Our Birth Story 

 

Our son Michael David Balcom, was born at home at 38 weeks and 2 days on July 30th 2024 at 6:14pm. He was 6.4 pounds and 19.25 inches long. Dorothy attended our birth along with Violet and Maggie.

​

Labor started at 2:30am for me. I remember being in a deep sleep and waking up so fast once my water broke. I woke up my husband, Edmund to tell him my water broke. The funny thing is he was having a dream about giving a talk on women giving birth, so he was convinced I just peed. I get up as fast as I can and my first reaction is to stuff a pillow between my legs and hurry to the bathroom.

 

As I get to the bathroom I got so many emotions. I felt so excited, nervous and scared all at once. I got sweaty and shaky. “Oh my goodness this is actually happening..” is what I said to myself. It didn’t feel real. After I got cleaned up I headed back to our bedroom and called Dorothy to tell her that my water broke. She suggested that I should get as much rest as I can. After the phone call I was so excited. I opened up some notes I had to see how long it could be till we get to meet our sweet baby boy. I then braided my hair and got already for when I give birth then laid back in bed just so excited! 

​

I started to feel cramps around 3am, but to me they just felt like small menstrual cramps so I just continued to lay down and track them. Slowly as time went on my contractions started to pick up. Around 11am is when my contractions started to get intense so Violet headed over to see how things were coming along. 

​

My husband and I headed to the living room and Violet did a check up. Afterwards Edmund and Violet got the pool going and shortly after Dorothy and Maggie came. I sat in the living room on the couch for a little while. When the contractions started to come I stuck my face into a little pillow I had, I felt a little better doing that I guess lol. I tried walking around a little bit and swayed by our couch to help get things moving a little more. I definitely felt more low pressure doing that. I had asked if everyone can just surround me and stay close because I felt most comfortable that way. My husband, Dorothy and her team definitely did that and I loved it. 

​

At 2:25pm I got into the pool, leaning over it with a pillow and my husband rubbing my back. I felt so relaxed in the warm pool. As more time went on, contractions got even more intense. I felt more pressure. I also had felt scared because I had never felt this kind feeling. Even though I felt this way I knew everything was going to be just fine. 

​

Around 2:50 I started to push with contractions some. I got so tired. I started to doze off in between contractions. I stayed on my knees for a while and changed to running start position for one contraction, then I reclined back as my husband supported me. Swaying back and forth felt relaxing for me. 

​

At 4:37 Dorothy suggested that I try to breathe through a few contractions to allow my cervical lip to move out of the way. So I took her advice because I trusted her. It was so hard trying to breathe through my contractions because my body wanted to naturally push. It literally felt like everything was going to fall out of me. I swayed back and forth in the pool and just started to pray and ask God to help because it hurt and I was ready to be done and again everyone started to encourage me and prayed over me ❤️ 

 

Dorothy had offered if she could push my cervical lip out of the way. I was a little hesitant, but again I trusted her and agreed. Good progress was made during pushing. At 5:10pm I could feel our little baby moving down and a few more minutes his little head was visible. My cervical lip started to open even more. At 6:09pm his head was fully crowning. This was so painful. I remember asking “is this the ring of fire!?” to just make sure lol. I felt this wild feeling of “wow,” I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe this is real. One more push and Michael was born at 6:14pm. 

​

Dorothy caught Michael, unwrapped the cord around his neck and placed him into my arms. Everything felt so surreal. I was just speechless. I was so amazed. I felt so full of joy and awe. His eyes were opened, looking around and then there was a small cry and a little cough so that was reassuring. 

​

Edmund held Michael while I was in the pool and it was so sweet seeing him hold our new little baby boy. After pushing the placenta out, I was holding Michael and Dorothy had showed my husband and I the placenta. It was so wild to see, yet so cool. 

 

Michael had a hard time latching. So Dorothy was so great and had reached out to other moms and they were willing to bless us with some breast milk. Shortly after when Dorothy got back from getting the milk we fed Michael with a syringe and he began getting some milk. Later on Dorothy gave me someone to contact for help with breastfeeding. That was a success!  

 

Some of my favorite things during my labor was how my husband was right by my side, rubbing my back, holding my hand, giving me drinks. Not only that so was Dorothy, Violet and Maggie. They were praying over me, encouraging me and just reminding me that I will get through this. 

​

Right after my birth I was reminded how good the Lord truly is and how thankful I am for a sweet healthy baby boy, a caring, loving husband, a great birthing team and many more answered prayers. ❤️