Brenden's Birth Story

 I guess I'd have to start with Roses.

**all photos c/o McKayl Ford @honeyandhope.doula**

0

The Hospital Birth Story of Warner

I met Miranda at a park. I was there with a group of my friends, and she was there with a group of hers. The children had all kind of mingled at the beach volleyball court and the two of us began talking. We became fast friends and about a year later, she told me that she was pregnant with her second child and wanted me to be her doula and birth photographer. I was overjoyed. I knew that her journey to pregnancy hadn't been easy, and that her first birth experience wasn't what she had wanted it to be. I was determined to help her to have a different experience this time.

0

The Birthing Center Birth of Eko

I arrived at the birthing center at about 2:30PM. Kelli was in early labor, meeting each wave with calming, deep breaths, and smiling between waves. Leera was right by her side, along with her mother. There was rap music playing and the lights were dimmed low. 

0

The One Where I Almost Caught a Baby

You read that right... I almost caught someone's baby. And I am not a midwife. Let me tell you about it.

0

The Home Water Birth Story of Taylor

I arrived at Nichole’s house at 8:45 PM. Andrew and I were at a game night with some friends when Nichole texted me, and while I was disappointed I wasn’t able to stay, I knew Nichole needed me, and I was excited to be there.

0

COVID-19 BIRTH SESSION | WELCOME HOME ROSEMARY JUNE

It goes without saying that COVID-19 has worked a number on the world. Andrew and I had planned on celebrating our 10-year anniversary with a trip to Germany in June. NOPE! And don't even get me started on moving states during a pandemic.

0

Birth Photography | Iris Love

"Just three weeks before my due date with baby number three, my videographer cancelled. I was feeling nervous and stressed to find someone else on such short notice. I reached out to Susan and immediately she worked me into her busy schedule. She made my husband and I feel that our birth of our baby girl was very important to her and that she couldn't wait to capture the special moment. That is exactly what she did!

0

Family | Elise's Birth Story

0

Birth Photography | Higgins Birth

I briefly met Lily at a Housewife to Hostess dance party a little while back and ever since then have absolutely LOVE following her on Instagram! Her stories are my favorite because she has fabulous style, the cutest, funniest kids, and is so real and genuine, while keeping it light and mom-tastically humorous throughout!

0

Birth Photography | Hernandez birth

Being a birth photographer means you get to meet all different kinds of personalities and see how delivery methods differ from each other. I've been in births where I barely spoke a word, afraid to break the silence or the focus of the mother as she brought her new child to life. I've also been in births where moms and dads crack jokes the entire time. This family was definitely the latter!

0

Birth Photography | Baker Birth

After over 14 hours of hard labor, Ahlisha looked at me and said, "I'm sorry, Susan. You've been here so long." I told her not to worry about it because it's all a part of the job and I didn't want to miss any of her story, and then she replied, "It's not much of a story."

0

My favorite labors | Labor Day 2016

Of all the labors I've performed over the years, there are three in particular that stand out. I bet you can guess what they are...

Chelsea
Alexa
Barrett

Of course, there's the general every-day labor of being a stay-at-home mom and a housewife, but I'm feeling nostalgic and want to revisit the days of my children's births. Besides, whenever someone says the word "Labor," childbirth is the first thing I think of anyway.

So, BLAST FROM THE PAST! Here are the links to the posts about the days my children were born. Have fun!

Chelsea

A post I made two weeks after Chelsea was born

Alexa

Barrett

Part I - Labor and Delivery

Part II - Stange Sisters meet baby brother

0

Tips for your two days

Once your baby is born, the clock starts ticking on your 48 hours in the hospital. Some people are anxious to get out of the hospital and check out the moment the doctors and nurses will let them. Others of us like to take advantage of the quiet room, nursery, food prep and clean up, etc.

Having had three babies now and three stays at the hospital, I've come up with a few tips for those of you who are like me and stay at the hospital the full 48 hours. These tips will help make your time in the recovery room more organized, productive, and restful. That's right. Both productive and restful because you can only sleep so much.

Sleep

Having a baby is hard, tiring work, especially if you've had a really long labor. It's hard, tiring work for the baby, too. Take a leaf out of her book and sleep.

Nursery

I didn't want my first baby out of my sight (or Andrew's) even for a moment. I think she went to the nursery once, and not for very long. With Alexa and Barrett, I decided that I needed my sleep and I had a whole slew of very capable, trust-worthy nurses at my fingertips, just waiting for me to send them my baby for a few hours before he got hungry again.

Write

If you've had enough sleep for the moment, spend some time writing down your baby's birth story while you've got some down time and it's all still VERY fresh in your memory.

Thank you!
I'm sure there are people in your life who have recently stepped up to help you out with babysitting or gifts (perhaps from a baby shower?). Write them some thank yous!

Photo op!

If you're feeling up to it, grab your camera and snap some pics! If you have a nice camera, awesome, if not, use your phone. Either way, you're capturing moments.

Drink, relieve, repeat.

The more you drink, the better your milk will flow. The emptier your bladder, the quicker your uterus will shrink back down to size. I didn't learn that until my third baby.

Something you can Depend on

Those mesh panties are... nice... or you could buy and bring some grown-up diapers. Very convenient.

Extra Bag

When I packed my bag for the hospital, I made sure I had all the essentials for after baby. Comfortable clothes, toiletries, etc. but I also packed an extra bag for all the paperwork, diapers, wipes, pacifiers, baby bath sponges, and other stuff they send home with you. Whenever they brought me these things, I would stow them away in my extra bag.

Take everything
If they tell you that you can take it home with you, take it. Diapers, wipes, pacifiers, mesh panties, enormous pads, those blue bed liner things for just in case your pad didn't catch everything... take it all.

Keep your pen handy

I'm not kidding, they bring you SO. MUCH. PAPER WORK. The best thing is to just get that paper work filled out right after they bring it to you.

Visitors
I didn't get many visitors this time around because all of my friends were sick, but my Bishopric came, which was really fun, even though they came right after I had sent my baby to the nursery and gotten all ready for bed! So decide whether or not you want visitors, then tell your potential visitors to call or text before they come so you can be prepared and actually have the baby with you when they come by!

Snuggle. Duh.

You've been waiting nine months to meet this tiny, squishy, soft, warm little person! He won't mind the snuggles one bit, and you deserve it!

To me, those two days in the hospital with your brand new baby are so special and precious. It's almost like a honeymoon in my mind. You spend two days with this brand new little love-of-your-life, just the two of you (or three depending on how much Dad is able to be there), getting to know each other and creating a bond that will last a lifetime. You don't have to worry about making dinner, cleaning up, or even doing your hair and makeup if you don't want to. This time is for you and your baby. Take advantage of it.

Is there anything you would add to this list? Leave a comment below, and thanks for stopping by!

4

Barrett's Birth Story: Part II - Stange Sisters meet baby brother

There is nothing like finally meeting the little person you've carried for nine months and holding their little warm bodies against your skin for the very first time. I looked into the face of my beautiful baby boy, absolutely beaming inside.

And then he peed on me.

Haha! I didn't care.

He looked so much like Chelsea to me, but with his own little flair! I think it was mainly the big lips.

Breastfeeding Barrett was a little tricky at first. I tried for a solid 45 minutes or so before he finally latched on. My nurse suggested later that it might have been because of the bruising he sustained on his face from such a speedy delivery. Just about the only thing bad about quick deliveries.

By the time we got into the recovery room, it was past nine, so the girls definitely wouldn't be meeting their new baby brother until the next day.

The meeting between Chelsea, Alexa, and Barrett was one of the sweetest experiences of my life. It was also a little stressful trying to keep Alexa from loving on baby brother too much, but regardless, Andrew and I couldn't stop smiling.

Chelsea wanted to hold Barrett right away and was so sweet with him. "Awwww! Look at his cute wittle toes!" "Isn't he adowable?"

Alexa wanted to kiss his head over and over again, hold him, hug him, poke him, and name all of his body parts as she poked. "NOSE!"

Barrett is so lucky to have two older sisters who love him so much!

1

Barrett's birth story: Part I - Labor and Delivery

Since it took me twelve pages to write Barrett's entire birth story in my journal, I think it would be a good idea to split this story up into pieces. I'll start with the actual labor and delivery (which is probably the longest part) and save all the other "feely feelies" for another day.

So here we go.

Wednesday morning (Feb 17), I went in to the doctor's office at 9:00 AM and got my membranes stripped in hopes it would jump start my labor naturally. It turned out to be more uncomfortable than painful and just made me feel like I had a perma-menstrual cramp, so I got all my stuff together along with a couple of bags for the girls who were driving with Uncle Karl to Grandma Wilson's house for the night while we had our baby!

After the girls left, Andrew gave me a blessing, promising me strength and peace throughout the labor, then we headed for the hospital at about 4:00.

I started getting nervous in the car on the way over as I started remembering how much going pain-med free hurts. I even started asking myself as I was getting dressed in the hospital gown "Why am I doing this? Why am I subjecting myself to this pain all over again when I've already done it?" But I told myself to stop right there and remember the feelings I felt after I had Alexa.

At 4:45, they started the Pitocin. At 4:50, they broke my water. They asked me if I wanted them to check how dilated I was but I said no because I was sure I hadn't progressed much since they checked me that morning at a 3.

So, I waited, breathing through each contraction slowly and deeply. Each time a contraction would come, I counted to 20 as quickly as I could in my head while I inhaled and imagined giving that breath to the baby. While I exhaled, I counted to 20 again as fast as I could and imagined the baby progressing further down into the birth canal. I got this idea from reading bits and pieces of the book Hypno-Birthing and it really helped!

At 5:40, the contractions were steadily becoming more painful, but not unmanageable.

At 5:52, the nurse asked me if I'd like her to turn the Pitocin up a notch. I agreed because I really wanted to get this labor moving and get my baby in my arms as quickly and as safely as I could!

At about 6:35, I practically forced Andrew to leave and get himself some dinner from McDonalds down the street because I'd rather have him leave now when I was still a ways off from delivery than have him pass out from hunger when it really counted. He grudgingly left me to get some dinner with a kiss and a promise to be back as quick as he could.

At 6:45 while Andrew was away, my nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 6.5 cm. I texted Andrew to tell him the news. He didn't take much longer to eat and shortly after he got back, my nurse came in again and told me to let her know when I could feel constant pressure down low so that we could get Dr. Boheen there in time.

That time came at about 7:30. My contractions were getting pretty painful at this point. Suddenly I wasn't quite as calm with my breathing. Instead of counting all the way up to 20, I was only getting to 12, maybe 14 before I had to exhale. I'm not sure how quickly I exhaled because the exhales had turned into moans of pain. You could probably gage the severity of the contraction by my moaning. Haha! But I still tried really hard to focus on giving my breath to the baby and moving him down lower as I exhaled. Focusing on this instead of the pain helped.

My left hand started tingling first, followed by my right hand, my feet, and then even up into my neck and face. I always forget that my body starts tingling during labor.

Up to this point Andrew's main job was to help me relax and focus which ended up being sitting quietly and reading a book or texting people with updates. Haha! But as soon as I started moaning, he was up, right by my side, holding my hand letting me squeeze the life out of his hand, massage my shoulders, put a cold hand on my head, say encouraging words, whatever helped. I definitely couldn't have done this without him.

Dr. Boheen arrived sometime after 7:30, probably about 7:50 and waited for me to be ready to deliver my baby! The contractions were so painful at this point and I could really feel his head coming down, but not enough to push yet. I kept telling everyone that I needed a coach, someone to tell me when to push, but they kept telling me, "You've done this before. You'll know. You can do this." Between contractions I would try to communicate things like needing a coach, but I was also saying things like, "I just want him out. Can I push now? Is it alright to push? I just want him out." I was trying so hard to remember my breathing and helping the baby come down, but man. It. Was. Painful.

What's crazy is how quickly things move and how intense it all gets the moment you feel that urge to push, and it's hard to describe how I knew it was time to push. I don't know if it was just that I could feel him in the right position or what, but I just started pushing because I just had to. That's when I started yelling. I can't imagine not yelling. Andrew told me over and over again to breathe, so did the nurse, and everyone was telling me to keep pushing.

I could feel the burn as his head began to crown. It hurt and I wanted to stop pushing, but I knew I couldn't. The only way out of this pain was through, so I decided to push through with all my might and pray that I would be strong enough to end the pain and get my baby into my arms.

The first "pushing contraction" ended and I felt such relief! I took deep breaths and relished the relief before I would have to push again.

The next contraction came and I pushed and yelled with everything I had in me! That's when I felt his head come out. Dr. Boheen told me to open my eyes and I saw my baby for the first time, but I knew I wasn't done yet. I pushed one last MIGHTY PUSH! And my beautiful baby was out and in my arms!

Throughout the labor, I wondered if I would have the same "runner's high" at the end that I had with Alexa or if I would just feel tired. It's amazing how even though I had just worked harder and exerted more effort than ever, I was practically jumping up and down cheering!

"Look at my baby! Here he is! I have my baby! He's here! He's so beautiful! I did it! He's out! Oh, I love you!"

I held my baby against my skin and relished the feelings of relief, accomplishment, and victory. He was here and we were together! He, Andrew, and I had worked as a team and we were all together at 8:03 PM. This, this feeling that I get when it's all over is why I choose to go naturally.

BEST. FEELING. EVER.

My sis-in-law who has made it a sort of tradition to arrive within 10 minutes of my baby's births was on scene and took a few pictures for us. I cherish these photos that capture one of the greatest moments of my life.

So, from start to finish? 3.25 hours. W-O-W. Short labor... that's the way to go.

To be continued...

1

Barrett Stange

He is finally here! After 41 weeks of waiting, our little Barrett finally decided to show up! Not that he had much choice about it since we decided to induce him. He is so perfect and looks so much like his sisters to me. It was pretty apparent from the moment he came out that he got Chelsea's lips!

So, I want to share his birth story, but I don't think I'll have time to get it all written as a blog post today. I'll have to defer that for later, but here's a preview!

My sis-in-law has made it a tradition to arrive within 10 minutes after my babies are born and she didn't disappoint this time either! I'm so glad she is able to come take photos of these precious moments for us!

Can't wait to share how it all went down with you!

Happy Sunday!

Barrett's birth story:

Part I

Part II

0