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When did you realize you were really in labor?
When my water broke around 11:30 pm. I thought I had to pee and when I got up I realized my underwear was wet. As I walked to the bathroom I felt more leaking and new it was my water leaking. I had a definite gush of water after I changed my underwear. I went to depends after that so I could sleep without getting the bed wet ?
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What was the most challenging thing about going natural?
It honestly wasn’t bad at all! I kept my eyes closed and tried to sleep through contractions pretty much up to the pushing phase! My midwife almost didn’t make it on time because we didn’t realize I was that far along!
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What was the most helpful thing you did to prepare for childbirth?
Watching the Mama Natural Birth Course and drinking a quart of red raspberry leaf tea and six dates a day for the last month of my pregnancy.
The birth course helped me visualize what my body was doing and what the baby was doing so I could relax where I needed to relax and know what I was feeling. That was a big help for managing the pain!
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What surprised you about your birth?
How fast it went! I honestly thought labor would be a lot more painful where I’d be losing my mind. It was totally bearable and I felt nice and rested. I also thought I’d be someone who would labor all over the room but I stuck to laying on my left side. Only getting up when I had to pee... contractions on the toilet were not fun! I also thought I’d be pushing on my hands and knees but I would have not been able to move to that position! I pushed on my back. The one thing that was longer then I thought it would be the ring of fire. Hahaha, my mom never remembered it for any of my five siblings and I so I didn’t think id notice it either.... but I did!
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Helped me so much in understanding what was going on with me and baby during labor which I believe helped me cope with the pain since I knew why I was feeling what I was feeling.
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What pain relief strategies worked best?
Picturing what my body was doing and being able to feel the contraction tighten my uterus while it opened down under. I made sure to keep my jaw relaxed and relax down under to allow it to open easier. I just tried to sleep between contractions and breathe through them. I had tried the low groaning at the beginning but once the contractions got more intense I realized groaning wasn’t helping. The whole time I laid on my left side and had a big pillow in between my legs so my belly could rest on it.
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How did it feel to hold your baby for the first time?
It was crazy that I was already done! And he was SOOO CUTE!
But yeah, I think the whole time I couldn’t believe I was already done!
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What did you name your baby, and why?
Sarah and I would like to introduce everyone to our son:
Sawyer Grafton Krahn
Below is what my husband wrote to share with our friends and family on Facebook. ?
We really enjoy the analogy the bible paints in the book of Romans chapter 11. It describes the relation that gentiles have with God’s tree of salvation. We all start off as wild branches, cut off and foreign to God. Sawyer is English for “to cut wood”. We recognize that spiritual reality with our son, and we simply lay that reality down at the feet of our Lord. It is the Lord who is the master caretaker of the tree. Therefore, it will be Sarah and I’s deepest prayer that our son comes to know and surrender his life to the saving grace and lordship of Christ. That God in His mercy would take hold of our son as a withering branch, and graft him anew onto the tree of life and salvation. “Graft on” is our prayer. It is God alone who can work that miracle in our son! May he someday bear the fruits of faith!
Sarah and I will supply a loving and God-fearing home for Sawyer, and daily cultivate his childhood as best we can in God’s scripture. May we soberly reveal his human sin and point him on the path to Christ. In the end, however, it will be only our loving God who can touch his heart and save him.
Welcome to the world, Sawyer Grafton Krahn!
(PS, the conventional meaning for Grafton is English for “settlement near a forest”)
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How did the Mama Natural Birth Class help you in your childbirth?
Helped me so much in understanding what was going on with me and baby during labor which I believe helped me cope with the pain since I knew why I was feeling what I was feeling.
I loved reading all the birth stories in the Facebook group too! I think that also made me feel better about labor!
