from Mckayla Kennard – Ohio, USA

Our birth story truly starts at 35 weeks pregnant, when I began having consistent contractions. Every. Single. Day. They were always bearable but sometimes got pretty intense & I truly thought I was in labor a few times. Fast forward to 38 weeks & 5 days, I started having some bearable contractions the night of June 17th, but I figured they weren’t going anywhere so I laid down & fell asleep. I woke up at 4:05 am to go pee, and when I woke up I felt some liquid trickle down my legs. I didn’t think it was my water yet, until I sat down to pee and it continued to drip down my legs & I saw that it had a pink tinge (my water always has had a pink bloody tinge, very normal). I was not having contractions yet, but I was feeling a bit crampy. I texted my sister to tell her my water was definitely broken and called my photographer & my mom. I then went downstairs and had my fiancé start filling up the birth pool, which had been blown up & ready for weeks at this point. I figured it was going to be pretty quick, and I was not wrong. Contractions started probably around 5:15 and they were pretty strong right off the bat, I was having to work through them in the side lying position. I was on and off the toilet & as soon as I was able to get into the pool I did. My mom got to my house right around 5 & my photographer came shortly after. And my sister called me to check in, so my mom was talking to her as I was in the pool & she got to watch her nephew be born. At this point I knew I was getting close to pushing – I started pushing probably around 5:13 & he was born at 5:16am (only a little over an hour of active labor) Three pushes and he was out! I sat in the pool enjoying my baby for a moment & then decided to get out. When I did I felt the placenta ready to come so I squatted over a chux pad & it came right out. I then sat on the couch and got him to latch and snuggled him for a while. At this point my sister had called us & showed us that she was having some bloody show and she was nervous about it (first time mom) so she headed to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay (i told her it was completely normal but she wanted to ease her mind). Her plan for the majority of pregnancy was to birth in the hospital. Probably about an hour and a half or two hours later she told us they said she wasn’t in labor and she was uncomfortable and leaving. She said the cervical check caused some pretty intense contractions & she wanted to just come to my house to have her baby. I had been trying to talk her into homebirth her whole pregnancy, so I was more than okay with this decision. Once me and baby snuggled for a while & we burned his cord, I let my mom hold him so that I could prepare the birth pool for my sister. Thankfully, I had hired someone to come immediately after to cleanup my birth space and they had already drained the pool and removed the liner. So I was able to add some air to the pool and get a new liner ready. My sister got to my house around 10am and her contractions were very intense & she was having a hard time working through them, so we began to fill the pool right away. She labored in the pool for a while, not wanting to be messed with or bothered, so my mom, her boyfriend, and I sat quietly on the couch witnessing her. Around 12pm I could tell she was getting pretty close, mentally she was struggling, and I had to help her gather her breathing. I gave her some LMNT hydration drink in her water and made her take a couple droppers of liquid chlorophyll (she was getting exhausted). Probably around 12:15 she began her resting phase. She was having very distant contractions that were not as intense as before. I knew this meant she would be pushing soon and i let her know this was completely normal. She began pushing probably around 12:30 & was pushing for about 45 minutes before baby came. Rylan was born at 1:15 Pm, 8 hours after her cousin Kash. She sat in the pool for a bit with her baby, and recuperated, as she had a pretty rough intense time & felt very shook up. Once she was ready, we got her out of the pool and onto my couch, where she said she was ready to deliver the placenta. She squatted down over a bowl and it plopped right out – very minimal bleeding even though she had been pretty “anemic” her entire pregnancy. Amazing what our bodies are capable of when left alone. She then got baby Rylan to latch & we laid on the couch snuggling our new babes. After we got some food in us, we went up to my bed where we snuggled our new babies the rest of the day & night. This was truly the most amazing experience, and we have both been emotional about how awesome we are.

Kash Shane 6lb 8oz 21inches 5:16am

Rylan Alaina 7lb, 19in 1:15pm