Lindynn’s birth was unlike anything I could have ever imagined.  All the thoughtful, careful, meticulous planning went out the window and she arrived on her own timing and her own amazing way.

All my birth stories have a backstory. Before I can elaborate on Lindynn’s, I have to explain a few things.

• I stay pregnant forever. No, seriously. People usually pick their jaws up off the floor after I have told them my first three pregnancies lasted 41 weeks (induced) and then 42+5 and 42+3 (both natural water births)
• For the second and third births, I was supported by an amazing midwife and doula, and they were two of the first people that heard about Lindynn’s pregnancy, because I wanted them with me for my fourth and final go-round!

• My babies have arrived increasingly faster and faster: 12 hours, 9 hours, and 6 hours. I kept jokingly saying that if the pattern held true, I would have a 3 hour labor with Lindynn. I kind of prayed for that, but then heard those “fast” labors can be painful and hard since the body is doing so much work in such a short time – so I let go of any expectation or hope of a quick labor.
• For the two natural births,  I chose a special song to be playing as each baby was born. These songs are forever special to me, as they instantly remind me of each miraculous moment our babies arrived! Ellyson’s song is “How He Loves Us” by David Crowder Band. Bannor’s song is “Waiting Here For You” by Christy Nockels.
• Zane was born in the hospital, and Ellyson and Bannor were both born at our amazing birth center, All About Babies. I decided to have Lindynn at home, mostly because I wanted to have the kids present when she was born!
• Each birth has had something pretty cool happen during it.  With Zane, I really, really didn’t want a c-section because I really really dislike surgery (I have nothing against c-sections!) so my fab doctor allowed me to push for an hour and a half, take an hour break, and then let me push for another hour and a half. That’s unheard of these days!  With Ellyson, despite her ginormous size, I had a pain-free supernatural childbirth. And with Bannor – it wasn’t pain free, but he was born en caul (still in the amniotic sac), which is super rare – 1 in 80,000 births. So it’s only fitting that Lindynn has a super unique birth story too!
• For a home birth, you have to have everything ready by 36/37 weeks. So, by September, we had our room ready to go with not only all the birthing supplies (tub, sheets, towels, etc) – but I’d also hung a beautiful banner of supportive and encouraging verses to look at and meditate on while I was laboring in the birthing tub.
• I spent hours mentally and emotionally preparing for the labor and birth – between praying over the birth daily with my husband, meditating on scripture, reading natural birthing books, and listening to scripture-based affirmations, I felt pretty prepared for the labor and birth.

Ah, the best laid plans!

Early on into my pregnancy, my midwife Donnellyn explained that she had a special trip she wanted to go on – that landed smack dab on my estimated due date of October 3rd.  I considered my history with the last 3 babies and prayed about it, and gave her my blessing to go, since I figured there was no way I’d have the baby anywhere near my due date.  I was excited for her to take her trip. And I already knew and loved the “backup” midwife Kathaleen, so I had no qualms, worries or concerns as we sent her off to enjoy some relaxation and education all rolled into one. Donnellyn left on Tuesday October 3rd, with plans to return back Monday the 9th.  Our collective prayer was that I’d go into labor once she was home (because seriously, who wants to be pregnant for 42 weeks for a third time?!)

The night of Wednesday, October 4th I didn’t sleep well. I kept waking up to random contractions. They were totally sporadic and I just chalked them up to being stronger Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions.  Thursday October 5th I went about my day but definitely experienced a lot more contractions – more than I had with any other baby. They were still sporadic and with no rhyme or reason, so I wasn’t tracking them. As the day wore on, I was having to work through them more and more though – pausing and breathing through them.

As I write that, it seems pretty obvious. “Um, Amy? You just said you had to PAUSE and BREATHE through a contraction. Doesn’t seem so much like a practice one to me”

In hindsight, we figure that even then I was probably in prodromal (early) labor.  I just didn’t recognize it – probably because I’d never experienced it with the other three kiddos. With them, I literally did everything under the sun to bring on labor! Or it could have been sheer denial. Because I was SO totally convinced that I wasn’t having this baby until my midwife was back in town!

At one point I stopped at my husband’s work to drop off a few things. He was in the middle of wrapping up some huge projects, so I didn’t tell him that I’d been experiencing more contractions all day. I didn’t want him to be distracted by worrying about me.  He later told me that he knew we were having a baby that night and was wrapping everything up at work. Say what?!? Why didn’t he tell me?! We still laugh about that. Guess I was already going into my own little world at that point!

By that evening, I was still experiencing totally sporadic contractions. I texted the midwife team to let them know, and they all agreed it was probably just practice labor still since there was no rhyme or reason to them.  Of course, looking back – when I had to get up from the dinner table to walk through and sing through a contraction, that *might* have been an indicator. Maybe, just maybe!

Remember the songs I’d chosen for the other births? For Lindynn’s I had picked “You Have Won My Heart” by Zach Cheatham. That song spoke to my heart all through my pregnancy and I just knew it would be the perfect one to hear as she made her way into the world.  As I was working through the contractions though, I found myself singing “you are good, you are good, oh oh” and the chorus “you’re never gonna let me down“ from “King of My Heart” by Steffany Gretzinger. Over, and over again, through each contraction. It’s just what arose out of my spirit – it’s a song that I knew and liked, and was on our labor playlist – but it wasn’t anything I had focused on. Until now.

So that night, Thursday the 5th, was the night of the huge harvest moon. Anyone remember that fall evening? The full moon was gigantic.  Ever hear the old wives tale about more babies being born around a full moon? Well it’s true! The moon really does have an effect on bodies of water…even amniotic sacs!   Anyhow, after we got the kids to bed, Mike and I decided to go to bed early since I hadn’t slept much the night before (uh, hello? Yet another tell tale sign of impending labor!)  From 9 to 10 pm, I woke about every 20 minutes to a contraction, and then went back to sleep. From 10 to 11pm, I woke about every 15 minutes, and had to really pray and breathe through each contraction. I kept thinking “this isn’t pain – this is just pressure. It’s just my body doing it’s job to prepare for labor – practicing and strengthening”. Finally I had the thought “this isn’t pain, it’s just my muscles working and doing their job to move the baby into place for the birth”. At that point I realized, holy cow, this might be the real deal!  

I got up and took a lavender epsom salt bath, as I had been instructed to by my midwife team. You see – if it’s not the real deal, a bath with calm down contractions.  So it’s a relaxing “test” to see if things are really progressing or if the body is just practicing.

Looking back – I was not only in active labor, but I at this point I was already going inside myself and not paying much attention to details. I worked through contractions in the bath – timing them with an app but not looking at the numbers. I was listening to scripture affirmations and praying. I was just riding each wave. I was concentrating on breathing and relaxing my body. I was focused on not tensing against each one, but allowing my muscles to do what God intended them to do. During each one I was working hard, but in between I was calm and resting in the warm water.

After 30 minutes, I saw that the contractions were each a minute long, and only six minutes apart.  My midwife team had told me to call them when they were eight minutes apart! So I immediately got out of the tub and woke up my husband to tell him we were having our baby! He was miraculously instantly awake and got right to work setting up the birth tub.  I called my doula Tonya and said it was go time. She listened to me get through one contraction and said she was coming right over. I called my photographer Christy (who VERY conveniently lives across the street) and she grabbed her gear and came right over. And at 11:42pm, I called the birth team.

This is where I laugh at myself. Mind you, at this point, I knew I was in active labor.  I put on the special nightgown I’d chosen to labor in (for all the hours that my photographer would be documenting the labor in, of course) and went downstairs to start getting out food for the birth team. I distinctly remember noticing that we were out of hand soap in the kitchen, and I knew the birth team would want to wash their hands – so in the midst of contractions I got out the castile soap and essential oil to mix up some hand soap.  Really? I mean, who does that? Once that task was complete, I realized I really just wanted to be close to my husband. So I gave up on prepping snacks – I just grabbed a protein bar for myself and went upstairs.

Mike was busy getting things ready, and I just sat on the birthing ball.  Christy arrived and started setting up her gear. She helped Mike get the bed ready with a vinyl sheet and throwaway sheets on top.  The water was running in the birth tub. We’d been told to fill it to halfway with the hottest water possible. Then when the midwives arrived, they would add cool water to get it to the perfect temp when it was time for me to get in. That was the plan at least.

Tonya arrived and immediately set to work to help me through each contraction. By this point I’d grabbed my both my Valor and my Peace & Calming and was huffing them through each one. She rubbed my back in between the waves. She tried pushing in on my hips – something that had helped with the past births – but that didn’t feel good at all. I was still sitting on the birthing ball and through each contraction I was rolling forward and squatting low with each one. I was feeling pushy but didn’t know how to verbalize that. I just felt lots of pressure. Tons of pressure. I started to get through each one by singing out a loud, low moan.

At one point Tonya  asked “you really did call the birth team, right?”  And I remember texting them to see where they were. Thankfully Kathaleen responded that she was just around the corner. I was excited to know they were close, because I could not wait to get into the tub! Laboring in the water is what I call an “aquadural” – with the past two births, it was immediately calming and made laboring so much easier. I was eagerly anticipating that comfort!

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(NOTE: As this story unfolds, I share very raw pics of the birth! There’s zero nudity, but the pics *very clearly* show a baby being born! If this is something that you feel will offend you, please feel free to either scroll quickly past those pics, or stop reading now! I chose to share these somewhat graphic photos because – that’s the reality of birth!)

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Tonya said it was a good time to go to the bathroom, since midwives always want you to empty your bladder before they check to see how dilated you are. They have to make sure you’re far along enough before you get in the water – if you get in too soon, you run the risk of slowing down all the progress that your body is making.

It’s a short walk from my bed to the bathroom, but I had 2-3 contractions along the way. I had to stop and fully focus on breathing and singing through each one. The last one was right at the toilet and I hung on to the towel rack as I allowed the wave to work its way through me.

I sat down to pee, just like normal. As I started to stand up, I heard an audible “pop” and WHOOSH I felt my water break. In that next instant – literally, just a heartbeat of time – I felt Lindynn’s head crown.  I yelled “the baby’s coming! Right now!” – At that moment, it seemed like time stopped. In what felt like just a second, Abby, the student midwife, ran into the room and knelt next to me and put her hand under me to hold the baby’s head.

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(Second notice!!! What follows are the phenomenal, second by second photos of Lindynn’s birth. These are real and raw and completely, utterly awesome!)

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Mike dropped everything and raced in to hold me up on my left side.  I asked them “what do I do now?” And I heard “on the next contraction, PUSH!” And that’s what my body did. It happened effortlessly. One “push” and she was out and Abby was holding our sweet daughter in her hands.

I looked down in happy shock. What just happened?!?

One minute I was peeing, the next minute I had delivered a baby! Standing up! At home! It felt like a scene from a movie.  What happened to the long labor? Enjoying the warmth and comfort of the birthing tub? What happened to meditating on the verses I’d hung up? To Mike and Tonya helping me through those final stages? What happened to the kids getting to see their little sister being born?

None of it mattered in that moment. All the plans that didn’t come to fruition – it didn’t matter. She was here!  We quickly realized though, that she had a very short umbilical cord. So short in fact, that I couldn’t safely hold her in my arms to walk to the bed.  So, in a somewhat comical looking scene – the birth team and I slowly shuffled from the bathroom to the bed. Abby shuffled on her knees backwards, keeping the baby safe and close to me. Kathaleen provided support to the umbilical cord and did her best to prevent blood from getting everywhere while Mike and Tonya helped me carefully take one step after the other to the bed.

Once we got there, I happily laid down and they were able to put Lindynn on my abdomen while we waited for the placenta to deliver. The cord was so short that we couldn’t even lift her all the way up to my chest!  That was ok, because we were still able to marvel at our sweet girl. Mike and I just kept looking at each other in utter shock. We still couldn’t believe that she was here!

We finally came to our senses and asked what time it was, what time she had been born. Since everything happened so quickly, no one had looked at their watch – but Christy wisely taken a picture of our bedroom clock when we came out from the bathroom – so we all agreed to use one minute before that – 12:36am.   Our sweet princess entered the world at 12:36am on Friday, October 6th.

Remember when I called the birth team? 11:42pm. And less than an hour later, our baby was in our arms. It turns out that Abby and Kathaleen had literally just walked up the stairs when they heard me make a familiar (to them) noise – and they had instantly dropped their bags to get to me. That’s when I hollered out that the baby was coming, and Abby ran in to hold the baby’s head – with no time to even put on her gloves! Total time that I was in true active labor?  3 hours! A fast labor is no joke ya’ll – those were seriously hard and intense contractions!

As I worked to deliver the placenta (after essentially no pushing to get the baby out, it was surprising how much effort it took to get the placenta to come!) Diana checked the Lindynn to establish her APGAR score and they wiped her down. She was pretty much covered with blood! I hadn’t seen that on a baby before, since they whisked Zane away in the hospital to get cleaned up and Ellyson and Bannor were born in the water and it naturally washed off as we picked them up. We loved looking at every inch of her. She was calm and peaceful while laying on me. She was a touch congested but Diana was able to suction that right out. Otherwise she was doing great!

Finally after 10-15 minutes of waiting, Kathaleen rubbed Jasmine essential oil on my abdomen that that immediately helped me deliver the placenta. Mike cut the umbilical cord and finally, I was able to lift my sweet doll up on my chest and cuddle her and love on her! We have practiced delayed cord clamping with the last three children because the cord can contain up to a ⅓ of the baby’s blood right after birth! It’s believed that lots of nutrients and essential minerals (like iron and vitamin k) are in the cord blood.  

Lindynn immediately latched on to nurse and that helped her to pink up even more. Diana continued to monitor her while Kathaleen and Abby were taking care of me. They announced that I had a slight tear (not surprising since Lindynn had basically slammed through – no time to slowly stretch everything out!) As they worked to stitch me up, we were thanking God for our newest miracle and still staring in wonder at our little doll who’d arrived in her very own way!

The repair didn’t take very long, and I was finally able to sit up a bit to properly nurse Lindynn. We joked about not getting to use the birthing tub and decided to take the herbal bath there instead of our bathtub. When they checked the water, the team discovered it was 115 degrees! That would have been waaaay too hot for me to labor in, obviously. They started adding cold water to it and Mike enjoyed holding his sweet baby girl until it was a safe temp for Lindynn and I to get in. While we waited, I nursed and finished my protein bar – I’d only had time to eat one bite during labor.  So much for eating during labor!

As we got into the herbal bath – all the body aches melted away. And after the initial shock of the water, Lindynn relaxed immediately. One of my favorite parts of every birth is the herbal bath afterwards. It’s incredibly soothing to both momma and baby! It also served as a great way to finish cleaning her up from her fast entry into the world.

At that point we decided to get Zane and Ellyson to see their little sister! Since it was three in the morning, we chose to let Bannor sleep – no need to have an overtired and cranky three year old the next morning. It was such a joy to witness their delight at seeing their sister for the first time.

At one point, I expressed slight disappointment that they didn’t get to see her be born – I totally didn’t have the calm water birth that I had envisioned. Tonya wisely pointed out that with such a short umbilical cord, if I had been in the water, I would have had to stand up immediately in order for her to be safely out of the water after the delivery. Anyone that’s had a baby knows that would have been a monumental, and probably not safe, feat.  So I realized that my ultimate prayer for the birth had been answered – my prayer for a safe delivery and a healthy baby. It didn’t at all look like what I had hoped for or envisioned, but God made sure she arrived safe and sound. And it sure does make for a fun story to tell!

I was thoroughly enjoying the herbal bath and decided to stay there while the birth team did the newborn exam.

It was sweet to see how Zane was immediately in love with his baby sister. He simply couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and didn’t want to leave her side for one second. Ellyson was a little more hesitant, and sat on her Daddy’s lap the whole time. But she at least showed a whole lot more interest than she did when Bannor arrived. I’m not exaggerating when I say – she basically ignored Bannor for the first 6 months of his life!  

Everything went great with the newborn exam. It’s always so fun to see how big the baby’s head is, how tall she is, and watch her go through all the routine checks for reflexes. It’s fascinating!

And finally it was the moment we’d all been waiting for – time to see how much she weighed! She seemed downright tiny to us – considering that the first three were 10lbs 7oz, 11lbs 15oz, 9lbs 7oz  – she was long and skinny. A few guesses of eight and a half pounds were thrown out. We were all a little surprised to learn she was 9 pounds and 2 ounces! Still our smallest baby. But 21 ¾ – so tall and lanky. And so she was able to fit into newborn clothes!  I’d bought a few outfits, just in case she happened to be “small” enough to wear them.

Once I got out of the tub, I started feeling woozy so Kathaleen had me keep my head between my legs, had a fan blowing high speed on me, and had me eat a lot of protein and drink a lot of water. That helped immensely!  All the while, Mike, Zane and Elly were loving on our sweet Lindy K.

I was able to climb in bed and snuggle with my sweet girl while the birth team and Tonya cleaned everything up and packed everything away. And man did they have a challenge. Let’s just say that the walk from the bathroom to the bed required some elbow grease to clean up….as well as giving birth standing up in the bathroom!  The whole time though, everyone was so very pleasant and sweet! We had a grand time recalling all the moment by moment events of Lindynn’s crazy fast birth. They continually kept checking on both of us and monitoring us to ensure we were both doing well.

Around 5am, they gave us a detailed review of both newborn and postpartum care. And then one of my favorite parts of each birth – we anointed Lindynn with Frankincense oil and Mike spoke her verse over her: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fail; God will help her at break of day.” Psalm 46:4-5.

And then our birth team prayed over us.  They prayed such a sweet, beautiful blessing over our new baby and our family. And then they were off!

And Mike and I were amazed, humble, and grateful. We’d had a baby. At home. She was here, she was ours, she was healthy and happy.  I’m not gonna lie – even though she’s the 4th kiddo – for a second we both had a moment of panic and had the thought of – wait what? Ya’ll are leaving us here? Alone? With this new baby? But that passed instantaneously and a wonderful peace washed over us.  Our baby was here!! We had done it! It was phenomenal to say goodbye to the birth team from our bedroom – and then…..to just turn out the lights and go to sleep!

Now, six months later, I’m still absolutely thrilled with our decision for the home birth. Each day as I get dressed, I stand in the same spot that I labored on the exercise ball. Each day, I get to look at the exact spot my sweet baby girl entered this world. I love getting to relive that amazing moment over and over again.  I still shake my head in disbelief sometimes at the wild ride we had in bringing her into this world, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!