Our little Sawyer was long and anxiously awaited to come into this world earthside. After experiencing a miscarriage in October 2024, Seth and I felt a heartbreak that we never knew existed. After finding out I was pregnant a few months after delivering our baby, Silas Jacob, who left us too soon to be with our Lord and Savior, we immediately felt the same fears we previously had. Dorothy was very reassuring and had a calm, gentle voice when we found out I was pregnant with Sawyer. Sawyer Jacob is thoughtfully named after his big brother, Silas Jacob. After struggling with extreme nausea and vomiting, we also discovered my progesterone was dropping! The progesterone issue was a huge scare and we had many moments that we were terrified of losing Sawyer. I supplemented with progesterone all the way until 3rd trimester when my levels finally started to increase and balance naturally.

Once I was about 32wks pregnant, I noticed I was feeling movements in different places than usual and they were more uncomfortable as well. A few days later I had a prenatal appointment. We were surprised when Dorothy did the ultrasound and saw Sawyers head where his bottom should be! To our shock, Sawyer would continue to flip multiple times a week all the way until 36/37 weeks! I did all the spinning babies, chiropractic work and safe sleeping methods to help encourage Sawyer's head down position. Thankfully he flipped and stayed head down after he settled into my pelvis! Although it was still stressful when I felt him move a lot, as I knew he was ready to be on the move at any moment.

October 20th, my due date, I was feeling "different. " lots more Braxton Hicks contractions, my heart rate seemed to fluctuate a lot that day, and I felt an overall sense of readiness and contentment to deliver Sawyer. We had visited some family that came from out of state that evening, which was so nice! Once we got home we all got ourselves washed up and reset for the evening to get to bed. Seth put our two older boys down for bed while I tidied up the kitchen and living room, as I had this extreme instinct of knowing something was going to happen soon. I was sure he was going to come that week!
Well...I was right!

The next morning (Tuesday the 21st) my husband woke up to get ready for work at 4am as he usually does. I laid in bed contemplating if I should use the restroom or not for the 10th time. I could feel Sawyer stirring inside of me, which made me nervous as I didn't want him to flip. So, I decided to sit up and immediately felt a lot of cramping. At 4:30am I went to the restroom and noticed I was having a bloody show-yaay!! My husband was just about to leave for work when I said "Umm, I think the baby is coming soon, you may want to stay home!" After calling Dorothy about my bloody show, she suggested getting some rest, which was hard to do from all the excitement but also from the discomfort of the cramping/contractions. My contractions were timeable (about 3-4 minutes apart when standing.) Although not super strong. But when I would lay down my contractions would slow down to about 6 minutes apart. After Seth pumped the pool and we gathered some things around anticipating my labor, we laid down in bed to get some rest while we could. My contractions slowed even more and we decided to keep resting through them. We got up to make breakfast around 7am, as I was very hungry and wanted to be active to see if that would kick start my labor at all. To my dismay it didn't, and I went most the day cramping, having bloody show and very inconsistent contractions. Seth and I took the boys outside to play while I did vigorous laps around our backyard. We then decided it was time to call Seth's mother to pick up our boys to spend the night- as I felt a bit distracted and needed to rest. I did have a prenatal appointment previously scheduled for that evening. Seth and I decided that we would go to the appointment and get some reassurance of Sawyer's position, heart rate and ask some questions about my slow laboring. On our way to the appointment (about a 45 minute drive) I had some contractions that were every 10 minutes and definitely had more strength to them. After a great appointment, we picked up dinner on our way home. The car ride home I experienced the same contractions and timing. Once we got home I sat on my yoga ball at the table while we ate dinner. Once we finished our dinner, we called my mother-in-law to see how our boys were doing, and around 7:30pm when I stood up from my ball, I felt a huge gush of fluid leak....my waters broke! I scurried to our bathtub and immediately called Dorothy! She said to pay attention to contractions and get more rest. After getting the ok to take my shower, I got my comfy clothes on and we got ready for bed. Once in bed, contractions started coming again, but then slowing after a bit. Around 8:30pm I took some calcium to block out the false labor contractions and see if that would help me rest. Well, they must not have been false contractions by this point, because the next few hours my contractions started to get strong and consistent enough that I could no longer sleep through them. At 12:20am I called Dorothy and gave her the green light that I was ready for her to come as my contractions were getting stronger and timeable for a couple of hours at this point!

Seth filled the pool and we started gathering everything we needed for the work I had ahead of us! We called our (soon to be) sister-in-law as she wanted to witness the birth. She was the first one over since she lived the closest. I decided to labor on the toilet for a bit while the pool was filling. I was feeling the contractions pretty heavy at this point and decided to stop timing them. After the pool was nearly filled, I practically ran to the pool for pain relief! Seth and I prayed together and that helped ease my mind for the hard hours ahead. Shortly after getting into the pool my birth team started arriving. Dorothy got to our home at 1:20am. I was so relieved to see her and SO excited at the same time! She's been such a blessing to our family, and we value her and her practice so much. She prayed for us, which really helped Seth and I start off on great footing as I entered active labor. After laboring in the pool for a bit, I needed to use the restroom and took this opportunity to labor on the toilet. I then quickly changed positions and moved to my yoga ball as I could not find much pain relief. About a half an hour later (2:30am) I got back into the pool and asked Dorothy to do a cervical check. I was 8cm-Seth and I were so excited! However, Dorothy noticed a small piece of my cervix that was in the way of Sawyer's head from descending down...a pinched cervix, something a laboring mother never wants to hear! I never experienced a pinched cervix until now. Seth then read in Scripture out loud to me, the book of Philippians chapter 4. This was really grounding for me and all around a good mind reset during a time of great pain!

Around 3:40am I was feeling a bit pushy, but would always scare away from that pushy feeling because of the intense pain from the pinched cervix. Dorothy offered to help push the pinched cervix back during the next few contractions. By this point I was in a lot of pain and ready to meet our baby, so I immediately accepted the offer. Such intense pain that I didn't know was possible to experience until those next few contractions to get the cervix out of the way! Dorothy was so calming through each of those assisted contractions. I pushed through a few contractions, and thankfully some of the cervix did move, allowing Sawyer's head to descend quite a bit. However, not all of the cervix was out of the way just yet. I was starting to feel panicked and like I was going to pass out from the pain of the contractions. It seemed as though I couldn't control my breathing! Dorothy reminded me to take deep, slow breaths and that it may be helpful to change positions. I was starting to get very nauseous as well. So after a few more contractions in the pool and trying to do belly lifts through the contractions, I was tapping out mentally. Sawyer was working hard as well, as he was moving so much during this time (which didn't help my pain)! Dorothy, who was across the pool, could see his feet kicking and squirming! Around 4am after trying one more time for Dorothy to help move my cervix out of the way, I decided I had to do something different. The pain was through the roof! I got out of the pool and was leaning on my yoga ball on the ground between the pool and our bed.

Around 4:30am I was still on the yoga ball and had a huge urge to bear down with each contraction! I loudly said "I have to push!" After pushing a few times with the next contraction, I felt immediate relief! The cervix must have moved out of the way, and I could feel baby boy's head descending. Seth's face beamed as he looked into my eyes knowing we would see our sweet boy in a matter of minutes! Seth had been my rock during this labor, and I finally got to comprehend my surroundings and process what is about to happen. The most calm, peaceful moment of labor that I will cherish forever. I remember looking around me and suddenly seeing Dorothy, Violet, Maggie and Emma very close by with Dorothy directly behind me to help deliver Sawyer. It's baby time! His head kept receding back with each contraction...but finally after quite a few slow, gentle and careful pushes, I could feel his head was finally being birthed! Around 5am I reached in-between my legs to feel my baby's soft, squishy head-such a relieving and encouraging feeling! Everything happened pretty quickly after this. I felt Sawyer kick me right before his head was fully birthed, and then the rest of his little body was delivered almost immediately after his head was birthed. 5:02am Sawyer Jacob Dibble was delivered- Praise the Lord! I am still on all fours because at this point I couldn't feel my legs to move them from how long I'd been in this position. It took a quick moment before Sawyer was passed to me in between my legs. But I later found out it was because Dorothy was trying to unwrap Sawyer from multiple umbilical cord wraps! This is also why his head kept receding back when his head was being birthed. He had no issues being vocal when he was handed to me. The sheer relief and joy I felt cannot be compared to anything else on this earth! I couldn't stop saying "Praise the Lord!" As I gazed into Sawyer's precious face, his little eyes were squinting back at me. The peaceful, quiet gaze was one of love and long-awaited mommy to baby tranquility. I immediately forgot about the intense pain I had endured and had no other thoughts in my head other than protecting my baby, giving thanks to the Lord for this miracle of birth and immense relief from the laboring and from the stress of worrying about Sawyer in my womb.

After delivering the placenta, I was carefully cleaned up and assisted into my comfy bed with my baby in my arms. Sawyer quickly started nursing, as it had seemed time had stopped while I gently fed my baby. Dorothy graciously prayed for us, and that is what you see pictured in my birth story. Gentle, peaceful and safe is what immediately comes to mind when I think of Sawyer's birth. Sawyer weighed 8lbs 9oz, 21- 1/2in long.

Seth and I are so extremely thankful for Dorothy and her practice! Her and her practice is such a blessing to families and ensures safe and natural pregnancy and birth. She has helped us through the saddest and happiest times of our lives. With grace and care, she helped deliver our sweet boy all whilst keeping Christ as the center of it all. Dorothy is such a calm and reassuring voice during pregnancy, labor and Postpartum. During my most vulnerable state, she made everything feel so natural and normal! Her team followed suit! Violet was always so kind and calm during my labor. She was very helpful when applying pressure to my back all whilst I was in a panic from the pain. Maggie was always so sweet and reassuring during my pregnancy and during my birth. She carefully examined our sweet boy after I delivered him and made sure I was taken care of as well. Such caring and genuine ladies that we can't wait to work with again when we are ready for more babies!

Philippians 4:4
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."