Ordinary Miracle- the labor and home birth of Sugarbaby, April 19, 2012

Jessica and Arden Credence (Sugarbaby) 1 week after birth. Photo by Kelli Elizabeth Photography

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been two months since the birth of our little Sugarbaby!  (Read her introduction here.)  As promised, here are the videos that we shot during labor.  Finding the time to format the videos for YouTube and uploading them took a bit longer than we had anticipated.  We apologize for the long wait, especially for those who had a sneaky ad pop up just when our Sugarbaby was being born, but as you will see, her arrival was a surprise for everyone in the room!  Except maybe Jessica.  I’ll give a brief synopsis of each video, but otherwise let them speak for themselves.  I left them raw and virtually unedited (except to find a logical beginning and end for each).  Enjoy!

In this first video, it’s morning and still in the early stages of labor.  Jessica had checked herself and was about 4cm with a bulging bag of waters.  This is pre-live-stream, so if you tuned in to watch the birth, this is previously unseen footage even for you!  Dancing and singing in our living room, and the participation of our eldest, Earth Baby, contributed to make this a sweet start to a very long day.

 

In this second video, also, pre-live-stream, we moved to the bedroom, spent time on an exercise ball, and we try something we’ve never done before to get Sugarbaby to change her positioning: the rebozo technique.

 

This third video shows footage that was near the start of the live-feed.  It’s a great example of the lighter side of labor, with lots of conversations and bantering going on between more serious contractions.  Of utmost importance is the conversation near the end where the birth team discusses their favorite pizza.

 

The more serious side of labor is demonstrated in this fourth video, along with Jessica’s favorite laboring technique, sleep imitation, which was rendered extremely difficult thanks to the unusually intense hip pain Jessica experienced.

 

For the final installment of this five-part video experience memorializing the birth of Sugarbaby, you will see just a couple of very long contractions followed by her sudden arrival.  Don’t blink, or you just might miss it.  At least in this format, no one can blame it on a Captain Morgan’s or a Formula ad popping up at just the wrong moment!  And you can replay it.  This fifth video also includes some very ordinary footage of what it’s like in the first few minutes after a home birth, full of sweet, tired and, excited family interactions.

 

Our deepest gratitude to our midwife Cathy Rude, LM, CPM from Katy Birth Center in Katy, TX.; to Anna from Momma on a Mission for live blogging the labor and birth as our media rep; to Deborah Parker, our birth photographer; to Sue Potts our friend and the RN birth assistant; and to all our daughters for giving us the greatest reason to share this joy with others.

It is our hope that these videos demonstrate the natural, simple and beautiful alternative to the accepted hospital experience.  It isn’t the right choice for everyone or for all births, but our home births certainly have been for us, and we wouldn’t trade that experience for anything in the world.  We chose to share this birth journey and TLB with many as a way of paying it forward for all those that have shared their birth and parenting journeys with us and have inspired us along the way.  If you would like to help us continue to be able to do so and to offset the expense of running TLB, you can give a donation via the donate button on the right hand side of the page but please know there is no obligation.  Thank you for sharing this journey with us, it was an honor.

 

Sincerely,

The Piano Man and Jessica

 

Comments

  1. I’ll watch these videos when I’m at home, can’t wait! I might get the birth of my next child recorded, if and when 🙂

  2. You are a remarkable woman with such a great support system. You are the luckiest woman!

  3. Christina W says

    Thank you so much for sharing. I wasnt lucky enoigh to have any of the birth experience i wished for due to pre ecclampsia being induced and other fun complications i ended up with pitocin breaking my water. An epidural that kept wearing off and my cervix stopped dilating and after sll that needed a csection. When all i wanted was to labor in water and give birth that way too. Im hoping there is still a chance for future baby/ies.

    • I’m right there with you. Went over my due date, ended up with induction (cervadil, pitocin) and a hard, long active labor stage. After all of it, had to have a c-section.

      I sat here, bawling, sobbing even, watching this beautiful series of videos. It’s great to see a woman’s body being allowed to do it’s thing. Thank you, Jessica and the Piano Man, for sharing these.

      Also, the Rebozo Technique! I now have the official name for it. Our doula had us do those daily, along with one where you laid with the scarf under your butt, lifting the hips and shaking them. Had to do them every day. Best back/hip pain fix! 🙂

      • As I watched these videos, I was almost filled with a little envy because I have 4 children….all of them were c-sections and I believe there will always be a sadness that I will carry with me because I never experienced the birth I “dreamed” of having. My first baby (23 hours in labor, no drugs, in the hospital) ended up a c-section because I stopped dilating at 7 cm. My heart was crushed over it. Second baby, I did the Bradley Method at home for over 15 hours, went to the hospital when contractions were 2 minutes apart (I was DETERMINED ) to have the natural birth I didn’t have the first time around). I got to 9 cm (22 hours labor) and my cervix swelled…another c-section. My 3rd and 4th births were scheduled c-sections because I had already had 2 previous c-sections….my OB wouldn’t allow me to VBAC after the second section…. So, I can totally relate to how you might have felt watching these videos. It’s amazing what our bodies can do. Unfortunately, mine wouldn’t allow me to do it.

  4. You are amazing, thank you so much for sharing!

  5. Victoria Strong says

    i love watching this! i was one of the lucky ones who didn’t have an ad pop up at the time of birth, but i love being able to see it again! i love watching the “earlier” videos too. i loved the clips showed previous to the live stream, and i love the longer videos. love love LOVE how normal birth is in your family. earth baby especially looks like she’s got a future in birth work! she can be the dancing doula!

    • Victoria Strong says

      i also love that the first question asked when O and H walked into the room was “is she nursing?” LOVE!

  6. Thank you soooo much for sharing this video! It’s really special to me to see, since I can’t have children myself. One of my life’s wishes is to witness a live birth, but if I don’t get to, this comes pretty close!

  7. Just beautiful. I loved watching again! It was such a beautiful birth and I’ll never forget the experience! <3

    Jeremy- great job editing the videos and adding the text! I enjoyed your additions. 🙂

    • Thanks!
      Figuring out what to say when was a fun experience. I guess this time you were able to watch it without distraction! Thank you for everything you did that day. You were amazing.
      Jeremy

  8. Thank you for sharing these personal moments with us! You really priveledged to have such an amazing support system! Oh and what a WONDERFUL voice! You really are blessed!

  9. That was beautiful! Thank you for sharing it with us.

  10. Jessica, this was so breathtakingly beautiful to watch. So calm, relaxed, and exactly how birth should be seen-normal. You and your family are stunning. Congratulations on a beautiful ending to your birthing days. (But a beautiful beginning of a new chapter of life!)

    P.s. I didn’t think any of you sounded as you do. Isn’t that weird? How when you read something all the time, and then you hear the person/people talk and it’s like- hang on… You sounded different in my head! (Or when you see/hear yourself on video…) haha It was also nice to hear you guys say the names of your daughters. I was wondering If i pronounced some of them right!

  11. Jennifer says

    Absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful, beautiful experience with us.. I cried hardest at the end where the older girls got to come in and be with you and baby(and touch her). My daughter didn’t get to meet her brother until he was 5 days old, he was in the NICU immediately following birth. It was such a heartwarming experience to see how your family and friends supported you and how attentive the girls were during the labor and delivery!! Congratulations on your beautiful family and i too think you are one of the luckiest women on the planet to have such a loving and attentive family!!!! 🙂

  12. So beautiful! I totally cried and smiled at the same time! Thanks for sharing… I had no idea that this was possible before having my lo… I wish I knew about this… It is so important the dissemination work you do! Thanks!!!!

  13. Jennifer says

    So awesome to watch the miracle of birth! Thank you for sharing! I just had my sweet Roman on May 8th. He is seven & a half weeks old already! My husband recorded his birth as well & dropped the iPad (what he was recording with) into the placenta when it was time to cut the cord! Might upload my videos one day soon!

  14. Hi, y’all! How wonderful was that!? I love it. I wish I had the guts to make a video like this! Mine have (so far) been born in a hospital (Maryland is not home-birth friendly) but naturally and with midwives. My third will be born in a birth center, and I am crazy excited to go without the business of it all and be able to go home so soon after. What a fantastic birth. I hope mine goes this quickly! Thank you for sharing!

  15. Wow, wow, and WOW! There was a baby born in there? LOL!

    What an amazing experience and beautiful videos!! Your family is so tight-knit; it’s a clan!! Seeing your daughters so involved during your labour and bonding with their new sister after she was born brought tears to my eyes. I wish more families could be involved with each-other like yours.

    Piano Man is FAB-U-LOUS!! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, he needs to write a book on how to be the PERFECT birth coach!! There needs to be more men out there like him!

    Congrats, again!!

  16. Thank you so much for sharing this, and for all you do with TLB. You are an inspiration!

  17. Love love love. Congratulations, again! Thank you for sharing.

  18. Jessica Myres says

    You are such an awesome woman Jessica, love the name btw, lol. I so wish I could have a midwife attended home birth but I can’t as in the state of Alabama they are illegal. Plus my hubby would probably freak, lol. Thank you for sharing those amazing videos with all of us!

  19. What a beautiful experience! This made me cry. You are such a strong woman. Congratulations to you & your lovely family.

  20. Having the wisdom and knowledge I have today about pregnancy, labor, and birth, I wish now that I could have experienced a home birth. These videos are amazing and I enjoyed seeing what a home birth truly looks like. Congratulations on the birth of your newest baby and thank you for sharing these private moments.

  21. Thanks soooo much for sharing. I recently had the honor of being birth partner to a close friend whose partner left her a month before she was due (the less said about that a%#hole the better). It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever been part of, except giving birth myself. Although it was a hospital birth, we had midwives all the way and it was a perfect drug-free natural birth. So beautiful when a woman gets the support she needs to let her body do its work. I know at some stage I would love to work as a Doula!!!

  22. Congratulations again from all the team at Cake Lingerie.

    Such a beautiful experience captured on film… wishing you and your family all the best 🙂

  23. Heather Schweich says

    Really hoping I get to jave a home birth rhis time and really experience my own ordinary miracle!

  24. That just made my milk letdown! Beautiful, thank you so much for sharing!

  25. Maria Grant says

    Absolutely beautiful. So glad I got to see this…just amazing…thanks so much!!

  26. I just watched the videos for the first time – I was honored to have been able to watch Sugarbaby’s birth on April 19th ( I was one of the lucky few who DIDN’T have an ad pop up!)
    I’m not ashamed to say I cried this time too.
    Jessica, you and your family have shared so much, and I am so grateful to you all for that.
    Jeremy, you did an awesome job editing – the videos look wonderful.
    Thank you again to your family for letting us all in to observe your “ordinary miracle”!

  27. I’m only halfway through the very first video, but had to go ahead and comment. My 2.5yr old dd is watching and when she saw you dancing with your daughter, she said “aww, best friends dance so sweet!” The moments you and Piano Man shared at 3:20 absolutely melt my heart and brought back similar memories from my dd’s birth. Thank you so much for sharing. Congrats on your beautiful new baby. And I absolutely love her name. I may have to borrow it if I ever have another girl. 😉

  28. I’m new to your site and I have to tell you, that I find you so inspiring! I am due in 8 weeks and I cannot wait. I’m looking forward to the birth and cant wait to nurse my baby. Thank you for such an inspiring video as I watched in tears!

  29. Wow! I’ve never witnessed a birth, including my own, that was so beautiful! I just recently started following on fb, since I decided to bf my third child. Your girls are beautiful and your family is blessed! I had two emergency csections. (1srt of twins, the singleton). Congrats and thanks for sharing!