioning her later as well to get some fluid out of her lungs. Meanwhile, we were praying Hail Mary’s that she would be alright.
Soon after, we heard a cry! And soon after that we found out it was a GIRL! Genevieve Margaret (Margaret after my husband’s grandmother) was born at 6:29am on November 4, weighing in at 7lb, 5oz, perfect as can be.
Meanwhile, I was just sitting there in the birth pool holding and cuddling our little girl when the EMTs showed up. They didn’t do anything since they weren’t needed and left quite quickly.
Genevieve was a redhead and a stubborn redhead at that which explains a lot! At some point she was given to Daddy while I took a shower and then got in bed for some breakfast and rest. We are so grateful everything turned out just fine!
Visiting her namesake.
Looking back, it is easy to see God’s hand in it all. I’m pretty much deathly afraid of hospitals and surgery and really don’t know what I would have done if I had to have a c-section. There is a reason my midwives were at another birth right before mine and couldn’t get to mine until an hour or two before baby was born and thus didn’t find out she was breech until I was pushing.
Although it was rough, I’m so glad I was able to have my breech baby at home. It is not popular at all since there is so little training these days in natural breech birth and most breech babies are scheduled to be delivered by c-section but I’m here to tell you it can be done! Breech is just a variation of normal. I don’t know why Genevieve wanted to be born that way but she was and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
I’m so thankful for my midwives and doula who stayed calm during it all and knew exactly what to do. We joke all the time about Genevieve’s birth and I think our family has become famous in her practice and with other midwives in the area for that reason, haha. It was a really crazy, surprising, and unexpected birth!
Of course, thinking about it now, there are things I have learned since then that I think I could have probably done differently that may have reduced my recovery time but I continue to remind myself that I can’t dwell on that since everyone is healthy and happy.
Since we didn’t find out her gender before birth (all of ours are surprises), we actually went the NEXT DAY to Kohl’s(and coincidentally saw our realtors who sold us our house and thought we were crazy for being out and about) and bought a whole bunch of girl clothes. I mean I deserved a little shopping spree at the least. Since she was breech and her legs were a little wonky, she also got adjusted by the chiropractor to help everything go back to normal. We even visited great-grandma Matties, her namesake.
Five years later, she is STILL oh-so-stubborn, bossy, and less of a redhead but still sweet and sassy at the same time. We enjoyed a small get together with family for her birthday. After all, she had been telling my siblings all year that they had to come to her birthday party. She also loves the zoo so we made a special trip to the Houston zoo for free entry day with grandma Matties and some other friends. Maybe next year we will have an actual birthday party but this year I think she enjoyed the small one just fine! Also, we always go to the cemetery on her birthday to pray for the Poor Souls and she has declared multiple times that “the cemetery is my favorite.” Strange child, haha.
Happy birthday, Genevieve!
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