My Successful VBAC Home Birth

I woke up around 5 am on August 29th, feeling kind of strange. I went to the bathroom to take a pee. I stood up and seemed keep going a little. I inspected the leakage that was running down my leg. It was slippery and smelled ultra clean. Kind of like bleach or something.... Amniotic fluid... I wasn't quite sure what to do since it was only a little bit so I went out to the kitchen to say good morning to my husband and send him off to work.
Shortly after he left. I leaked again. This time it was enough to trigger a call to my midwife. Unfortunately she was still in Colorado visiting her daughter who just gave birth, which meant a nearly 10-hour drive to get to my house. I had my doubts about if she would be here in time for the birth. She answered her phone and instead of saying, "hello," she said, "uh-oh." I told her what was going on. She said she'd leave right away.
I called Cam at work and told him to be sure to get the FMLA papers signed because I was going into labor. He told me that he noticed my eyes were super dialated earlier in the morning. He asked if I needed him to come home right away. I told him I was good for now and that I'd call him later. Well, later came sooner than I thought and I was back on the phone within an hour asking him to come home. It was about 7 am and I was starting to feel contractions and having periodic leaks of amniotic fluid.
Cam came home and immediately went to work cleaning the kitchen and getting the pot roast and vegetables in the crock pot so we could have dinner ready later. I called my doula, Sarah around 8 am and told her what was going on. I had a couple contractions while I was on the phone with her. they were strong enough to make me stop talking mid-sentence. She asked if I needed her to come over right away and I said that I would be fine for a while and I'd call her when I was ready for her. She said that she would go ahead and get ready then go to her friend's house that was near mine and wait for my call.
In the meantime, she suggested that I time my contractions just so we would have a good idea of where I was at. Cam and I went to my bedroom. He sat down in the rocking chair with a stopwatch and I sat in the butterfly position on the floor. I told him when to start and stop the watch.and he timed the contractions as I rode them out like I was on a wave.We did this for a while and by the time Sarah had called to tell me she was on her way to her friend's house, the contractions were so strong and frequent that I told her to come over.
She made it over by about 10 am and by this time I was wearing nothing but a robe. I was still feeling good between contractions. I actually managed to crack a couple of jokes and laugh a little. Then she asked me if I had eaten anything. I hadn't so I tried eating a granola bar and man, that was hard to choke down. My body was in no mood for eating. I continued to ride out the contractions for a couple more hours. I wandered between the living room and kitchen. I was enjoying getting foot massages and hip squeezes until about noon when I just didn't want anyone to touch me anymore. My primal mode was starting to kick in. There was no more joking around.
Around noon, I retreated back to my bedroom where it was dark and private. I went from using my balance ball to rock back and forth through contractions, then resting on it between contractions. After a while I started to squat and hang on the changing table. At one point, Sarah, had to provide a counter-weight on the table so I wouldn't pull it down on top of me. Honestly, I was feeling so strong that I could've tore the walls down if I tried. Cam came to my room to do one of his routine check-ins. I stopped him and just hung onto him for a while. Using his strength to suspend my body was so comforting.
Around 12:30 or so, Sarah asked if I felt like bearing down. I told her, I felt like I needed to take a crap. Yep! That was the feeling alright so she got the bathtub ready. I was totally in the mood for some relief that I knew warm water would provide. The bath was so relaxing... so much that it accelerated things even further. I was able to relax so that my body opened up even more and the contractions got even stronger. I was dealing with the contractions by getting deep into my guts and belting out, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOhhhh!" Which I alternated between many pushes and grunts and the word, "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOpen!" I got in every position imaginable in that tub. I was struggling to relax between contractions because there just didn't seem to be any breaks. 
Suddenly, Lorraine appeared in my bathroom. I was so happy to see her! By this time it was about 1:30. She came over to the tub and started to moan with me, which brought me great comfort. She splashed water on my back and told me to sing the baby out. She tried to massage my perineum with castor oil, but was having a hard time in the water. She told me that the tub was small and that I would have to reach down and catch the baby myself. The thought of catching the baby myself in the tub just didn't sit right with me. I reached down and felt around with my fingers in my vagina, and there was the head! I continued to try every position I could think of, but the tub just didn't seem to be big enough so I decided to get out and go back to my room.
Lorraine told me to try and put my leg up on the bed. She was able to massage a little castor oil on my perineum to help the baby come out. I pushed and out came the head. Cameron got behind me and I pushed one more time and out came the baby right into Cameron's hands. I heard Sarah exclaim, "its a boy!" I couldn't believe it. The whole time, I thought I was carrying a girl. I turned around and took the baby and massaged his back, suctioned out his mouth and nose with the bulb syringe, wrapped him in a towel and just held him. Time of birth 2:29 pm on August 29, 2012.
I climbed onto the bed to feed my new baby and he latched on right away. After about 20 minutes, it was time to cut the cord. Lorraine told me to ask the baby if he was ready to be released. I did and it was a nice sentiment. Cameron clamped and cut the cord. I handed the baby over to him as I went to the shower to deliver the placenta. I had a little bit of a hard time. My body seemed to be done with all this pushing and whatnot. It eventually came out with a little help from some herbs, nipple stimulation, and coaxing from Lorraine.
My placenta was in perfect form. It was a beautiful deep red and completely in tact aside from the one hole in the membrane where the baby came out. Lorraine said that she could tell from looking at it that I ate really well... especially my vitamin K foods like spinach and broccoli. I felt so proud that all my diligence in eating well and taking my supplements had paid off. After inspecting and making a print of it on paper, Lorraine cut the umbilical cord off the placenta and put the placenta in a gallon zip lock back and into the freezer for later processing. She took the cord and made it into a heart shape so it would dry like that.
With all the craziness of coming straight from Colorado, Lorraine didn't have all her supplies with her including a baby scale so to weigh the baby, Cam weighed himself and the baby. Then he weighed himself and took the difference. The baby was about 9 pounds! Not bad at all! To top it off, my first birth was a c-section, which makes this birth a vaginal birth after c-section or VBAC. To imagine that had I gone through regular channels to have this baby, I would have automatically got another c-section! No thanks! This vaginal birth was so amazing! I wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't trade either experience actually. I feel very fortunate to have experienced both ends of the birth spectrum.
There are so many advantages to having a natural home birth. For one, I was so comfortable in my own home. How many people can say they gave birth to their child in their own bedroom? I got to labor where ever I wanted including the bathtub, which really helped me progress. I had my family and animals around, which provided comfort. I didn't have to be in the sterile environment of the hospital. I didn't have a million nurses coming into my room to manage my experience. I wasn't told by a doctor or anybody else what to do. I figured it out on my own with the loving guidance and support of my midwife, doula, and husband. I was at home. I simply birthed my baby, fell in love with him and went about my business. My recovery is absolutely amazing too. I was up and walking around the same day of the birth. I had one small tear, which has completely healed in about 2 weeks. There have been no problems with breastfeeding. My milk production is great. The baby, William sleeps with me so when he's hungry in the night, I help him latch on, then I go back to sleep so I am at least getting 6-8 hours of sleep at night.
Speaking of William, I named the baby after my dad without even putting together how special the date is that he was born on. I got a call from my mom a couple days after the birth. She said, "do you know what happened on the 29th of August?" I was about to say, "yeah, mom my son was born." but she said, "that was the date your dad died, Tami." I felt happy to know I could put life into the day. This pregnancy started with me getting married with a ring on my finger that was from my dad and ended with my son being born on the date of my dad's death. Birth and death work hand in hand and I'm grateful to be a part of it.