Avery’s Birth Story

It’s been almost 6 months since Avery was born and it has been one hell of a cool experience! Having her in our lives has been the greatest gift. Truly. She has brought more joy than I ever thought possible. No matter how hard the struggle has been through breastfeeding or sleep or simply emotional ups and down…she smiles and everything is better. Her smile is THE GREATEST. I can’t get enough of it.

Since I’m just getting back into the blog again (after spending months trying to figure out my new rhythm with work), I thought it would be the perfect time to share our really incredible birth story here on the blog, in case you missed it when I shared it on YouTube. When I got pregnant with Avery, I immediately had no interest in giving birth in a hospital if I didn’t absolutely need to. I don’t feel comfortable in a hospital setting and I definitely knew I wanted to feel as comfortable as possible during birth. I also felt pulled to giving birth in a tub. If you would have told my 24 year old self that I would be giving birth to a child (…I never thought I would have children) IN A TUB, I would have thought you had eaten bath salts because there was no freaking way I would ever do that. Well that’s exactly what I did. I found a birth center run by midwives, which I LOVED, I prepped a ton for birth, and I gave birth to Avery in a hydrotherapy tub. Pretty rad.

I feel extremely lucky to say that I had the birth of my dreams. When I was pregnant, I was bombarded with horror stories about birth, especially when I shared that I wanted to give birth in a birth center. Obviously not all births go as planned, but I am happy to report mine did. I wanted to have an unmedicated birth, I wanted to experience what Avery was going through, and I wanted to be there for her as much as she was for me. We went through it together and I cheered her on along the way.

For me, birth was a pretty straightforward experience. I started having some light contraction throughout the day on the 25th of July so I got ready and put on a yellow summer dress, took myself out for breakfast, then went home to relax the rest of the day. Brian bought me poke for lunch (yes, I still had raw fish during pregnancy), and we went for a walk around the neighborhood to hopefully keep things moving. I had been seeing my acupuncturist to help efface my cervix, but my birth center doesn’t do cervical checks unless completely needed, so I really had no idea how far along I was. But as I got into bed that night, the contractions sped up. And by midnight, I called the midwife to let her know I was getting close. At that point, Brian began timing the contractions and I ended up getting in our bath tub to see if it would relieve some of the pressure of the contractions. And by around 3:30am, my contractions were 3 minutes apart so we decided it was time to head out the door.

Once I got the birth center around 4am, they checked my cervix and I was 7cm dilated and they had the hydrotherapy tub ready for me. I hopped in, my doula began helping me regulate my breathing to make the contractions easier (which worked tremendously), and I pretty much just breathed through the contractions for a few hours. I changed locations for a hot minute, but pretty quickly wanted to move back to the tub as soon as possible. When I was out of the water, it felt like my body was a million pounds, but in the water, the pressure of everything was minimized.

I’m guessing I began pushing around 7am, but I’m really not sure. I’ve never in my life screamed such primal screams. I have zero idea how women push without making a noise. I screamed like I was turning inside out…and I mean, I kind of was. With every push, I could feel her moving down and I thought she was there, but she was just chilling with barely her head pushing out. That was a big upsetting. But I kept pushing, kept saying I couldn’t do it, then out she came around 8:30am, into the water, and into Brian’s hands. I hiked Avery like a football to Brian. Sports have always been my thing. If you’re new here, that’s a joke.

Now if you’re a person who loves all the details of a birth story, I’m going to share my full birth story YouTube video below because I really get into the nitty gritty…like how my doula had to cancel on us the day before I gave birth or how the car ride to the birth center was my least favorite part or what breakfast I had Brian go out and get us after I gave birth.

Birth was an amazing experience. Do I want to do it again? I’m good. But I’m so happy to say that in a society filled with many horror stories that women like to share quite openly to newly pregnant people – I didn’t have that experience. I had the exact birth I had dreamed of. And I did it with the most amazing girl I’ve ever known. I’m very lucky to call her my daughter. Thank you for going through it with me, Avery.