Sage's Birth Story

SAGE CHRISTOPHER MARKS

Born November 17, 2016 at 3:12am

7 pounds, 21 inches

I kept feeling my entire pregnancy that this baby was going to come early. Still, I was in complete denial majority of my labor that the baby was actually about to arrive! I kept thinking to myself, "I'm only 37 weeks along so this has to be false labor!"

On Wednesday, November 16th, Patrick and I spent the evening organizing the storage closet. It was on my "To-Do Before Baby Arrives" list. Although Patrick moved the heavy boxes, my back started to ache after. We decided to sit down and rest by binge watching some LOST on Netflix.

We went to bed around 11pm but I couldn't find a comfortable way to sleep so I started pacing around the bedroom. I started experiencing intense contractions but didn't really think much of it because I had had such consistent and strong Braxton Hicks majority of the third trimester. I didn't wake Patrick up because I didn't really believe that it was the real deal.

Around midnight, although I still thought I was experiencing false labor, I began to think we should call our midwife Amy just to be on the safe side. I woke up Patrick and he gave her a call. Amy could hear me in the background and she told Patrick to call again when the contractions were closer and consistent and she would come over to the house to set up for the birth.

I wanted to sit in the bathtub for awhile so Patrick and I snuck upstairs to my parents' side of the house since the apartment only has a shower. I didn't want to wake my parents but my mom heard me working through a contraction and came to check on us. I kept saying that I was scared because I didn't know if I was really in labor or not (She was like, "Yes, you are obviously in labor!") and I wasn't prepared because I hadn't bought diapers for the baby yet! After another hour or so, we gave Amy and our birthing team the green light to come over and my mom was so relieved because she was worried I would have another quick delivery and she'd have to deliver the baby!

Since Asa was sound asleep and we didn't want to wake him, we had the midwives set up in the "cubby room" and I labored in Austin's old room. Patrick started to set up the pool and fill it with water but it wasn't ready in time. That was just fine because it felt most natural for me to labor while standing up or hanging over my birthing ball. Since we learned from Asa's birth that I don't like being touched, Patrick sat on the bed and gave me lots of words of encouragement. He was so sweet and calm the entire time.

I started to feel like I needed to push so Amy checked to see if I was completely dilated. I was, so they broke my water and sat me on the birthing stool. I felt so calm and in control while pushing and that's when I finally had a moment where it hit me that we were going to meet our baby that night!

After nine minutes of pushing, our baby made its appearance. The baby was immediately handed to me so I got to check myself to find out the sex. Another boy! That was such a special moment and one I'll never forget.

One of the reasons I was so excited for a home birth was to sleep in our own bed afterwards. Patrick and I cuddled up in bed with our little boy for some skin to skin time. We took in every little details of our new baby. We couldn't believe how small he was! And how much hair he had for being so early!

The midwives came in after giving us our family time to measure , weigh, and check on the baby. He was perfect! 

We knew we wanted to name the baby Sage if it was a boy and the name definitely seemed to suit him. It took us until the following morning to settle on Christopher as the middle name. 

We were excited for Asa to wake up in a couple of hours so the boys could meet and our whole family could be together. Around 7am, Patrick fed Asa breakfast and played with him a bit. Asa then came in to our bedroom to see the baby and I told him the baby came out of Mommy's tummy and he seemed satisfied with the explanation. I still can't believe Asa slept through the birth. I think it made the adjustment easy on him. He woke up to things being normal except for a new little person being around.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a perfect birth but Sage's had to be close! I have always wanted to have a home birth and this experience exceeded my expectations. I am so grateful for Patrick supporting my decision and for Amy being such an amazing midwife. And a thank you to my parents for letting me have a baby in their basement. They probably weren't expecting anything like that to be happen while we were renting from them!

We already feel such a love for our little Sage and can't imagine life without him!