Our Birth Stories: Tevan , Luna, & Ziah

Tevan Kai's Birth Story

January 2006, Tevan, 3 1/2 years

It was 4 a.m. in the morning on Wednesday July 17, 2002, and I woke up thinking I had wet the bed! I woke up Casey and asked him to smell the bed to see if it was pee or amniotic fluid. After smelling the soaked bed, he reassured me that it was indeed odorless and therefore was the spontaneous breaking of my bag of waters.

We were so excited! Since my water broke we knew to check and see if it was clear and odorless. And it was. We also knew the hospital would start the “clock” allowing me only 24 hours to labor and birth our baby. We didn’t want to be on “their clock”, we wanted to follow our baby’s clock. So we stayed at home until we felt ready to go to the hospital.

We called our Bradley Instructors and told them about what had happened. I remember them asking me if I was having any contractions and I told them no but I am having some menstrual cramps. They then said those were indeed contractions and that’s what they feel like. They told me to rest for a while and then see what my contractions are doing and to call later.

The sun was coming up and we decided to pack our things and go downstairs to have some breakfast. My contractions were about 10 minutes apart and only lasting 20-30 seconds and were feeling like very mild menstrual cramps. We knew we wanted to stay at home as long as possible while we were still in the early stages of first stage labor.

Once our bags were packed and in the car, we decided to relax and play some board games while we waited. So we played a little Mancala, Scrabble and an old favorite, Sorry. Of course we would be interrupted every so often with a contraction and Casey would diligently grab his notebook and take note of the exact time it began.

After a while we decided to take a short walk down the block to help speed up the labor process by shifting the baby further down into the pelvis. It was around 8 am, and some neighbors probably thought we looked pretty silly when I paused, for a contraction, and leaned on Casey. They were still only 8 to 10 minutes apart although they were increasing in intensity and length. After our walk, we came back inside; after all it was 105 degrees that day! I decided to take a shower and that helped me to relax and feel better. We also went outside onto our deck and talked about our plans for our new home. We really just tried to keep ourselves busy during this time of early labor.

After many hours of this, talks with our Bradley Instructors, our parents and each other, we decided to make our way to the hospital. Shawnee Mission Medical Center is only about 10 minutes away from our house and in that trip I had a few contractions. One was in the car. One was on my birthing ball in the parking lot. Somebody had to carry the ball inside, why not make it useful too? One was in the reception area, on the ball. Man was I glad that ball was there!

Then we got to our birthing room and it was 12 in the afternoon. So by this point we had been in labor a mere 8 hours and it was still early labor and very manageable. They had our birth plan lying out on the table next to them ready for reference. We had decided earlier to have a Heparin lock and agreed to do an initial 20 minute strip(EFM) with a vaginal exam. So they did a hep-lock, checked me and guess what they found? They said “I was not quite dilated to a 1 yet”. Never fear, with all of our Bradley knowledge we knew what to do with positioning and movement and knew that numbers don’t tell you anything about when the baby is coming. As women, each of our bodies is different and the baby creates a labor that is right for them.

I was hooked up to the EFM machine and once 20 minutes was up, Casey called for the nurse. He politely asked if Summer could be un-strapped from the EFM since both mom and baby were ok? It was alright and I was un-strapped. Great and off we went to do our labor upright!

We walked up and down the halls, sat in the shower, bounced on the birth ball, hovered in chairs and over them, laid on the floor (my favorite) and just kept my laboring body moving. Well, somewhere around 3pm I started going through transition. My body started uncontrollably shaking and quivering. I was so hot and then so quickly cold. Casey and my mom were both by my side and I couldn’t have done it without his totally focused coaching and my mom being his assistant. They had my blankets on, my blankets off, cool cloths, drinks of water, ice, massage, light touching, eye contact, reassuring words and anything you could name they did. It was wonderful.

During transition I remember it felt like my needs changed from second to second and thankfully they were met without hesitation. I also threw up the crackers and snack I had eaten a few hours back. No big deal. My body knew what it needed when it was hungry and it knew what it didn’t need when I threw up.

My transition lasted about 3 hours which is longer than average. Now that my transition was over, it was “gettin busy time”. I was feeling a very strong urge to push. I remember the nurse telling me not to push yet and I tried to listen to her instructions, but my body wasn’t hearing her. I said, “Ok, I won’t push yet”, but my body was involuntarily pushing anyway. Sometimes your body knows better than anyone when it’s time to push.

Pushing felt great! I pushed in the sitting and supported squat position. I finally got to actively do something to get this baby out. I ended up pushing for 40 minutes and my son was born. My placenta came slithering out right away with the next contraction without any pushing.

We were so happy. We had worked so long and hard for this “Birth Day” and it was so well worth it. We felt so empowered by the birth of our 7lb 5oz baby boy! And he was so alert and loved both of us so much! I still remember one of the first things I said, only 1 minute after the birth. Casey asked how I felt and I told him, “I feel great! The labor and birth was so amazing. I want to do it again. Let’s do it again!”

Luna Raye's Birth Story

February 2006, Luna, 1st B-Day

It was 10:00 pm on the night of Valentine’s, February 14, 2005. My husband, Casey, and I were in the middle of doing our taxes, my final item on my ‘to do’ list before baby comes, and my water broke. Actually, I thought I had just lost a little bladder control, because it was such a small amount. But from our last experience, Casey said, ‘It’s probably your water, better put a towel underneath you just in case. Good thing we did because after a few more entries on our tax form the big gush came.

This was it! 10:00pm on the nose and we are in labor. My contactions were pretty mild and irregular. We had already sort of packed, but still needed to pack toiletries and snack stuff. We started to get that figured out, but then my contractions began to get very intense. I was on all fours rocking back and forth with my birthing ball. It was only 10:45pm and progressing much faster than my memory of my son Tevan’s birth.

We called our Midwife, Suzanne Ryan, and told her of our progress. At this point they were coming every few minutes and lasting about 30 seconds, but very intense and requiring a lot of relaxation on my part. We decided to hang out a while and call her with some changes. We called her about 20 minutes later, with every 2 or 3 minutes and lasting 30-45 seconds. I couldn’t talk anymore and wouldn’t move from my position on the ball. All of this is a great sign, but defineately a sign of a fast labor and, for us, time to go to the hospital.

This was serious and much faster than Tevan’s birth. My excellent coach, Casey was busy applying counter pressure to my hips and back, as I was experiencing a good deal of pressure in those areas. And in between contractions, only about 1 minute of time, he was bustling around getting us packed in the car.

Now we had to wait for my mom to get there, so Tevan, our 2 1/2 year old, could come with us. We had planned on him being there for the birth, and he was so excited when we awoke him and told him, Luna was coming. It was time for mommy to push the baby out....’uughggggh’ as he would say. Mom got there in just the nick of time. It was now about 11:40pm and I was now shaking and shivering, both signs of transition. Especially since it had happened that way in our last birth just about an hour before Tevan was born.


The car ride was pretty difficult. I was having lots of rectal pressure and sitting in a car only applied more pressure, which feels awful. Casey had heated a flaxseed pillow and put that on my lower back during the car ride and that helped. Contractions aren’t fun in the car when you can’t get into a comfortable position. We got to the hospital and I grabbed my ball and rolled it along the parking gargage and into Emergency at Research.

It was now Midnight. Suzanne was meeting us there. I had a few contractions on the way, one in the Emergency waiting room, one in the elevator, one in the hall of Labor and Delivery and then finally we were in our room. Start the water in the tub! We had been planning a waterbirth, so we needed that tub filled.

Suzanne was there and we listened to the heartbeat with a doptone and hopped in the tub. We didn’t have any IV or hep lock, or monitors and no vaginal checks. Our son, my parents, sister, brother, best friend, and Casey’s parents were all there, so we were ready.

My contractions were still coming every 2-3 minutes and only lasting 30-45 seconds, but soooo intense. “Short and hard”, as Suzanne said. The water felt great. It took the edge of the pressure, but I still needed Casey to apply the counter pressure with every contraction. I suddenly felt like throwing up. So I did. This was a good sign, we knew. Flushing out the system. We knew we were close.

I was now shivering and shaking uncontrollably and making all sorts of vocal noises, some rather rude language might have slipped out too. Casey tells me that after some of the ‘rudeness’, I said ‘Excuse my language’. Pretty funny. It was now about 12:45am and I was feeling even more pressure and was grunting in order to avoid pushing since I didn’t have an overwhelming urge to push yet!

Now Suzanne did the first vaginal check I had ever had the entire pregnancy. I was fully dilated with a little anterior lip. So now I got into the asymetric squat in the tub, in order to wiggle that lip away. Now it was time. It was about 1:15am and I couldn’t do anything but push. So push I did. I was squatting in the tub, with Casey, my mom and Suzanne taking turns applying pressure on my back and hips and giving me a drink and just supporting me.

Just as Luna was crowning I went through some self-doubt. I kept saying, ‘I can’t do it, it’s too hard etc’. And everyone spoke words of confidence and got me through that brief couple of minutes of doubt. Then with another big push, out came our baby’s head. I felt under the water and couldn’t believe there it was. Ok, time to do the rest. One more big push and there was our baby. Casey caught Luna under the water and I pulled Luna up to me. It was 1:25am.

What! Only 3 1/2 hours from onset of labor. We couldn’t believe it. We cuddled breast to breast and everyone shouted, ‘Is it a boy or a girl’? We didn’t have any ultrasounds done, so everyone was very curious. I was enjoying the cuddling so much I had forgotten about that part and I said ‘I don’t care’!

Well then we opened the legs and it was a beautiful baby boy! Tevan first said give him milk! So sweet. Then he said, ‘where is the penis, I need to see it’. Once he did, everything was ok.

We let the cord finish pulsating and then clamped and cut it. Then we made our way out of the tub and over to the bed and nursed a little. Then we found out we had a big boy, 8 1/2 pounds and 20 1/2 inches long. Beautiful Luna Raye Hill. We were all so happy. Our waterbirth was amazing and all that we had hoped for. Suzanne was a fantastic midwife, Casey and I so appreciated her support. And of course I never could have done it without my loving and so supportive husband and coach, Casey. He is so hard-working during labor. I’m sure his hands, arms and back were sore, but I would have never known. He just kept giving me everything I needed. It was our second birth, second Bradley birth, and second son! What a great thing and wonderful family.

Ziah Storm's Birth Story

February 2008, Ziah, 4 weeks

A contraction woke me up at 5:30am on Friday, January 4th, 2008 (I was exactly 39 weeks along). This one felt pretty powerful already and I needed to breathe and moan through it. Casey woke up and was listening to me and we were both wondering what was in store for us today. Contractions continued for the next hour every 5-8 minutes and were powerful ones. Since I was already moaning through them, and having to move my body to get comfortable each time, we were wondering if "this was it".

With both my other labors my water broke at the start of labor before contractions began. So this was new to me, to labor a bit with waters intact. At around 6:30am Casey suggested I take a shower. I wasn't quite ready to do that, but wanted him to, just in case he would go in to work and the day would move forward like a regular day. As he was showering my contractions continued and I think it was then that I knew that he wouldn't be going into work. I decided to hop in the shower too…and see what happened to my labor with that change. The shower felt wonderful, I loved putting my whole face in the water and blowing raspberries under the water…it felt really good. My contractions came closer together and grew in intensity while in the shower. I was feeling everything very far down and low, it seemed as if there was this huge weight in my pubis. I had wondered if my waters would break this time, since they did with both other labors, and thought I had better get out of the shower so if my water did break, I would be able to tell out of the shower easier than I would in the shower. I got of the shower in between contractions and grabbed a towel and sat on the toilet seat when another contraction came on. And with that one, my water broke. It was now 6:30am. We called Fran, our midwife, to let her know our water had broken. Since with my last labor, my water broke and a short 3 hours later Luna was born, we had decided together that she needed to be called right when that happened to make her way from Lawrence…a good 1 hour drive from her house to ours.

After that I called all my birth team (family, doula and friends) and alerted them so they could be here at our house when we needed them. Tevan and Luna, our older boys, were still sleeping…bizarre, as they are usually awake and are moving by 6:30 or 7am. It wasn't long until they were awake too, a little after 7. We both went downstairs lumbering our birth kit down too and we labored some in the sunroom. The boys awoke and Casey got breakfast going for them. Luna, our 3 year old, wandered over and looked at me with mystery as I had a contraction and moaned my way through it sounding like more of an animal than his mom. Casey came over and looked at Luna and Tevan, as he hugged me, and said, isn't this exciting, mommy is having labor and that means our baby is coming soon! Luna's eyes immediately changed to eyes of wonder and he said, "Yeah!" while he looked at me and giggled. Tevan, our 5 1/2 year old, was there for the birth of Luna, and remembers what noises labor entails and so he knew and was already excited. We had prepared both boys for being a part of this labor and birth for a long time, by reading books about childbirth, watching all the birth videos together that we show in class and sharing the most amazing hardcover book about a homebirth, Welcome With Love.

My contractions were continuing to be about 4-5 minutes apart and they were demanding my attention and my moaning really helped me through it. I asked Casey to bring up the birth ball from downstairs, and using that was really nice. I sat on the couch and then as a contraction came on I leaned over onto the ball and just melted into the ball and rocked away. The boys were up at the table eating their breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola while Casey would massage me as a contraction came on.

We were hoping Fran, our midwife, would be here soon. And then we saw her cute green car appear. Ahhhh, a sigh of relief waved over me with seeing her pull into our driveway. She came in, and I couldn't say hello since a contraction was waving over me - and more moans. Fran set her things down and came over and immediately encouraged me with loving words and caress. I remember Fran saying to me, "WOW! We are very far along here, I can tell just by listening to you and looking at you." (Fran never gave me a vaginal exam the entire time, which is how I wanted it, and isn't it amazing that babies come out and labor still progresses without a vaginal exam! *laugh*) "Where is everyone else?" Fran said. (meaning our birth team) I told her we were waiting for her to get here before we made any calls. She said, "Well get going…it's time, we got to get that birthing pool set up and need help doing it." So Casey began the phone-tree to my mom & dad, sister, my good friend, Kari and Kristy. And soon everyone starting coming in.

Dad walked in with his bundle of firewood to make a fire in our old fashioned
wood-burning stove, like we'd talked about. Then he got directed to start pumping up the pool. A few minutes into it they realized the pool wasn't blowing up, since it should only take a couple of minutes to inflate. Fran came over to inspect and then it was decided that we forgo the birthing pool, since it would take more than an hour to fill the pool with warm water, and Fran knew (by her wondrous wisdom) that we didn't have that long until this baby would come. She came over to me and said, "Okay, second choice for you to give birth in?" And I said, "No I want the birthing pool!" And she then explained to me the situation. I remember feeling oddly doubtful and excited that she thought I was *that* close to giving birth. And then I said, "my own tub!" So my bathtub was filled up and I couldn't wait to get in! Each contraction was feeling lower and heavier and I sooo needed that water! It couldn't have been filled up sooner, and I threw off my shirt and lumbered over there (in between contractions) and got in. Ahhhhh…. warm water…. my dream. Yes, this was nice…this was what I needed.

Another contraction…so low…so very heavy. It felt like there was a bowling ball visibly in-between my legs already, yet there wasn’t. Contractions were now coming every couple minutes it felt like, though we weren't literally writing them down since things were happening so fast. And each time I had one, it felt so heavy in-between my legs. It was overwhelming, so all-consuming, and this I knew meant we were very close. At this point everyone was here, all squeezed into our little house's bathroom, and it gave me great strength to see all of them and hear all of them. I remember now was when my needs felt urgent. At one point I wanted a cold washcloth all over my face, and Casey had been putting it just over my forehead during contractions. Well during the next contraction, I needed it on my face. And I said, "my whole face, my whole face!" And Casey started wiping it around my whole face, which was NOT what I wanted. So I said again, urgently, "my whole face!" And finally he spread out the washcloth and just set it on my face. Which was exactly what I wanted. It's funny how during late labor our needs become very urgent and also how dumb we laboring women become. And by dumb, I mean, how we can't seem to intellectually explain what we mean, we almost become one-worded, or cave-man-like. Bless Casey's heart, he is such a wonderful coach, and just giggled his way through that one. So now with each contraction Casey would be stroking my upper back down to my hips and I would sit asymmetrically in the tub, lean over the edge and rock my head and moan. I remember at this point getting my typical transitional worry. I sort of get shaky and worried and scared. This time I needed to hold someone's hand, and I wanted it to be Fran's. I said, "Fran, I need you. I need you to hold me. Hold my hand Fran." And of course she did. She held me and said, it's going to be okay, your baby will come, breathe the baby down, Summer, breathe the baby down." Here is my transitional head talking now, I said, "Is it? Is it going to be okay? I don't think the baby is going to come." She repeated her encouraging words again to me. I starting breathing the baby down, while chanting our name for the baby, "Ziah, I want to meet you", in a very shaky voice. And then everyone in the room started saying, "Ziah" all in a chant-like form and I to was chanting. It was really neat.

Then not long after that with a contraction my body said, "UGH" as everything pushed downward and low, the heaviest ever. That was when I knew this baby was coming and now was the pushing time, my favorite part! Right after I said "UGH" I remember hearing Fran say, "Good girl, that's it" and everyone else in the room saying, all right, you are doing great, and all that was so very encouraging. It was at this point when Casey said, "Summer now blow some raspberries" What a good idea, that's my man the rock star coach! We had both talked (prior to labor) how we wanted to try letting my uterus do all the pushing itself and to help that by only breathing and blowing raspberries during the pushing stage. So that's what I did. I breathed and blew some raspberries and then I felt some serious stinging, a clear indication that Ziah was crowning. So I blew some more raspberries. At this point, Fran wanted to make sure that I remained "intact" and without a tear, so she was applying perineal pressure and that's when she found that Ziah's head was presenting along with his fist smack up against his cheekbone! She started trying to push his fist back inside so only his head would come out, and I knew that only by feeling it. Because when she started to do that, something felt wrong and I quickly and instinctively pushed her hand away and said, "What are you doing, STOP that!" She apologized and explained what she was doing, and I told her that it felt worse when she did that, so to leave it be and he'll come out how he wants. She understood and we kept going.

With the next contraction Ziah's head and fist came out under the water! Then Casey hopped into the tub (fully clothed) and lifted me up out of the water to a full standing position and with the next contraction out slipped the rest of Ziah's body! It was 9:27am and our third baby boy was here! All 8 pounds 9 ounces of him! I sat back down in the tub and snuggled him and cried and we were all filled with wonder and amazement at the accomplishment of our first homebirth! Ziah Storm was covered in vernix and we rubbed that "good stuff" right back into his body. Casey and I were thrilled! Luna came over and saw the umbilical cord and wanted to touch it. So his little hand reached down into the water and touched it and I'll always remember how his face lit up with amazement. Tevan was so thrilled by the experience he was already rambling off about when they all grow up how they will share a room with a triple bunk bed and what level each of them would sleep. It was the most amazing experience to have a homebirth. It was so perfectly what we wanted and needed. It was so wonderful to have the intimacy and comfort in our own home and how great to be able to give birth and then just walk over to my couch and rest with my newest baby boy! Now it seems to me that there is just no other way to give birth other than at home! Or, as Tevan says to me now, why have a baby in a hospital, that is for sick people and there are so many germs there…babies are supposed to be born at home! That's my boy, 5 1/2 and already an activist!