Home Birth Labor and Delivery Story + Vlog | Positive no epidural experience with baby #2!

The birth of my second baby was truly magical. I got to have the positive home birth labor and delivery with no epidural that I'd always wanted! While I was even more “overdue” with my second baby than with my first (creeping up to 42 weeks) I'm so happy that this was my experience!

Below you'll find my overdue pregnancy vlog and story, as well as my positive birth video with no epidural. Be sure to check out my Positive Natural Birth Story At the Hospital With First Baby as well as my 75+ Positive Birth Affirmations [+ FREE PRINTABLE PDF!] here!

Introduction + chatting about dates and astrology

Oh boy! Where to start with this…

Cappie's birth story is insanely short and also insanely long…

So, originally they told me my due date was like the first week of June, then they moved it to the middle of June. I knew both of those were wrong and I'd be going until at least my birthday on June 21st. In my bones, I just knew my son wasn't meant to be a Gemini haha!

I spent the entire weekend before June 21st at the beach, and then the entire weekend of June 21st at the beach too while my husband watched our daughter and I prepared myself mentally and spiritually to bring this new life in. It was SO relaxing and exactly what I needed.

June 21st is actually my birthday, so once that past, I felt really good about what the week would hold. We had done a Spirit Baby medium session and I asked her if he gave her the date and she said possibly 6/23 because of the moon positioning in astrology… on 6/21 and 6/22 the moon was in Scorpio and with the sun in Cancer, she said it would be too much drama… which I laughed at because I'm a Cancer sun and Scorpio rising (your rising sign is how people perceive you).

Anyway, so on 6/23 the moon moved to Sagittarius, which was interesting because my biological father's sun is Cancer and moon is Sagittarius. We don't have much of a relationship so I felt like it was karmic that my son would have those signs…

June 23rd

Around mid morning on June 23rd, I started having regular contractions for a couple of hours. They were even getting so intense at points I had to breathe through them. I was SO excited!! I was SO sure the baby was coming in the next 24 hours I even texted my doula this around lunchtime:

hiii – just wanted to give you an update – I honestly don’t know if he’s coming today. I really do think in the next 24 hours he will… He moved down A LOT last night (like half a hand) and I’ve been having pre-labor poops all day haha

All day contractions were coming regularly every 6-7 minutes, but they weren't moving closer together. We walked to the park with my daughter that night and they had continued. Only once I got to the park and I sat down and started talking to people they stopped. I walked back home and they didn't return.

Eric and Reagan came back a little later and I began feeling pretty defeated… I hadn't had any contractions in a few hours. Then when Reagan went to nurse before bed they started again and this time were INTENSE.

Only once she stopped nursing, they stopped. I realized then that he may not be coming that night and I possibly was only having contractions because when R nursed, oxytocin was released and my body was just confused and she had spent most of the day on the boob while we watched movies.

After we put R to bed, I asked my husband to see if he could channel the baby to see WTF was going on. He felt like the baby was still coming, but now around 4 am. As excited as I wanted to be, I also felt like it wasn't going to happen.

June 24th, the full moon

4 am came and went…

When Eric had channeled the baby, the baby had said that 6/24 was significant for him and that it'd be that day. Eric had always felt like it was 6/24 though.

We also misinterpreted what the spirit baby said and assumed the baby was set on a Sagittarius moon; but when we went back and rewatched we realized he was just set on NOT a scorpio moon and he was waiting for a moon he liked. I had just assumed the next moon sign was the one he'd want…

So I was convinced the baby was still coming before the moon transitioned into the next sign at 1 pm on 6/24…

Only there were no signs of labor.

I felt COMPLETELY defeated. It was now Thursday, we were heading into another weekend, no signs of labor since the day before. I had mentally said goodbye to Mother Ocean until after this baby was born and felt sad heading into another weekend with no baby…

This day officially marked 41 weeks. R was born exactly at 41 weeks from my second due date (they moved hers too).

I officially was more pregnant than I'd ever been!

And the next day I had to go for monitoring – which I really did not want to do – to make sure the amniotic fluid was still okay and baby's heart rate was good (standard practice when you go over 40 weeks).

At this point I was so disappointed, I decided to schedule an induction massage. During my last pregnancy, I actually had an induction massage on 41 weeks exactly and ended up being in labor during it! It was REALLY nice to get a massage while in labor haha! I was hoping for the same thing at this point!

Anyway, at this point I was an emotional wreck and my doula asked me to see if there were any mental or emotional blocks holding me back from allowing my body to go into labor. I couldn't come up with any in that moment…

June 25th…

I went to the fetal stress test/monitoring appointment and it was exactly as expected: tons of amniotic fluid, perfect stress test.

BUT something interesting happened at the appointment… when they went to do the ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid, the machine didn't work!

So backstory: I only wanted one ultrasound this pregnancy and was REALLY not excited about getting this one done, but since I ended up not getting an anatomy scan and I was giving birth at home, felt like we should just do it anyway even though I didn't know if I 100% wanted it.

On the way to the appointment, I said whatever is meant to be will happen with it. If he doesn't want the ultrasound and it'll harm him then the machine won't work.

So when it didn't work my husband and I both looked at each other and laughed… The midwife went to troubleshoot it and I told her not to. I explained to her that we trusted him (the baby) and that if the machine wasn't working, it wasn't meant to be and EXACTLY the moment I said that we trusted him, the machine started working!

I left that appointment and felt so good and texted my doula: I think I figured out the block in the appointment – he needed to hear us say we trust him.

That night I got an induction massage.

June 26th…

By Saturday I had just decided to keep working and living my life and reset my mind that baby wasn't coming until 42 weeks at this point.

We went to the library that morning and when I went to the bathroom I lost my mucus plug! Well a portion of it. With R my mucus plug came out like 3 hours before I had her and it literally looked like a plug. This was more like egg white mucus so I thought it was the whole thing, but the rest of the day more and more kept coming.

You can lose your mucus plug and it can still take a week for labor to happen so I didn't get my hopes up at that point or tell anyone. I felt like I was the girl who cried wolf all week and didn't want to jinx it.

June 27th // home birth labor and delivery story time!

I woke up at like 2 or 3 am from a contraction and my back was KILLING me. I went back to sleep since I'd been having contractions at this point randomly the last few days. Part of me felt hopeful, but I didn't want to get my hopes up…

I slept through the night, but when I got up for the day a little after 7 am, I noticed contractions were happening pretty regularly.

Around 8 am I texted my doula this:

Ok so I actually think I’m for real in labor this time lol but like not anywhere close. I’m wondering if the baby is in a bad position though because my low back feels like the last 2 hours of active labor but my contractions are nowhere near that. Low back has been like this since like 3 am. And now it’s to the point I can’t even distinguish a contraction because the low back is just so uncomfortable.

She texted my chiropractic who let me come into the office on a Sunday morning about an hour later.

Less than 4 hours til baby…

During the adjustment, he used the robozo to shake lift and shake my belly while I was on all fours. It provided SUCH SWEET RELIEF! He gave me a few moves to do to shift things from my back to my front and everything felt SO good.

Apparently, after we left the appointment he texted my doula and said I seemed fine and had some time… little did everyone know baby was coming in about 3 hours!!

After my chiro appointment, Eric dropped me off while he took Reagan to the park.

I got in the hot tub. At this point, my back was still kind of hurting but I could feel contractions. Because of all the false starts for labor the whole week, I just wanted to BE SURE I was in labor. So I figured the hot tub could give my back some relief, and if I wasn't in labor, it'd slow things down and I'd at least have a better idea of what was happening.

Only in the hot tub things started speeding up. My contractions went from being like 7 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart. But things were inconsistent so I didn't know what to do exactly. Some contractions were 12-15 minutes apart, and others were 6-8 minutes apart, then I'd have one 2 minutes apart:

NOTE: My contractions (even with my first) only last about 45 seconds MAX. I could never follow the 5-1-1 rule (go to the hospital when they are 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour). Because my contractions were both too short, and they transitioned from 10 to 5 minutes to 2 minutes in under an hour with both births.

Less than 2 hours before baby I texted my doula this:

Ok so I’m as confident I’m in labor as I was with Reagan when you had me start going to Courtney’s for a labor check and I aborted to hospital. While I don’t necessarily think I’m like 2 hours out like I was then, I am feeling nauseous like I’m going to throw up. Is it okay for you to come labor with me and if we don’t feel like we have a better idea of how far things are in like an hour or two you can head back home?

I texted my midwives at that point too and let them know I was confident I was in labor, had lost my mucus plug but didn't think contractions were close enough for them to come yet.

Only to text them 45 minutes later “Come now.”

At this point, I basically knew this baby was coming that day. My doula was on the way, the midwives were alerted.

I started to feel like we wouldn't have enough time to get the tub filled once everyone got there, so I tried filling up the tub by myself… It was a disaster.

By the time my doula got there the hallway was covered in water.

I hadn't told Eric how quickly I thought the baby was coming and just left it at more of a laundry list of all the things we still hadn't done. Which was comical because we had days to prepare and thought we were SO ready. We'd even done a test run of the tub…

While Eric put R down for her nap, I remember laying down on the floor between our bed and the wall with a pillow between my legs and laboring with my doula.

Less than 30 min to baby!!

Eric came in after putting R down for a nap and his feet were in my face so I told him to change his socks because they smelled awful haha

I remember I was pretty light hearted and joking around between contractions and when a contraction would come I just was breathing while my doula and Eric rubbed my back and reminded me to release any tension in my jaw, shoulders, etc.

After about 5 or 10 minutes of laying there I felt like I had peed a little on my last contraction. So I told them after the next one I was going to get up and go pee.

At this point my midwife had arrived. When I went to go pee, my midwife and doula were working on getting the tub filled and Eric went to go clean up after Reagans lunch.

Only while on the toilet I felt an INTENSE pressure. In case you didn't know, the toilet can seriously speed things up. So if you're ever in labor and it stalls, sit on the toilet! And if you're in late labor, don't be surprised if you almost have the baby on a toilet!

I remember not knowing if I could even stand or walk. Then it relieved and a huge gush dropped into the toilet. When I went to stand up there was a ton of bloody mucus.

I remember calmly saying, “uhh samara” and my midwife saying, “Samara, she's calling for you.” Then they opened the bathroom door and I was half standing over the toilet with SO MUCH bloody mucus hanging out of me. I was SO freaked out that something was wrong.

My doula just goes, “And that's a bloody show.” And I was like “okay, got it.“

I was still freaking out though. This was more mucus than I'd even know was possible to be inside of me. I was especially freaked out because I wasn't sure what had just happened. It felt just like my water breaking last time, only there was all this mucus and the blood I had never seen last time and it scared me.

I went to take a step away from the toilet when I felt something between my legs so I reached down and felt baby's head! Now I felt calm again!

The only “painful” moments:

I would say that moment of “uh… what's happening?” was the only painful part of giving birth for me – minus the back pains I'd been feeling earlier.

Pain is so mental, especially in labor. Our bodies are truly designed to open and relax and birth without pain or free. It's when we hold fear, tension, or images of what birth looks like on TV or in movies for drama that we conjure the pain. And these can be held DEEP within our subconscious, so if you do experience pain despite trying to “visualize” or “manifest” a pain free birth you've done nothing wrong! Society crams our subconscious mind full of painful birth and the need for an epidural from such a young age.

Letting go of the pain…

So when I didn't understand what was happening, my body tensed up and it hurt for a couple of contractions. Once I realized the blood was normal, my water broke, and baby was coming I was able to quickly return to feeling relaxed, safe, and supported.

At this point, the tub was nowhere near full. Our shower is open (no door) and my doula asked if I wanted to get in the shower, I said yes.

She turned it on and had the hot water on my back, while my midwives gathered in and did a quick fetal monitor scan and the other got in position to catch. Eric came in and jumped in the shower with me. I held his neck while releasing the baby fully in the next few contractions. Just breathing.

Baby was born in our..

I was very aware that we were in the shower, with cold, very hard tile underneath us. I also didn't want to tear this time so I was trying to not fully release the baby until my body had loosened and everyone was in position. When one of the midwives said on the next contraction to push, I figured I should let him go so I just took a deep breath and turned my knees in, feet out to give him room to fully come out and with that one push he was born!

I picked him up from the doulas arms, he wasn't crying right away so I rubbed his chest and he started going!

We moved over to the bed, so I could birth the placenta, which I don't even remember doing.

After that, I was bleeding quite a bit. I ended up tearing where I had torn the first time, so they stitched my up, but blood was still coming.

Post birth

Shortly after baby boy arrived, our daughter woke up from her nap, and didn't ask to see me but just wanted to play with her iPad (this app is SO great for toddlers and has a 30 day free trial!) so Eric let her.

They had me take a herb to make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging, which I didn't feel like I was. While I was visibly losing blood it didn't feel like I was. So the midwife ended up going in and scraping out my uterus which had A TON of clots from a small hematoma.

Essentially my placenta had kind of dislodged a little from my uterine wall a little, and some clots got stuck between the two. Nothing concerning, just looked like a lot of blood.

Big sister + baby brother meet!

Right around the time all of this was finishing up, Reagan asked to come in. Fortunately all the blood was cleaned up and we were ready for her! The timing was so beautiful and perfect.

It was honestly so special to have her in my lap while the midwives weighed and measured her new baby brother. She watched so intently as they listened to his heart beat.

When I went to nurse him for the first time in front of her, she jumped right onto the other boob and it was just so magical. I couldn't have been happier to have had a home birth.

We sat in bed, eating lunch and just feeling so at peace.

Everyone clearing out…

Within a couple hours everyone had cleared out of the house, and it was like nothing had happened at all while simultaneously our entire lives had just shifted.

Other than the back pains in early labor I really did not find this labor painful at all except those few minutes when my water broke. I truly felt so calm, supported, and relaxed through the entire birthing process.

Anddd in the end: Cappie ended up with an Aquarius moon… just like me!!

Which honestly makes me laugh so much and explains SO much. We both are Cancer suns and Aquarius moons which are basically a walking contradiction. It's the most emotional and least emotional signs paired together which can confuse people.

It's also a combo that's super curious, always growing/evolving, and also is wildly emotional and emotionally detached at the same time.

It's super malleable and kind of a lone wolf but also loves people type of vibe. Growing up, my mom would always say “I just don't understand you.” My inconsistencies and rapid growth/changing views can be unsettling for some. But that's the Cancer/Aquarius pairing; an enigma.

No one really knows or understands them because each day they discover something knew about themselves too. Being face to face with this little dude who shares this with me. I felt such sweet relief. With my daughter, she showed me so much of who she was right away, that I'd actually get nervous while pregnant with him because I felt like I knew him but didn't at the same time.

Once I realized his sun/moon sign, it clicked. Of course I'd never really know him, just like I'll never really know myself. It's something I had to come to terms with a longggg time ago and I feel like it's bonded me to this little dude who already has shown me how quickly he can cycle through emotions at times haha!

His human design

As for his human design: unsurprisingly it's super similar to mine too! He's a 3/5 emotional MG with a split definition and strongest sense of touch, just like me! His environment is mountains, just like his dad (who his rising sign actually takes after – Virgo).

This birth compared to last…

Similar to my first, water broke, baby was crowning. Literally had midwives in the room like 10 minutes before baby was born with both. Only alerted people with less than 2 hours notice.

This birth felt much calmer, safer, and secure. I knew how to breathe this time, which was the big issue I had with my first. I kept trying to breathe in and out from my nose with my first, like they teach in hypnobirthing, only it didn't work for me.

So this time I really focused on low moans on my exhales from my mouth which opens everything up. I also learned a lot about the physiology of birth this time around. Positioning the knees in and feet out to open the birth canal for baby in those final moments was a big one!

Not pushing once baby's head crowned to give my perineum time to adjust. And little things like that. I felt much calmer, at peace, and supported this time which is ultimately exactly what I wanted. It was truly magical. Like I loved the experience of giving birth so much that I want to have 50000 more babies (but won't haha).

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