Latest / MyMaine Birth / 1. Embracing Home Birth in the Heart of Maine, LeAnne's story

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1. Embracing Home Birth in the Heart of Maine, LeAnne's story · MyMaine Birth

• 0:00
  LeAnne: And so when Anna got here, I was upstairs brushing my teeth.
• 0:03
  LeAnne: So I hollered down to her like, hey, I'll be right down.
• 0:05
  LeAnne: And so I came down.
• 0:06
  LeAnne: I was like I think my water broke, like this is so weird to me, like I don't know where I am in this labor.
• 0:12
  LeAnne: This is crazy.
• 0:13
  LeAnne: And then I had the contraction as I was leaning against the counter in the living, in our, in our kitchen, and she was like Liam, you're having this baby soon.
• 0:21
  LeAnne: Like you are in active labor, this baby is coming quick and like we got to.
• 0:29
  LeAnne: If you want to have this baby in the birth tub, we got to get that set up and we need in her assistant, who's a student midwife who, thankfully, only lives like 30 minutes away.
• 0:35
  LeAnne: She called her and the phrase that she used I will never forget she goes Aura, who's a student midwife.
• 0:41
  LeAnne: She goes Aura, this baby's coming, it's time to fly.
• 0:44
  LeAnne: And then, all of a sudden for me, I was like, oh, this baby's coming, it's time to fly.
• 0:48
  LeAnne: Like, get your head in the right space, girls.
• 0:52
  Angela: I'm Angela and I'm a certified birth photographer, experienced doula, childbirth educator and your host here on the my Maine Birth podcast.
• 1:00
  Angela: This is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine, from our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births.
• 1:13
  Angela: Every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.
• 1:17
  Angela: Whether you're a soon-to-be mom, a seasoned mother or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.
• 1:25
  Angela: Welcome to episode one of my Main Birth.
• 1:30
  Angela: Today's birth story guest is Leanne, and she is here to share her home birth story of her youngest son, fletcher, under the care of her midwives from Holly no 7 in Bangor.
• 1:42
  Angela: Hi, leanne, welcome to my Maine Birth.
• 1:45
  Angela: Hi, how are you Good?
• 1:48
  Angela: How are you?
• 1:48
  Angela: I'm good.
• 1:50
  LeAnne: Thanks for coming on the podcast.
• 1:52
  LeAnne: This is so fun.
• 1:53
  LeAnne: Thanks for having me.
• 1:54
  Angela: Yeah, I'm excited.
• 1:56
  Angela: So, to start, will you share a little bit about you and your family?
• 2:01
  LeAnne: Yeah, so I live in Columbia, maine which is down east Washington County.
• 2:07
  LeAnne: We're about an hour east of Ellsworth and about an hour west of the Canadian border, so smack in the middle there, and we have four boys, my husband and I.
• 2:15
  LeAnne: My husband's a wildlife biologist and that's what brought us out this way about three years ago Almost yeah, almost three years ago when we landed in Columbia and he worked out of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Office for the state headquarters in Jonesboro.
• 2:29
  LeAnne: So that's what brought us to Washington County.
• 2:32
  LeAnne: And we grew up in New Hampshire originally and came to Maine for college and never left and set our roots down and had, you know, bought a house and four babies later.
• 2:40
  LeAnne: So here we are.
• 2:42
  Angela: Wow, that's amazing.
• 2:43
  Angela: So now will you share a little bit about your pregnancy with Fletcher.
• 2:49
  Angela: When did you find out you were pregnant and what were your thoughts in choosing your care?
• 2:55
  LeAnne: He was our fourth baby and we knew we wanted four.
• 2:57
  LeAnne: That felt like a good number for our family.
• 2:59
  LeAnne: You know, I think we got to three and we're like totally overwhelmed and we were like what's one more?
• 3:05
  LeAnne: that feels like we have this like missing spot, even though we three was wild that transition to three for our family but we were super excited to get pregnant and we chose to have a home birth with midwives that we had care with for my second and third pregnancies as well, so we were really familiar with them, um and.
• 3:23
  Angela: I've gotten to work with them as a doula on the professional side of things.
• 3:26
  LeAnne: So I have this just wonderful connection with Chris and Anna and Julie, the midwives at Holly number seven.
• 3:32
  LeAnne: So lucky, I mean, we're like a solid hour and 45 minutes from Bangor.
• 3:37
  LeAnne: So I was, when we had our second, our third baby, who was also born when we, after we moved to here, I I was so, so relieved and so grateful that they would travel this far for us, because it's definitely a commitment, you know, to get to somebody's birth within two hours, but so pregnancy wise, his pregnancy was really pretty typical.
• 3:56
  LeAnne: I had, you know, the only thing when people are, because we have three, we had three boys and so people would say like how is this one different.
• 4:03
  LeAnne: Do you think it's gonna be a girl?
• 4:05
  LeAnne: I would say like no.
• 4:06
  LeAnne: Like everything's pretty much the same.
• 4:08
  LeAnne: The only exception was I had a lot of anxiety my first trimester and it was something that really caught me off guard and took me like by surprise a lot and I didn't realize how anxious like my level was, you know, like my operating level of anxiety was, until I was really talking to my husband about it and he was like Leigh Ann, this isn't really normal.
• 4:29
  LeAnne: Like I was, just couldn't sleep, my mind was racing about all sorts of things that I never usually worry about.
• 4:35
  LeAnne: So for me, like that was a really different experience and also something that was like it was really different.
• 4:42
  LeAnne: I think I'm kind of like like a baseline.
• 4:45
  LeAnne: I'm more of an anxious person anyway.
• 4:46
  LeAnne: Like I like I don't like unpredictable changes.
• 4:49
  LeAnne: You know I like that sort of predictability.
• 4:52
  LeAnne: Like otherwise I feel anxious and so, feeling like that, my like mind was just racing all the time.
• 4:58
  LeAnne: Feeling was especially that first trimester, probably till like 16, 20 weeks I just and then things got better and I'm sure so much of it had to do with hormones and lots of other factors too, but that was really different for me and made me also really grateful for the relationship I had already established so well with my midwives that they knew me really well and it was something I felt like I could really talk to them about and they had really great advice and suggestions.
• 5:24
  LeAnne: And then that just became something we have been monitoring in this postpartum time because of course that's going to be another huge hormonal shift, and so we were just extra vigilant in talking and communicating with each other after that difficult first trimester especially.
• 5:39
  LeAnne: But besides that his pregnancy was totally normal and healthy and it's funny, I had gestational diabetes with my second baby and then I followed like the very strict diet with my third and I didn't have it with him, and my second and third babies also only had two vessel cords, which is like a normal thing.
• 5:58
  LeAnne: That's kind of funny that happened and he had a three vessel cord and so in terms of like physically, him and I were like we were good, it was just that anxiety piece, which was really the only thing that really was surprising to me and difficult to wrestle with.
• 6:12
  LeAnne: That first and like half of the second trimester, Did you do any ultrasounds?
• 6:16
  LeAnne: We did an initial ultrasound, I think around eight or nine weeks in that range, and then we did our 20 week ultrasound just to check on all his anatomy and all of that and make sure he was healthy.
• 6:28
  LeAnne: And then I had a biophysical profile scheduled for Monday and I he was born on Sunday.
• 6:36
  LeAnne: So I was oh, I almost had a third one.
• 6:39
  LeAnne: We were close.
• 6:41
  Angela: Wow.
• 6:41
  Angela: So now will you share, yeah, about how your labor started and about your birth, yeah, so he I.
• 6:50
  LeAnne: He was born at 42 weeks in one day.
• 6:52
  LeAnne: So he hung on for a while and historically my pattern is kind of all over the place.
• 6:57
  LeAnne: My first son, who's almost seven, was he was born at 42 weeks and he was.
• 7:02
  LeAnne: I, had him in the, him in the hospital and so he was an induction because he was just not coming on his own.
• 7:07
  LeAnne: And then my second son was right at 41 weeks and my third son was right at 40 weeks.
• 7:12
  LeAnne: He was our due date baby.
• 7:13
  LeAnne: And so this is like a great lesson.
• 7:15
  LeAnne: And this is my former math teacher nerd brain saying like you can't extrapolate data from three, only three points.
• 7:21
  LeAnne: Because for me I was like oh, oh, yeah, we're like trending in the right direction.
• 7:25
  LeAnne: They've all come a little bit earlier, they've all been a few ounces smaller each time, like we're golden.
• 7:30
  LeAnne: And then he was by far and away the largest baby and the latest one.
• 7:36
  LeAnne: So we really reversed the curve with him.
• 7:39
  LeAnne: But labor started.
• 7:40
  LeAnne: I had been having prodromal labor for like a week straight and for me that looked like pretty consistent contractions every morning for like from like 41 weeks on, from like 4 am to like 10 am, and then they would just peter out and do nothing.
• 7:55
  LeAnne: And so on the Friday before my before I was 42 weeks, so 41 and six days weeks.
• 8:06
  LeAnne: So 41 and six days.
• 8:07
  LeAnne: Anna, one of the midwives at the birth center, her and I made a plan because if I get to 42 weeks then I need to have a biophysical profile in order to stay in their care and that's part of the their, you know just to make sure baby's got enough fluid and mostly to check on the placenta and make sure it's still functioning as it should at that late in the game.
• 8:22
  LeAnne: So her and I made a plan that if I didn't go into labor over the weekend, I needed to go get an ultrasound on Monday.
• 8:28
  LeAnne: So that was our plan, but otherwise she was going to her.
• 8:31
  LeAnne: Her plan was to come to our house early Sunday morning and to start like the natural induction methods, do some pumping, some herbs and just to see if we can get labor kick-started.
• 8:44
  LeAnne: And so I woke up.
• 8:45
  LeAnne: So she's, she lives in Bangor, so she's like two hours from me.
• 8:48
  LeAnne: And so I had woken up Sunday morning like normal, having prodrom, what I thought was prodromal labor, and Anna texted me around 5 30 and said, hey, I'm getting things ready to leave or, you know, she's probably maybe an hour and a half, so it might have been a little before 5 30 and she said I'm getting ready to leave and head your way, but if you are awake and having like prodromal contractions, just start pumping and follow the protocol that her and I talked about and just see what happens.
• 9:15
  LeAnne: So her, the protocol that she gave me, was pumping with my electric pump 10 minutes on one side, 10 minutes on the other, 10 minutes off, and then start over 10 minutes and 10 minutes and then 10 minutes off.
• 9:26
  LeAnne: And so I was like, okay, here we go.
• 9:28
  LeAnne: So I dug out the old electric pump out of the bin you know from my breastfeeding bin, with all the stuff and sat on our like my yoga exercise ball in our living room and the total a dark house.
• 9:39
  LeAnne: All the other kids and my husband were still asleep and I just thought, okay, okay, here we go, like we got to do something here, and so I started pumping.
• 9:46
  LeAnne: It was around 530, maybe 545.
• 9:49
  LeAnne: And so I did one round of the protocol.
• 9:52
  LeAnne: So that was about 30 minutes.
• 9:54
  LeAnne: And during my 10 minute break I had made cinnamon rolls the night before, like overnight ones, and I was just like very done being pregnant, mentally and emotionally.
• 10:03
  LeAnne: Physically I felt really fine, like I wasn't swollen, like I was I'm super lucky Like I really did feel fine.
• 10:10
  LeAnne: I was hiking with my kids right up until the end and like carrying my toddler on our back, my back, and it was just the mental, emotional aspects of still being pregnant and you know, I just kind of became a hermit and that was the way I dealt with it.
• 10:22
  LeAnne: I just stopped responding to texts and answering people's questions and I just didn't want to talk about the fact I was still pregnant.
• 10:30
  LeAnne: But I told my husband the night before like I'm making cinnamon rolls because we're having a birthday party tomorrow and like I want cinnamon rolls there.
• 10:35
  LeAnne: So during that like 10 minute break of my that pumping protocol, I took the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge.
• 10:40
  LeAnne: They could do their second proofing and I was like this is happening.
• 10:52
  LeAnne: We had like we're doing this today, we're having this baby.
• 10:53
  LeAnne: So I started the second round of pumping and so it was probably like 6 45 at this time, um, and my boys had gotten up and they're doing their morning thing, eating breakfast, starting to watch shows, and I'm sitting in this chair in our living room and my water breaks and so my I had noticed my like.
• 11:04
  LeAnne: I had noticed my like.
• 11:05
  LeAnne: I definitely noticed the contractions while I was pumping that first time and they were super weird.
• 11:10
  LeAnne: It was like two to three minutes apart.
• 11:12
  LeAnne: I started timing them because it was like a very weird pattern for like so, two to three minutes apart for like 30 seconds, and which is a really weird pattern.
• 11:20
  Angela: Usually when your contractions are that close together.
• 11:22
  LeAnne: They're pretty long and they're very intense and I was like this pumping is making things so weird, like I don't know what's going on.
• 11:27
  LeAnne: And then my water broke, sitting in this chair in our living room and I was like, oh no, like we're really having this baby today.
• 11:34
  LeAnne: So you know, I think you get to that point.
• 11:36
  LeAnne: And for me, I got to that point in pregnancy where I was like obviously this baby is coming, coming, like it is where we are past time for this baby to come.
• 11:47
  LeAnne: And then it gets real.
• 11:47
  LeAnne: And I still wasn't prepared, right, and I it's funny in, you know, being a birth worker, in seeing and supporting so many women and families like at this point in pregnancy, like, yeah, of course I know 42 weeks is normal, right, like in my, in my rational brain, I know that, but my like emotional pregnant woman brain I just couldn't rationalize that I was still pregnant.
• 12:07
  LeAnne: And then, of course I my water breaks and I'm like, oh yeah, no, now we're, it's actually happening, like this is for real.
• 12:12
  LeAnne: And so my water, it was kind of like a small break, it like definitely soaked through my sweatpants.
• 12:17
  Angela: There was no question.
• 12:18
  Angela: I it wasn't for sure.
• 12:20
  LeAnne: Definitely it was a water break, but it wasn't like a giant gush and so I kind of looked at my husband and I was like I'm pretty sure my water just broke and this was around 645.
• 12:29
  LeAnne: And Anna planned to get to our house at seven and I knew she would be there shortly around that time.
• 12:33
  LeAnne: So I was like I think we need to like get the house ready to have our baby, like all of that stuff I planned to do in my like relaxing early labor, like get the sheets on the bed in the right order, you know.
• 12:44
  LeAnne: Get like the boys might cause my mother-in-law was going to come pick up the older boys, get their like lunches packed for the day, like all that stuff.
• 12:52
  LeAnne: I was like oh no, we got to do it now.
• 12:54
  LeAnne: So it was like six 45 when my water broke.
• 12:57
  LeAnne: So we started picking, like, getting the like, changing the sheets on our bed and my contractions got intense all of a sudden.
• 13:03
  LeAnne: So we were like changing the sheets on our bed and every two minutes I was like leaning over on the windowsill to have a contraction and then go back to putting the sheets on the bed.
• 13:12
  LeAnne: It was like a mad dash.
• 13:13
  LeAnne: So I was upstairs like brushing my teeth.
• 13:16
  LeAnne: I hadn't even.
• 13:16
  LeAnne: I was still in like.
• 13:18
  Angela: I had just rolled out of bed and hooked myself up to the pump.
• 13:20
  LeAnne: There was like no thought about actually like getting ready for the day.
• 13:24
  LeAnne: And so when Anna got here, I was upstairs brushing my teeth and I so I hollered down to her like hey, I'll be right down.
• 13:30
  LeAnne: And so I came down.
• 13:32
  LeAnne: I was like I think my water broke, like this is so weird to me, like I don't know where I am in this labor.
• 13:37
  LeAnne: This is crazy.
• 13:39
  LeAnne: And then I had the contraction as I was leaning against the counter in the living, in our, in our kitchen, and she was like Leanne, you're having this baby soon.
• 13:51
  LeAnne: Like you are in active labor, this baby is coming quick.
• 13:52
  LeAnne: And like we got the.
• 13:53
  LeAnne: If you want to have this baby in the birth tub, we got to get that set up and we need in her assistant, who's a student midwife who thankfully only lives like 30 minutes away.
• 14:00
  LeAnne: She called her and the phrase that she used I will never forget she goes Aura, who's a student midwife.
• 14:07
  LeAnne: She goes Aura, this baby's coming, it's time to fly.
• 14:09
  LeAnne: And then, all of a sudden for me I was like oh, this baby's coming, it's time to fly.
• 14:14
  LeAnne: Like get your head in the right space, girl.
• 14:16
  LeAnne: So I was like trying to pack.
• 14:18
  LeAnne: You know, in between contractions.
• 14:19
  LeAnne: I was like putting food in the boys' lunchboxes to go with my mother-in-law and like it was so funny, but my contractions were still really close together.
• 14:28
  LeAnne: So my husband is getting the birth tub set up in our dining room area.
• 14:33
  Angela: And he's like running the hoses from the laundry room.
• 14:36
  LeAnne: So he would go like hook one up and I would and I really needed him to do some counter pressure at this point because my contractions were really picking up quickly.
• 14:43
  LeAnne: And so he would get, like you know, one of the hoses like halfway screwed on and I was like, babe, I need you back here.
• 14:49
  LeAnne: And he would come running back to the kitchen to like do counter pressure and then run back to the finish putting the hose on and it was was like I'm sure it was like hilarious to watch the two of us and in between contractions I'm like, all right, what do the boys need for lunch today?
• 15:02
  Angela: and like is your mom on the way you?
• 15:04
  LeAnne: know, like, just like, yeah, and it was like those loose ends that I need.
• 15:08
  LeAnne: I felt like I needed to tie up right because, like, just to like make sure the boys had an easy transition and you're like, I had envisioned and planned things in my head a certain way and now all of it had to happen in like five minutes.
• 15:19
  LeAnne: So our photographer and my mother-in-law both got here around seven 45 and things were really picking up.
• 15:29
  LeAnne: Like that was the time where Steve was like running back and forth and there was hot water boiling on the stove to make sure that the tub was warm enough, and then they had every pot in the house filled up and boiling on the stove.
• 15:39
  LeAnne: It was actually this like really cool image and thankfully, both my midwife and her assistant, who's a student midwife in our area, were here, and so once the two of them were here, I was able to relax a lot.
• 15:51
  LeAnne: And so around 7.45, my mother-in-law got here and just got the boys right in the car, essentially, and took them to her house, and she only lives like 30 minutes away, so that worked out great.
• 16:01
  LeAnne: And so while my husband was loading the boys up in the car, I was having a contraction and my midwife was squeezing my hips and my water broke Big gush like second time all over the kitchen floor, and it was like one of those moments where I was like, okay, this is now we're really picking up intensity, and so he comes back in from putting the boys in the car and now I'm stark, naked and just like covered in fluid and I was like got really hot, of course, because my body was just working so hard.
• 16:30
  LeAnne: And that's really when, like that peak transition labor hit.
• 16:33
  LeAnne: Once my water broke and I, of course, I threw up and I started to vocalize more and that like major transition labor was definitely setting in.
• 16:44
  LeAnne: I was trying to wait as long as possible to get in the tub because for me that always feels like the best place to deliver.
• 16:50
  LeAnne: Like I've had two, two previous water births and like that water is just so therapeutic for me and so I tried to hold on as long as possible to make sure I use that was like cause.
• 17:00
  LeAnne: That was my last strategy.
• 17:02
  LeAnne: My last comfort measure was getting in the water and I wanted to make sure I really needed it.
• 17:06
  LeAnne: So thankfully they had the tub ready and I remember that my midwife, Anna, saying like the tub's ready whenever you want to get in, and I was like I need a few more contractions, Like I need to be like really desperate and before I get in cause I wanted to make sure I didn't have to get back out and then back in like even though like in my head I knew like this baby's going to be here really soon, I wanted to make sure I was like the last straw.
• 17:28
  LeAnne: So 745 or like probably like 750 ish is when my water broke really big and then I got in the tub around like 805, 810.
• 17:37
  LeAnne: And I had a few more really big contract got in the tub around like eight, oh, five, eight, 10.
• 17:39
  LeAnne: And I had a few more really big contractions in the tub and then I had this like few minutes rest in between and then my body started to push and so I was sitting in a tub, like reclined, so my like legs were out in front of me and that, oh, that felt good to get off my get off my legs for sure, Cause they were definitely jello-y after all those contractions standing up and my husband was sitting on a little stool right outside the tub and so I was kind of leaned back onto his shoulders and that that that was the position I had delivered our two previous babies in and that that felt good for me.
• 18:11
  LeAnne: I tried at first to be like on my hands and knees and my legs just like didn't, were not interested in supporting me at that moment.
• 18:16
  LeAnne: So I just reclined right onto Steve and so I started pushing around like eight, 20 and right away I felt like this something's different, Like I couldn't figure out what it was If, like my felt like my body was pushing so hard and I had my eyes closed and like through my sort of like birth fog I remember this thought like crossing through that was like I think this baby is sunny side up, Like why am I pushed, Like my baby, like my body is, like I was felt like so much harder than my previous births where I really did experience that like fetal ejection reflex where my body just took over and pushed my baby out and I didn't really have to like add the extra oomph to those.
• 18:57
  LeAnne: You know those previous births.
• 18:58
  LeAnne: And for this one I was like holding onto Steve's hands hard, like pushing so hard, and so I thought like maybe he's like in a funky position, Like why am I pushing so hard?
• 19:09
  LeAnne: And of course, the benefit of context of how big he was he was 10 pounds, 10 ounces.
• 19:13
  LeAnne: It makes sense that my body had to push really hard and so that was like a huge variable Like.
• 19:18
  LeAnne: But of course I didn't know that at the time.
• 19:19
  LeAnne: I just thought like maybe he's in a funny position, Like it felt different and it felt like I was working so hard.
• 19:25
  LeAnne: But so he started to crown really slowly and then that contraction ended and he kind of slid back up and all of that was really good because that was very slow and very gentle on my body.
• 19:36
  LeAnne: And with the next contraction, his head was born and then he started to do his little rotation and with my the next contraction, his shoulders came out and aura, the midwife, grabbed him out of the water and put him on my chest.
• 19:48
  LeAnne: And there he was all 10 pounds, 10 ounces of him, and at the time I did not realize how big he was, Cause I you know.
• 19:54
  LeAnne: Of course he's on my chest and so I'm like looking down, I just see the head view, but one of our photographer took this amazing picture of him from her perspective on my chest and of course he's like rolls on rolls on, rolls down his back and I'm like oh yeah, that's like a 10 and a half pound baby, no question.
• 20:11
  LeAnne: So it was kind of this just like crazy moment.
• 20:13
  LeAnne: Once he was here, you know, and he was perfect.
• 20:15
  LeAnne: He came out and he cried right away and his color transitioned perfectly, and so that he was born at 8 28.
• 20:21
  LeAnne: So I was probably in active labor for like an hour and a half and it was wild.
• 20:27
  LeAnne: It just was like intense from the beginning and and I just remember saying things like I was like I couldn't even believe what just happened.
• 20:34
  LeAnne: I think I was kind of like right on the the edge of feeling a little out of control and like I couldn't catch up with the contractions.
• 20:42
  LeAnne: And it wasn't.
• 20:44
  LeAnne: I think sometimes when people have really fast labors, you know the inclination has to say like oh, that's awesome, you weren't in labor for long, but also like the intensity all has to happen.
• 20:54
  LeAnne: It's just shoved into a shorter time frame, you know.
• 20:56
  LeAnne: So I mean like a six hour labor seems like the ideal time for me, an hour and a half was a little short wow yeah, and so we didn't know he was a boy and so of course I kind of assumed he was the whole pregnancy we had three boys.
• 21:14
  Angela: We already had three, have three boys, and so we checked right away to see if he's a boy, and I was like it's a boy, of course it is like that wasn't like hugely surprised that he was a boy, but it felt like you know our final little puzzle piece was here and so it was yeah, yeah, it was kind of wild.
• 21:30
  LeAnne: so he transitioned great and he was born at 8 28 and my placenta was born at like 8 36, so it was not long afterwards.
• 21:38
  LeAnne: The placenta was born and that 836.
• 21:39
  LeAnne: So it was not long afterwards the placenta was born and that went smoothly.
• 21:40
  LeAnne: I stayed in the tub for that.
• 21:42
  LeAnne: It was just nice to have everything in the water and when I stood up, I didn't feel so icky, and so we my husband cut the cord while after the placenta was born.
• 21:52
  LeAnne: Of course he was.
• 21:53
  LeAnne: It was ready for that.
• 21:54
  Angela: And then I got out of the tub and I felt really good.
• 21:57
  LeAnne: So we made our way.
• 21:58
  LeAnne: I went upstairs to our bedroom and we just got tucked in and thankfully I had put the plastic sheets down on our bed earlier in the morning and my midwives put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, because that was all I wanted after he was born, and so, yeah, then we just snuggled in bed for a while and it was an eight cinnamon rolls and couldn't believe that he was here and it was so like early in the morning wow, that's incredible.
• 22:25
  Angela: Did you have any tearing and how's postpartum been going for you?
• 22:30
  LeAnne: no, so thankfully I didn't tear.
• 22:32
  LeAnne: I mean it was he had a very large head to match his very large body, but he came out really slow and I'm really grateful for that, even though, like the rest of his labor was like wild and fast, that that was slow, what it needed to be and I appreciated that in terms of my physical recovery it was really good and what was really helpful is my husband was able to be home for the first four weeks and so that made, especially with our older boys, that that made a huge difference and so I really was able to focus on just resting and recovering and nursing and bonding.
• 23:04
  LeAnne: Nursing was a little challenging at the beginning, I think because he was very low for like especially the last couple of weeks, and then of course got squeezed really good on the way out because he was so big, and so I think his like jaw muscles were just really tight from all of that and so he just couldn't open his mouth very wide, and so when he would go to latch it was really tight and pinchy, and so the first few days my nipples got pretty beat up, and then it started to get better as his, as he was able to like stretched and open his mouth a little more, and then my milk came in, and so then I was really engorged and I'm, I am always I'm like massive overproducer, and so we had to kind of wrestle with that, like his tight latch on really full breasts, was really hard.
• 23:46
  Angela: So it started to get better and then my milk came in and it got worse for a few days, and then and then, like by like 10, day 10, it was.
• 23:53
  LeAnne: it was a lot better, but it was really just.
• 23:55
  LeAnne: Like you know, giving us time to figure all that out and I had I was going to see like a cranial sacral therapist was one of my plans.
• 24:04
  LeAnne: If it didn't start to get better, I was going to start calling people in because it was definitely uncomfortable, but I could tell like he was able to open his mouth wider and wider each day, which made a big difference.
• 24:14
  LeAnne: But we were able to just focus on nursing and bonding those first four weeks and we're so we're.
• 24:20
  LeAnne: He's three months old today, so we're finding our normal, you know, slowly and slowly getting up more confidence to go do things all four of us, with just me.
• 24:30
  LeAnne: And we have a wonderful little homeschool community here that's super supportive and also has really young kids, and so it's been an easy transition in that sense to where we can, I feel good about, you know, just dropping my older son off and you know he's in good hands to do things that I wasn't able to do those first couple of months with all my whole crew.
• 24:49
  LeAnne: But yeah, we're getting back out there now, so it's been good.
• 24:53
  LeAnne: It's been good and I think part of that has been that I really had low expectations for everybody and our transition into three kids was really difficult for especially when our middle kiddo had a really hard time, and so that really taught me to just like have low expectations for everybody and not push and try and do things and expect things to be normal right away, because, like, no one really knows what normal is, especially those first few months.
• 25:20
  LeAnne: And so I think, being more patient with myself and our family dynamics because they had changed so drastically so quickly, what has helped a lot just my, my own perspective and my own expectations, managing that for sure awesome.
• 25:36
  Angela: Now you're also a birth and postpartum doula.
• 25:38
  Angela: Your company is adventure awaits birth services and you're currently offering childbirth education classes at Holly no 7 Birth Center in Bangor.
• 25:48
  Angela: Can you tell me a little bit more about your doula work?
• 25:58
  LeAnne: I taught middle and high school special education for 10 years and after my first son was born, it was really clear to me that I was not.
• 26:02
  LeAnne: I didn't have the mental, the mental and emotional energy to be both a good teacher and a good mom.
• 26:08
  LeAnne: I just felt like I couldn't do both.
• 26:09
  LeAnne: It was, it was too much, and so when we moved to Columbia, I was able to leave my teaching job, hopefully retire from that career and dive into birth work more, hopefully retire from that career and dive into birth work more.
• 26:23
  LeAnne: And so I became a certified doula in 2017 after my first son was born and did some and took on birth clients and postpartum clients during the summer and sometimes during the school year.
• 26:33
  LeAnne: It was really compelling, but that was not, that was just too stressful, but mostly during the summer, and sort of built up some clients in the Orono Old Town area, which was wonderful.
• 26:42
  LeAnne: And then, when we moved, covid hit and so and then we had a baby, and then COVID is still a thing, and then we had another baby, and so I haven't done a whole lot of births and down in this area, but I've been able to do a few, which has been really wonderful, has been really wonderful, and while we're in this little people phase of our life, I've been focusing a lot more on teaching classes, which is what I really love doing that too, and that allows me to not have to be on call, which is what is most difficult with little children, especially little ones who are still nursing.
• 27:13
  LeAnne: So I've sort of shifted from on-call life for probably the next year and teaching more scheduled things which has been really nice.
• 27:24
  LeAnne: But I got into birth work really because I had an amazing doula who really opened my eyes to like oh, this is like a thing Like I can do this and I feel really passionate about this and she was just really instrumental in helping guide us through our first birth, which was, like I said, an induction at the hospital, which was not something I expected, and the way she helped me shift my perspective and see things through that experience was really informative and inspirational for me.
• 27:50
  LeAnne: So I did my doula training with her.
• 27:53
  LeAnne: Her name is Evelyn, she's located in Brewer and then, yeah, so I've just kind of done things slowly over the last few years in between having my own babies, which has been really fun.
• 28:05
  Angela: Um, and I'm the recently gotten more into teaching classes, so I teach childbirth classes in Bangor at the birth center at Holly number seven um, and that's been a super fun connection because I obviously like, have such a personal love for the midwives and then I get to work with them professionally as well, and I've done some midwife assisting with them, so when they have births down this way, I am able to assist them with that, which has been really awesome.
• 28:33
  Angela: So I'm kind of dabbled in those sorts of things and we'll get back onto the on-call life, because I do miss that a lot.
• 28:39
  Angela: We'll get back onto the on-call life, because I do miss that a lot.
• 28:41
  Angela: Yeah, so I'll link all of your information over in the show notes and also the dates for your Holly number seven childbirth education classes.
• 28:53
  Angela: Thank you so much, leanne, for taking the time to share your story today.
• 28:59
  LeAnne: All right, thank you.
• 29:02
  Angela: Before you go, I just want to remind you I have a ton of resources for pregnancy and birth.
• 29:07
  Angela: If you're pregnant, whether you're a first time mom or if this is your fifth baby, I want you to check out the show notes, because I have some free trainings and free downloads that you can sign up for, as well as the link to access my Labor of Love, a comprehensive, self-paced online childbirth education course that I created specifically for moms who don't want to be told what to do, and I would honestly love to teach you everything that I know so that you can prepare for an autonomous birth experience and prepare to step into your role as the leader of your birth journey.
• 29:41
  Angela: So click to the show notes, check out all of those links and, if you ever have any questions, feel free to DM me at mymainbirth over on Instagram.