Earth Day baby born at home, Philadelphia Birth Photographer

One year ago, our third baby was born at home in the most beautiful, intense, healing birth, so I'm taking a moment to remember his arrival today. It's so funny sitting down to write my own birth story, after doing it for so many other mamas, but here goes! How my littlest love chose Earth Day to join our family.After two very different, but both pretty negative, hospital birth experiences, we decided to go for a home birth this time with Christy Santoro of Motherland Midwifery. Our biggest issue with the hospital was the stranger factor; you show up in labor with no idea who's going to walk in to deliver your baby, and we both hated that. Right away, the prenatal experience with Christy was amazing, and by the time we were nearing the end of the pregnancy we were so excited to have a birth with someone we had come to know and trust. Not to mention the attitude with a home birth midwife is not that she's going to deliver your baby, but that you are going to birth your baby and she's there to help.My other kids were both born before their due dates, at 39 + 4 and 38 + 2. This time I was 38 weeks on Tax Day (big deal for my CPA husband) and we had tickets to see Hedwig that night, so we were hoping to at least make it past that day. Sweet baby accommodated us and began his entry a few days later. That Thursday I had spotting and some inconsistent contractions, but this was third baby and I wanted to play it cool. My first labor was 36 hours, my second was 6 hours, and everyone kept telling me third births are the wild cards. So my son and I took big sister to school, and then continued on with our Thursday routine. Everything feels sentimental looking back, knowing it was our last time for certain things before baby arrived. Every Thursday, gym class and errands, making popcorn on the stove, and after school ballet class for big sis. After the kids were in bed for the night, Seth and I went for a walk around Rittenhouse Square to see if contractions would pick up. They continued through the night just enough to keep me awake, but had almost stopped by morning.Disappointed and grumpy, but knowing we were heading toward meeting baby, sooner rather than later, I kept busy all day. Around dinnertime contractions kicked back in every 20-30 minutes, so we put the kids to bed, and I settled in for the night. Christy had me try some pelvic tilts with the next few contractions, which made them worse, then better, then they slowed down again. A quick phone call to our doula Jordyn and photographer Elaina, to tell them I was going to bed and they should do the same. No point in coming over to watch me sleep, right?11pm Friday night I'm asleep in bed, and this is where Seth tells me I woke up every 20 minutes with a contraction and then went back to sleep. 12am I jumped out of bed with the most intense pressure and ran to the toilet, where I was in denial for the next 10 minutes. Contractions every 90 seconds, shivering, gripping the wall, and roaring those deep animal noises. I was just asleep, how could this really be happening?! Christy was ready to go and made it to us in 20 minutes. Once she was there, I let out all of the emotion that had hit me in the last half hour. "I can't do it! I need a break! It's too much!" And in her calm, comforting voice, she simply says "You are doing it. The only way out is through. You've got this." Both Seth and I have said this about the birth, that while it was intense, it was never scary, because we had such trust in Christy to take care of us.With 6 minutes to spare, her assistant midwife Janeyne arrived, and Christy offered for me to get down on the floor. As soon as I got up from the toilet, my water gushed out and his head was right there. I made it to the floor and felt a shift, a moment of pause. I told Seth he had 30 seconds to go get our daughter so she could watch. He ran upstairs to find her sitting up in bed waiting for him, and they made it back down to the hallway as I started pushing. This was a huge deal for me, because at both of my other births pushing was a stressful, negative memory of people telling me what to do and when, of how to breath and how to move, and eventual unnecessary episiotomies; I had no confidence in my own ability to push and stretch. I even told Christy when I wanted to push at first, and she just encouraged me to do what I needed to do. So, on all fours on my bathroom floor, with my midwives on either side, and my husband and daughter nearby, my body did what it knew to do. I wouldn't even call it pushing, I just felt my whole body working, I didn't need to think. I moved and pushed and paused and breathed and roared, and at 1253am Saturday morning my baby boy was born. It was the most powerful, triumphant experience of my life; I had birthed my baby, I did, my body had done it! I felt amazing.His cord was around his neck and both shoulders, so Christy quickly untangled him, passed him through my legs and into my arms. From over my shoulder, Christy gave him a few breaths while Janeyne called out his stats. I held him to my skin and just couldn't stop exclaiming how beautiful he was. Surrounded by these wonderful midwives, I felt so safe and sure that my baby was fine, and in no time he was taking big breaths and telling us he was here.We all moved into the bedroom, where I quickly delivered the placenta, and everyone else rushed in. Seth had told my mom, Jordyn, and Elaina, to come shortly after telling Christy. But baby came so quickly that they all arrived about 15 minutes after he did, shocked to see us all sitting in bed together. We woke up (the new) big brother and brought him down to meet his baby brother. His big take away when we asked him about it a few days later was that grandma was there and it was dark out. Also, since it was a birthday, he wanted to know where was the cake. Baby got weighed and measured, my science-loving daughter got to see the placenta, everything was checked out, and the house slowly emptied again. Everyone was back in bed, as if nothing extraordinary had just taken place, except now we had our three children.And usually my birth stories end here, but since this one's mine, I want to also share how amazing our post partum care was. Going from hospital births, where you go home after a few days and that's it until the 6 week check up, this was completely different and so wonderful. Christy or Janeyne were back to the house three more times in the first ten days for follow ups for me and baby. Christy checked in every day by phone or text and there was never a moment where we felt left on our own. After rushing back to "normal life" much too quickly after my 2nd birth, this time I decided to take the two weeks to lay in with my baby, and I had the easiest recovery of all 3 births. We stayed on the 2nd floor, napping, resting, nursing, eating. We found a nice rhythm of visits from the big kids, and we would all snuggle up on the bed together for movies after school. At times it was hard for me to let go of being productive, of being the primary parent, and to let my husband take care of me and our kids. But it was so wonderful, and we were all able to gently ease into being a family of five.So there you have it. Birth is crazy and unpredictable and wonderful. Never did I imagine that this birth would go the way it did, taking two days, or less than an hour! And I'm so grateful that I got to experience it.Thanks so much for listening, I hope to return the favor one day =) Birth photos by Elaina B. Photography