This is the home birth story of our 6th baby, Daniel Teddy Paul. It is a positive natural birth story using the Miles Circuit and Bradley Method.
The name we chose for our 6th Baby
We are so excited to introduce you to our newest family member, Daniel Teddy Paul Bass. We named our 5th child, Micah Bobby Gene, after Luke’s grandpa Bobby Gene. We decided to keep the theme with this little one, using Luke’s other grandpa’s name.
Grandpa Teddy Paul passed away many years ago, but his lovely wife Clara is so happy the newest grand baby is named after her husband. Luke’s grandpa Bobby Gene passed away this August, but he knew Micah very well for nearly two years.
We waited three days to choose a name for Daniel, because we were being indecisive. With all four of our boys we waited a while before choosing a name.
Now that you know our sweet little one’s name, onto the positive home birth story of Daniel Teddy Paul.
Why it’s important to share positive birth stories
If you base pregnancy and birth strictly off popular culture, these vulnerable times in a woman’s life are a more a source of anxiety and fear than joy and excitement.
People will tell you birth is going to be the most excruciating pain you’ve ever experienced. Pregnancy is a time of severe discomfort. Women readily volunteer their birth horror stories, even to women who are clearly ready to give birth.
Much of the pain of birth is directly dependent on the fear you go into it with. It is important to fill your head with positive stories. Birth is NORMAL, and when it is left to progress normally it just goes differently.
I had my first daughter at the hospital. I did absolutely no research and no mental preparations. For my other five kids, I went in prepared. The difference is astounding.
The most important thing is a healthy mom and healthy baby, but I can tell you from experience fear and expectations really do make a difference!
Of course I still think there is some pain in childbirth, and the very real possibility for complications, but going in with a positive outlook really can help decrease these things!
Read all of my positive home birth stories
Our 5th child- Introducing Micah Bobby Gene- My Bradley Method Home Birth Story
Our 4th child- Jude Matthew was also born at home. I need to share his story!
3rd child- Baby In The Van Story- Eli’s Exciting Arrival!
The Positive home birth story of Daniel Teddy Paul
I was 40 weeks pregnant on October 15th. Since none of my kids came before the due date, I fully expected to make it to this point. Two of my kids were born exactly two days after, with little Daniel following suit and doing the exact same thing.
Around 1 AM on October 16th, I woke up with my first real contraction. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for several weeks, but this one was real. It started in my lower back and radiated around to the front. In my experience, real contractions also come with low pressure from the baby’s descending head. All that night I continued to have these very real contractions, but pretty irregularly. Some were 30 minutes apart, some 15.
They were enough to wake me up, so I barely slept at all the entire night.
In the morning I told Luke what was going on and told him to expect a baby sometime that day.
Contractions Stop
As I got up and around to the chores of the day, making breakfast, shooting some videos for the blog and taking care of the kids, the contractions all but stopped. I would have one here and there, but then they would go away for an hour.
Contractions Pick Back up Again
By 2 pm, when I was scheduled to go in for my 40 week midwife appointment, they picked back up again. I was getting ready to walk out the door to make the one hour trek to her office, when Luke asked, “Hey, so are you going to bring a bag with you for when you get stuck in the city having a baby?” He clearly wasn’t in favor of me leaving the house while in labor. Since our third child came in the back of the van on the way to the birthing center, he has every right to not believe me when I say, “I’m fine.”
I took my shoes off and decided to take a nap instead of going to the appointment.
The contractions kept coming.
Luke loaded up the boys and brought Micah over to his parents house to spend the night. Since he is the toddler, we felt like we could handle labor with all the kids except him. At least all of the older ones could all watch a movie if things got serious. The 22 month old, not so much.
Am i really in labor?
You would think, as a mom of 6, I would have this whole thing completely down pat by now, but this labor was really confusing me. I knew the contractions were real, and I had to completely relax through them (ie they were strong) but they weren’t getting closer together.
How long is this labor going to drag on?! I had already been up the entire night before with contractions. The last thing I wanted was to repeat the exact same thing for another night.
The Miles Circuit
Around 4 in the afternoon, I texted the midwife to tell her my predicament. The contractions are continuing to come every 15 minutes. They are strong, but they aren’t getting any closer together.
She suggested I do the Miles Circuit, so I did. It basically involves three different positions/exercises, each for 30 minutes that are designed to get baby in the proper position and get things progressing!
Contractions All night long
I continued to have contractions all throughout that night. I started logging them in my phone and noticed they were coming every 12 minutes if I was lying down and every 5 minutes if I was standing up.
The midwife lives an hour away, so I decided to mostly stay lying down. I was worried that if I stood up much, labor would progress quickly and she wouldn’t make it in time.
I went back and forth between the couch and the stove, warming up the corn pack I was using for back labor. By 6 am, I decided it was time to call the midwife. The contractions weren’t any closer together, but I thought maybe she could do something to help speed things up.
The Midwives Arrive
The midwives arrived around 7:10 am. They checked my vitals, blood pressure, the baby’s heartbeat and dilation. They said I was a 6, almost a 7.
They got me back into the first Miles Circuit position, where I stayed for 30 minutes. This wasn’t my favorite part of this labor, because I was having some very intense contractions and I wasn’t allowed to move from the quite uncomfortable Miles Circuit position.
After the 30 minute timer went off, the midwives rolled me over for the second Miles Circuit position.
Within 5 minutes, I felt the urge to push.
He was born another 5 minutes later, only one hour from when the midwives arrived.
I would say the Miles Circuit worked to get the baby in position and get things moving!
He was 7 pounds 11 ounces, a full pound smaller than our previous baby Micah. He was 21″ long with a 14″ head circumference.
He cried right away, and looked perfect.
My first words were “Oh my goodness Luke, it’s another boy!”
I still can’t believe we’ve had four boys in a row!
Welcome to the world little man!
Related Posts
Daniel is wrapped in a swaddle blanket I made with this tutorial: How To Make Muslin Swaddle Blankets
I knitted Daniel’s hat with this pattern
Pin it for later
Tell me more about this corn pack? It sounds like you heated it on the stove. I need something like that as we’ve tossed our microwave and only have a stove or toaster oven now!
A corn pack is similar to a rice pack! It’s simply a flannel bag that is filled with corn or rice and then sewn up. You can either pop these in the microwave to warm them up or carefully warm them up inside your stove on a low temperature.
Lisa, I’ve been making many of your recipes for a while. I love how you always include directions for long fermentation. Now that I am pregnant with baby #6 I am enjoying reading your birth stories!
What a beautiful birth story! You’re right – we need to share the positive birth stories. I had 3 great home births and am so grateful for that option, and the kind and wise care of my midwives during pregnancy and delivery.
Thank you so much for sharing. Your home birth stories encouraged me in my first home birth two weeks ago. Thanks to your story, I discovered the Bradley Method which was incredibly valuable to my husband and I.