Titus’ Homebirth Story

Titus Christopher Edmonds
Born at home: March 4, 2009
(now we have three birthdays on the 4th – Karis is May 4th and mine is September 4th!)
5:10 pm after a good days work!
Weighing in at 7 pounds 4 oz, 21 inches long
Birth team: Mary Bernabe (midwife), Peta (Mary’s daughter and assistant midwife), Amber Langeliers (bradley instructor & doula), Aaron (wonderful supportive husband and daddy)

Written addressed in part to my firstborn son on the occasion of his birth.

What a precious gift of life we are celebrating as we welcome our firstborn son! You would not imagine our utter delight at this privilege that God has given us to raise a boy. With tears of joy you were proudly announced. Daddy and Mommy were crying up a storm in our excitement. We loved the surprise and wouldn’t change anything for the world to the pleasure of waiting to find out your gender.

Labor began slow and steady on Tuesday afternoon with some mild but consistent contractions happening every thirty minutes. I was teaching piano at the time. I continued managing my home, making dinner, while taking brief breathing breaks. Oh the joys of laboring at home! It was incredibly restful. Ignoring the contractions with other activities is the best method.

These mild contractions increased in intensity and shortened in their distance apart throughout the night. I was able to get only 2-3 hours of sleep unfortunately. At 3:00 am I decided to just get up and do some baking. I figured if I wasn’t going to sleep, I might as well make myself productive. I had some muffins, pizza crust and tortillas soaking away in preparation to be made on Wednesday, but I realized this probably would not happen, so I better get to it. Crazily enough I was up in the kitchen at 3am baking away! I did get it all done and went back to sleep around 5:30am for an hour and a half free from contractions. Rising around 7:00 am brought regular 5 minute apart contractions.

The midwives came and checked me around 10:00am and I was at about 3 cm dilation. I decided rather than get frustrated at the slowness of this labor in comparison to my first birth that we would try to enjoy it. My parents came and took Karis for the day and Daddy and I went for a refreshing walk. I began craving some crepes (as I had been all week!), so we went to a cute little cafe and enjoyed some scrumptious crepes (there is this great little place in downtown Vancouver called Bon Ami for all you local folks). Unfortunately they were vomited up later, but the memory remains!

After lunch, starting about 1:00pm, labor really kicked in. The midwives returned after a quick trip to the grocery store to check in on me. It must have been that good lunch! I was 5-6 cm and contractions increased dramatically in intensity and frequency. I labored in various positions throughout our home including bits of time in the tub, walking around and hanging on daddy (poor guy!), in a squatting position, sitting backwards on the toilet while daddy massaged my back, etc. I am definitely into a variety of positions and trying to just let gravity bring the baby down. Standing and squatting seem the most effective for this.

We only had one major challenge. Your head position made it very difficult foryou to pass through the pelvis, requiring some more pelvic rocks, taking the stairs two at a time, and a technique called the roboza. I went through a challenging transition and was really ready to give up. I had felt the need to begin pushing when they discovered the head position needed to be adjusted first. Thankfully the Lord really comforted and strengthened me with His Word and the Scriptures I had compiled previously for this event. I was thankful for the ability to lay and rest on the best during transition and completely relax my body during transition. After resting for awhile, the time arrived.

Three generations of Edmonds men

All in all this labor was more tiring than my first (most likely due to the lack of sleep the previous night) but the actual time of pushing was far easier. I pushed through two strong contractions and he arrived at 5:10 pm after 4 hours of the intense part. The aftermath of it all was incredible. Daddy was the first to observe the gender of the baby and we practically flipped out. We were crying and praising the Lord for a safe and healthy little boy! It was awesome! It all took place in the comfort of my own home. What a blessing!

My birth team: Aaron, Mary, Peta & Amber (and little Gideon - seeing him kept me going!)

I was thrilled to be able to pull you, my little guy, immediately up to my chest and snuggle with you for awhile. The team left us to ourselves to just rejoice in the Lord. This first contact was lacking in my first delivery due to the nature of Karis’ breech birth, so I was extremely thankful to bond with my son in this way. We began nursing shortly afterward and you took to it like a champ.

Edmonds grandkids - Alita, Titus, Karis & Eva

Titus Christopher is your name and what a high calling you have. “Titus” means “of the giants” and is from the biblical character of Titus, and we chose “Christopher” in honor of your Grandpa Taylor, which means “follower of Christ”. We pray that God would make you into a mighty warrior for His kingdom and giant in the faith! We are dedicating you to the Lord for His use. We do believe being born on March 4th was significant and correlates to the meaning of your name. May you march forth to be used of God! That is our humble prayer and dedication for your life. We have chosen My Hope is Built to be your special hymn (following in our tradition to pick a hymn for each of our children).

To God be the glory for great things He has done! He sustained me through it all!

Thank you to you all for your prayers and kind congratulations! I am doing very well in recovery and Titus took to nursing immediately. We were blessed to have my mother-in-law stay with us for two nights followed by my mom for another day. My mother-in-law took the baby for a few hours each night allowing us to get some much needed rest. I am thankful for ear-plugs to help drown out all his nightly miscellaneous noises (he is a grunter)!

I will continue to be resting here and in the meantime would like to open my blog to a few guest posts. If you are interesting in sharing, please send me an email. Thanks!

For more pictures, check out our gallery. To read Karis’ homebirth story, visit here.