Well, oops it’s been over a year since a new blog post but I figured a new birth story is as good of a reason as any to write again. It only took me a few hours to get back into my blog account (LOL).
Well hold that thought, baby Adelaide just woke up from her nap during which I was supposed to get this written so just fyi there was probably a 5 hour gap between when I wrote the first sentence of this and when I actually finished it due to distractions and babies and life in general, haha. This is why I haven’t written anything in over a year.
Anyway, back to the birth story. We never really announced on social media that we were expecting our 5th baby after we found out last year. This was probably due to the negative comments we often got as it was with only four kids and also probably just because I like to surprise people. We did announce to family and friends back in September that baby #5 was due in April, we just didn’t say what part of April. Once again, this was on purpose so people wouldn’t bother me about when baby was going to be born because that just adds to the stress of pregnancy and anxiety leading up to labor & delivery.
Baby’s due date was actually April 1st which this year fell on Holy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter). This is important to note because Holy Week is a very busy week for our family as traditional Catholics. In fact, since my brother is schola director at church and my husband is basically backup schola director, they had a very busy schedule for the singing of the Holy Triduum Masses (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil) and my brother was worried baby would arrive on or before Holy Thursday and he would lose one of his top singers haha. My husband, on the other hand, was hoping baby would arrive on his/her due date so he would get a break from singing. He’s a funny guy.
As you can probably figure out from my previous birth stories (search birth stories on my page-the search bar is at the bottom of this website), I am an advocate aka fanatic for midwives, natural birth, and especially homebirth. We’ve been able to have 4 homebirths so far (even with a breech baby thrown in the mix) and didn’t have any plans on changing our plans with our 5th, especially in this time of c0v!d when everything is even crazier in hospitals. Planning a homebirth means you never know when baby is going to come and you can’t really plan a birth date. My previous babies were all about a week late with the exception of our only boy being born on his due date.
Baby’s due date came and went, husband was able to sing for Holy Thursday, and we were able to attend the Mass with all of the kids, although originally I wasn’t even sure if I was going to go because it is a very long Mass. The same thing happened on Good Friday…I was able to attend Stations and the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified with all of the kids and the choir director actually thanked me afterward for still being pregnant, haha. The joke was that she said a novena that baby would be late so that Matthew could sing for Holy Thursday and Good Friday and I told her I made a sacrifice and stayed pregnant so that Matthew could still be there to sing the music pieces she needed him to sing haha. Matthew never said a novena that the baby would be born on his/her due date so I guess hers won lol.
Holy Saturday started no different than any other day. At this point I was 2 days past my due date. I was exhausted as usual since restful sleep in the last trimester does not come easy as it is very hard to get comfortable. Holy Saturday was also my brother’s birthday and we had plans to go and have dinner with him and family members later in the day. My midwife was actually thinking this would be the day since the date was 4-3-21 which is basically a countdown to our #5 kid.
The only thing different about this day was that Matthew left at 3am to drive 3.5 hours to Corpus Christi to pick up our new camper. That’s a long story but basically we’ve been looking for a used camper for awhile (they sell quickly around here) and the owner was gracious enough to hold it for us until after the main part of Holy Week was over. The husband originally planned to be back home by about noon but all kinds of delays with the bank and camper owner prevented that which led to him not getting home until about 5pm. This meant we missed the dinner with my brother and family and they were all wondering if I was in fact in labor and making up stories to avoid telling them that, haha.
My Dad and a few siblings actually ended up bringing us food from the restaurant they went to later that evening. In fact, one of the first things that my brother Eric said when he got out of the car and saw me was “she’s still pregnant.”
Indeed I was but what they didn’t know was around that time, I believe I had been having irregular contractions (stronger than the usual Braxton Hicks) for about an hour or two. Plus, I started feeling nauseous which is common for me before I go into labor. I didn’t know if the nausea was due to being hungry or due to labor possibly starting. I was only able to eat about half the dinner they brought me because of the nausea which wasn’t normal for me.
The family left, we finished what we could of dinner, and then continued our usual nighttime routine of reading the Saint of the day and praying the rosary before the kids go to bed. Contractions were picking up at this point, i.e. still irregular and sometimes 20 min apart but getting harder to ignore.
Originally, Matthew was supposed to leave around 9pm to go to church to practice singing (again) for Easter Vigil Mass. However, he actually ended up not going since he had woken up at 3am with a hoarse voice and could barely talk. I was relieved since it seemed labor was actually starting and really he hadn’t gotten much sleep anyway and needed to rest.
The kids were in bed by this point and contractions started getting more regular and more intense. Matthew was able to get a few hours of sleep (and I’m glad he did) during this time while I was able to labor on my own. I guess maybe he could sense that contractions were getting stronger because after a few hours of restful sleep, he got up and moved some things around in our room so we could set up the birth pool. After barely getting any sleep the night before, I was so tired and most of the time labored sitting on the floor leaning against my pillow which was up against the side of the bed. I tried to get some sleep between whatever contractions I could. That basically meant I got like a few naps of 5 minutes each, haha.
I usually labor on my birth ball but this time it just wasn’t comfortable and the most comfortable place was sitting on the ground leaning against the bed or leaning over my birth ball. At this point, the birth pool was set up and around 1am contractions started getting stronger and more regular at about 5 minutes apart. Matthew was very good at applying counter pressure on my back and hips that helped relieved some of the intensity of the contractions. He even started writing notes and asking what I needed/saying I was doing a good job via a notebook because he couldn’t talk. (LOL)
I had notified my midwife around 10pm that I was having irregular contractions and would probably contact her later on so she had a heads up. I ended up calling her around 3am when I knew contractions had been going on for at least 2 hours and were lasting at least 1 minute long every 4 or 5 minutes consistently. I tried to let her and her backup midwife get as much sleep as they could (because I’m always worried about everyone else and hate inconveniencing other people lol) so they ended up showing up around 4am.
Some of the birth affirmations. They were so pretty to look at!
Around this time, contractions had picked up in intensity so much that I was having to vocalize and make deep low sounds to help get through them. That is something that has always helped me get through the harder contractions. We started filling the birth pool up with water since I was getting closer to the point where I needed that relief.
The midwives checked baby’s heartbeat, my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse regularly between every few contractions although really they weren’t there long enough to do that more than a few times. Everything always looked good thankfully!
Meanwhile, I think I was trying to wait as long as possible until a few really intense contractions and then I finally decided to get in the birth pool around 4:50am. At this point, I could feel my body starting to push with each contraction and knew baby was getting closer to being born. My husband was supporting me at this time by sitting on the birth ball and just holding my hands which is more helpful than you think. Plus, getting me water between contractions and whatever else I needed. I also had a rag with peppermint essential oil on it that I regularly smelled to help keep the nausea at bay. Intense pain usually makes me nauseous, but *spoiler* I actually didn’t puke this time lol. Usually the pain gets so intense that I end up puking during transition.
Not long after being in the birth pool, I could feel my water bag bulging and after a few contractions it finally “broke.” I was so grateful that it hadn’t broken early on in labor like with Victoria’s birth because that adds an extra level on to the intensity of labor. It’s nice to have that extra cushion during labor which is why I feel bad for all the moms who end up having their water broken by doctors during labor since it makes everything so much more painful.
Within a few contractions, I could feel baby’s hair (I remember saying “baby’s got a lot of hair”) easily and her head was born shortly after with the next wave. It was funny watching the baby then take her time to try to rotate her body one way and then the other for the optimal position to birth her shoulders and rest of her body. It’s amazing how they know exactly what to do! She was born shortly after with the next contraction and what a relief it was!
Baby started crying and breathing great pretty quickly after she was born so we just sat there for a little while and enjoyed the peacefulness. Finally, we decided to look and found out we had another girl! That makes 4 girls and 1 boy. We were kind of hoping for a brother for Matthew and had a great Easter boy name picked out (and zero girl names picked out lol) but we are grateful for another healthy baby either way. And I’m guessing God believes we are better at raising girls than boys or something like that, haha.
Adelaide Jane (it actually took us a few days to figure out her name) was born at 5:18am on Easter morning, April 4th, 2021. She was 7lbs, 8oz. and 20 inches long.
After a few minutes of snuggling with baby and birthing the placenta, I handed her off to the husband and was able to take a shower and get dressed. Around this time, the kids all woke up and got to meet their new baby sister. Victoria (19 months old) had actually been sleeping in our bed in our room the whole time. She had even been awake the last 2 or so hours of labor and just quietly watched everything that was going on. And yes, we are still trying to kick her out of our bed (*rolls eyes*).
Earlier in the week, I had actually mentioned to the husband how it would be funny if the baby ended up being born on Holy Saturday and we just showed up with a new baby to the morning Easter Mass. I think I had actually told him some time during the end of labor that I wasn’t going to go to Mass since she was born much later on Easter than I had originally anticipated.
Well, funny story…as the midwives cleaned up the birth pool, checked vitals, etc, I was really debating on whether to go to Mass after all since it was my favorite Catholic feast day. Genevieve helped get the other kids ready for Mass since they were at least going to go with Daddy so at least the kids were ready with plenty of time to spare. They had all gotten up at 5:30 am anyway and weren’t going back to bed. We also usually pick up donuts on Sundays for the whole parish for after Mass and still had to pick them up anyway. Mass was at 9am, we needed to leave by about 8am to get the donuts and get there early enough for a spot in the packed church. So I think I decided that I was going to go at like 7:45am since I felt great. I mean the adrenaline and “happy” hormones after a baby is born helped I’m sure.
Am I a little crazy? Possibly. But I didn’t have any complications. In fact this was one of my easiest births so I figured why not?! Matthew made sure I didn’t lift anything or tax myself more than needed. I grabbed a few protein bars and promised myself I was going to sit the whole time anyway. And I did and we made it through Mass with no issues. Granted I was helping Little Matthew put his suspenders and bow-tie on in church.
Did everyone that saw me at Easter Mass think I was crazy? Insane? Probably haha. The perks of homebirth though, right?!
The great thing is that we indeed got to show up at Mass with a new baby and no one had any idea she had been born. And all of our normal parking spots were taken so we actually had to walk into the front of a packed church for everyone to see us.
Everyone kept asking what her name was also and really we hadn’t even decided. I really liked the name Adelaide but originally Matthew wasn’t fond of it. I guess he either finally warmed up to it or got tired of people asking what her name was and started telling people Adelaide when they asked. Which is fine by me because that’s the name I wanted!
After church and the short Easter egg hunt that my wonderful sister-in-law Therese helped the kids with, we next went to my parents house to visit and so the kids could get their Easter baskets & candy (the kids did have Easter baskets waiting for them on the table at our house that I had prepped while in labor the night before and they were so excited about the few things they got) from them as originally planned. Remember, we had seen them just the night before and I was still pregnant then.
We showed up with a carseat and new baby and everyone was like, “Wait, what?!”
Idk why but I just love surprising people, haha. Of course they were shocked that I still went to church and everything but now I can tell my family members that none of them should have any excuse for missing Mass on Sunday if I could get there just a few hours after having a baby, haha. Do I condone my own actions and recommend other people do it? No, I probably shouldn’t recommend it but I did have a plan of going straight home and sleeping the rest of the day though while the kids and the husband were at my in-laws house having Easter dinner and enjoying Easter festivities.
Overall, this was definitely one of my easiest labors and births. The contractions never got as intense as they have in the past and I think, no I know it was because I was in a much better headspace leading up to this birth. I had extreme anxiety because of a few different reasons leading up to my previous birth which made that birth so much harder on me. If you tell yourself you are strong and that you can do it, many times you can manifest the heck out of your birth and it will go the way you tell yourself it will go.
Love. 
With this birth, I had a ton of people praying for me which I know for sure helped immensely. Plus, I was taking better care of my mental health during this pregnancy with keeping up on my supplements and just in general taking better care of myself. I think that helped a great deal in keeping my anxiety leading up to labor & delivery in check. These Catholic birth affirmations by the Natural Catholic Mom helped me prepare as well as offering up the pain and asking for Our Lady’s help.
If you are wondering what I took in particular daily, I took Grass-fed Liver Capsules (for all of the nutrients). I also took a few Nature’s Sunshine products including 5W(in the last 5 weeks of pregnancy), Thyroid Activator(since I have always had issues with my thyroid causing excessive fatigue and other issues), and Alfalfa to help increase Vitamin K levels and decrease the chance of hemorrhaging. Find those HERE. This pregnancy, I took Earthley’s Nourish Her Naturally as a prenatal since I’m an affiliate for their amazing company and it tastes amazing and helped immensely with keeping my hormones in check! During the last trimester, I also drank a glass of Organic Red Raspberry Leaf tea daily. I think all of those things combined with some novenas and a ton of rosaries helped make Adelaide’s birth such a wonderful experience.
Matties Grumpy Face 
Recovery has been great! My brother and sister-in-law took the other four kids for a couple of days so Matthew and I could get plenty of rest without having to worry about them which was amazing! To be honest, it meant we could also go to Lowe’s and Home Depot and figure out a few things that we are replacing in our new (used) camper. Clearly, we aren’t great at actually resting when we are supposed to rest haha.
A ton of people have offered to bring us meals and help however they can which we are so grateful for. To be honest, not having to cook for like a month after a new baby is born is one of the things I look forward to the most. My wonderful husband has been so helpful in letting me get rest, making breakfast, serving dinner, doing the laundry and dishes etc. I think he really upped his game after this baby and I’m so grateful for it. Fortunately, he can take as much or as little time off as he wants being self-employed so he has spent most of the week helping with the baby and then spending most of his time on our new camper project instead of working on vehicles. I mean sometimes he has to have some break from his actual job.
We look forward to Adelaide’s baptism this weekend and to her becoming the newest member of the Catholic Church! We are so thankful for all the prayers, well wishes, and generosity shown toward us after our sweet Adelaide’s birth and are praying for every one of you as well as thanking God for an easy birth and healthy baby!
