Isaac's Birth Story - Planned Homebirth turned Natural Hospital Birth

Life often unfolds in unexpected ways.

From the outset, our little boy taught us that while we can meticulously plan, life often unfolds in unexpected ways—hence the fitting name, Isaac. 😄

Our story begins a week prior to his arrival. After celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary with a nice dinner at Crawdaddy's in Visalia, and a drizzly walk around downtown Visalia, we headed home to relax. All along I was having the pesky Braxton Hicks contractions...granted this was nothing unusual as I had been having them randomly throughout the day for weeks at this point. When we arrived home, I went to the restroom and notice my mucus plug had come out and a small amount of bloody show. Knowing that my last two births started within 48 hours, I said a little prayer, text my midwife to let her know, and put myself on pelvic rest at least until I could be seen by my midwife on Tuesday.

After meeting with my midwife and going over the dates for his estimated arrival, (LMP was for February 19th, and the first ultrasound had him at February 11th) we agreed that we needed to get to at least January 14th, but ideally the 21st for us to continue with a homebirth so we would be somewhere around 36 - 37 weeks gestation.

Fastforward to January 13th...

It was a typical Saturday, filled with the usual whirlwind of activities as we prepared for the arrival of our newest family member. Amidst the hustle of the day—making pancakes, tackling laundry, and tidying up—I managed to squeeze in some exercise, albeit a bit foggy on the specifics. 😅

As the evening settled, and I made us a hearty chili, I noticed something stirring within me—Braxton Hicks contractions, steadily making their presence known. Initially spaced out, I decided to relax and head to bed early. I was able to sleep for a few hours, only waking every so often from the contractions. However, around midnight they intensified and were no longer spaced out, prompting us to reconsider our birth plan. Though we had hoped for a serene home birth akin to our daughter's, Isaac had his own timeline in mind, prompting us to call the midwife. Based on our discussions she wasn't 100% comfortable having us stay home but left it in our hands to make the decision. My husband & I had a quick discussion and decided we should pivot and head to the hospital, just in case our little guy needed a NICU staff for being so early (somewhere between 35 +2 and 36+1).