The Gebhardt Family: Sydney, born at home!

Sydney was born on 10-14 at 2:32am after 90 minutes of labor -- which was preceded by 2 days of prodromal labor after my water broke. She was born at home in the birth tub and caught by yours truly! She was 8lbs 7oz and 19in, and kind of resembles a sumo wrestler.

However, after her birth, I did not get the placenta out and I had a hemorrhage, so we transferred to the hospital. Charlotte was awesome, she came to the hospital as a "friend who attended my planned unassisted homebirth" and she kept me calm. It was a little scary for a while, but all is well. I had a manual removal of the placenta and a bunch of pitocin and fluids. I feel much better today.

I completely expected the hospital staff to treat me terribly, even call CPS on me (as I've seen it firsthand with clients) but everyone aside from the first nurse was really nice. When asked about my pregnancy and birth, I basically told them everything that they wanted to hear and explained that I'd had a provider in a different state and I had records if they wanted them, blah blah blah. And that was it. I refused vit K, eye drops, vax, and a bath for Sydney, and it was not a big deal at all. We were released after about 24h and now we're home.