After birth, a woman’s belly is rarely ever the same as before pregnancy (let alone, multiple pregnancies!).

I never developed stretchmarks, but I did lose my pre-pregnancy, tight-muscled, flat belly. My cute little belly-button slit is now just a hole. My now-soft, stretchy-skinned belly makes funny “faces” at my kids and sends them in to giggle fits. I have a little belly pooch, I like to think looks womanly. Too bad my middle is still about as wide as my hips, which I never did really grow any during my 5 pregnancies.

Came across a wonderful website this morning, The Shape of a Mother. A website almost any mother who has experienced the body-morphing effects of pregnacy could identify with…

Pregnancy and Birth can be an amazing time for a woman. I found myself drawn to stories, images and having many questions about what if. Sharing our birth stories seemed very natural to me, even though things didn’t always go how we’d wished they would. In the end, we’ve been blessed with 4 amazing children, here on earth with us – who continue to inspire, bring awe and smiles to us daily.

Do you have a birth story you’d like us to link to? Please let us know. :)

Unassisted Home Birth – birthed at home, in a pool… just us.
Tege’s home waterbirth – a hospital transport
Unassisted Pregnancy – belly pictures

Hospital Births
Cassie – my first Grandbaby Anna – Labor / Birth Story… in a hospital. Anna has her own website ~ Anna Riley. See Anna Riley flickr set for pics.
Cassie – first birth
Emily – second child – story to come
Ryland – pregnancy – belly pictures
Ryland – hospital birth with midwives.
Ryland – home again

Stillbirth – Our loss Jordan Riley was my husbands first baby.. lost at 36 weeks gestation.

Jordan – Stillbirth (disclaimer)
Jordan – Pregnancy of a Stillborn – belly pictures
Jordan Riley – Stillbirth Story
Jordan – Stillbirth (after) – Contains pictures

Other Pregnancy & Birth Related Pages:
Baby Shower Gift Ideas – I did a belly cast during my pregnancy with Teigen.. and we did one for Cas. It turned out so cute!
Memorialize Your Pregnancy – Six ways to make your pregnancy memorable. Nine months of pregnancy seems to last forever, but looking back, the time flew by.. Don’t forget little the things.
Beautiful Belly Pictures – I share a site I came across about womens post-pregnant bellies… good to read.

Teigen – an unassisted homebirth, waterbirth with transport to hospital after the birth.

My water broke around 1:00 a.m. on June 6th. The contractions weren’t often and weren’t painful at all. But, since we didn’t know how long it would be, we set up the pool and got things ready. I tried sleeping on and off through the early morning, but didn’t get much in at all. Got the girls up and ready for school and then we waited all day… with nothing much happening, or seemingly not.

Things started to kick in around 6 or so that evening and I figured within the next 4-6 hours, we’d have our baby… I got in the pool close to 6:30 or 7 and here’s our story…

Just in the pool and thinking it felt so much better than outside. It didn’t keep the contractions from hurting, but did help me relax through them. Leaning on the side, on my knees, helped not only with gravity, I’m sure, but also helped me focus and stay in my own little world.

Things are starting to pick up in intensity. I realized after that I spent a lot of my labor with my eyes closed. I tried to remember to change positions to help with everything… but sometimes it just hurt too much to want to move.

Transition has fully kicked in at this point (around 9p or so). With contractions coming every couple minutes and having 3 peeks each to them… they were really getting rough to deal with.

Bob was so great! Rubbing my lower back really helped and he was right there for each contraction… I know his arms must have been getting tired.

I was getting more vocal during transition. Moaning a lot through the contractions seemed to really help. It helped keep me from tensing up. And Bob would tell me ‘Let it out’… encouraging me to go ahead and make the noises I needed to make… He knew that not only would making noise help me, but that telling me to let it out would make me feel more comfortable in doing so.

I got out of the pool a few times to go tinkle. I think sitting on the toilet helped open me up a little bit, as far as being able to go pee. Bob would come with me and while I’d have contractions, he’d keep rotating two towels, getting them wet so I could put them on my lower belly. I cried a few times and knew it was transition, but would ask Bob “I can do this, right?” and he’d look at me and tell me how great I was doing… and tell me “Yes, you Can!”. I knew I was the one doing the “work”, but he has always been so strong for me, whenever I needed him… and he wasn’t about to let me down now either.

This is close to 9:30 or so… I felt a change in the way it felt when Bob would rub my lower back. It no longer felt so good and actually was very uncomfortable. So, I ended up changing position and feeling inside to see if I could feel Teigen’s head. Sure enough, I could feel head, hair and a cervical lip. I knew working with the next few contractions, little grunty pushes and patience and the lip would be gone. At this point, Teigen’s head is starting to crown and I am feeling with one hand in front, his head, and the other in back, my bottom… I was hoping not to tear.

I was letting out some deep screams and panting between contractions so I didn’t push too fast. It seemed to take about 3 contractions to get his head out, but it all went really quick.

It’s burning and hurting and I was wanting it to be done!! Head is coming out now and I am reaching and feeling around to see if I was tearing or not… so far, so good.

Once the head was out, I flipped over to all fours… Bob was reaching in here to help guide Teigen up and out of the water. The cord was draped loosely around Teigen’s neck.. Bob described it as a loose necklace… and…

At 9:55 P.M., Teigen is born… Bob hands Teigen to me… he’s covered in vernix, and limp… But he’s beautiful! And we did it all ourselves!

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This is where I’m editing part of our birth story (12/04). It’s very hard to convey everything that happened during this period in a way that everyone understand. At the time, things were very scary. We’d lost a baby the pregnancy before (due to unknown reasons, and nothing we did or didn’t do). We did this ourselves and while we were confident in what we were doing, we were also alone. We did things to protect Teigen as well as ourselves.

At this point, Teigen wasn’t breathing. Later we thought it was how he was brought up out of the water… I spoke with a few doctors and midwives about this and we were assured this was not the cause of his delayed breathing. Regardless, at the time, it was quite a scary feeling. We passed Teigen around, from me to Bob to my mom, each of us working to get him to breath. At the time, it seemed very urgent, but I think that time had slowed quite dramatically and we were feeling an urgency that wasn’t quite as urgent as it seemed. Bob asked if we should call 911. I said yes.. my main thought was I was not losing another baby. While he was on the phone, Teigen started coughing and breathing. It was light and raspy, but it was breathing. It was this point that I knew for certain everything was going to be ok.

– March 4th, 2003 – It’s been hard going back through these pictures. I had wanted this really incredible birth… I wanted Teigen to come out gently into this world and have a peaceful beginning. We did it ourselves, yes. We did it without drugs, without intervention… but in the end, he had a harder start to life than either of my girls. Would I do this again? People have emailed and asked me. I thought yes, I would. But, now, I don’t think so. I believe if we have another baby, we will take a different route… not sure what yet, but then, I’m not pregnant yet either. (Note: some pictures have been removed because of the graphic nature – and the weird emails I was receiving)–

Notice Teigen’s coloring.. he was pinking up quite nicely and the paramedics, when they got there, commented on his coloring being good. The next several minutes were crazy… the paramedics came, the dogs (all 4 of them) were going crazy, the girls were worried. They were all very nice and basically scooped us up and took us off to the hospital. I had a temp when we got there, so there was question as to whether I’d be able to see Teigen for a while (I didn’t get to see him for 15 hours)… Bob kept going to be with him and coming to check on me…

The hospital, it is my opinion and agreed by several, kept Teigen for a week to be sure he was well. They first told us they thought he had pneumonia, however, my doctor, Teigen’s pediatrician, reassured us that this cultures came back negative.. so he was in the hospital, on antibiotics “just in case”. I’d have liked to have argued with them (the other staff), taken him home. But having him safe, and him coming home with ME, not CPS, was my main concern. That was not an easy week, regardless of what was wrong (or not wrong) with Teigen.

I don’t think it was mentioned in my first edition of his birth story, but my doctor later told me at one of Teigen’s check-ups, that we had done nothing wrong. He was proud of what we’d done and didn’t want us to harbor any guilt. Whatever seemed to be wrong with Teigen could easily have been an issue for any baby born IN the hospital, as we were to late experience yet again, but thankfully as a much smaller issue. My doctor is a gem. I love him.

It has been commented on, or directly asked why I removed my shirt.. it was a natural instinct. I did it without even realizing.. maybe to be ready to nurse or to get skin-to-skin directly after birth.

Teigen – an unassisted homebirth, waterbirth with transport to hospital after the birth.

We had so much fun taking pictures every few weeks during the pregnancy. I particularly enjoyed it… it was fun seeing the changes. Nothing like a growing pregnant belly!

Love newborn baby pictures!

These are pictures taken within the first few days after Ryland being born. It was so nice to be home so quickly! And the weather was beautiful. Ryland was passed from arms to arms as everyone wanted a chance to hold the new little baby.

Wrapped in his cozy blanket, Ry is sleeping peacefully. Bob and I were waiting for the doctor to come in to release Ry and me.. We were ready to go home! It didn’t take too long. We were headed out the doors close to 6 in the evening. It felt so good, but also a little strange.

On the way down to the lobby, one person commented on the ‘little baby’ and wanted to know how old he was. They were surprised to hear only hours, literally!

Baby Ry with big brother Teigen and sister Emilee barely a day old. Neither Tege or Em were very awake yet. They look a bit groggy.

A great napping place… with big sister Cassie. He found this shoulder(s) comfy on many occasions to come:

Can a shoulder get any better than daddy’s shoulder? Ry loved napping with daddy.

Momma’s favorite place to tuck Ry in… this sling is the cotton adjustable sling from Kangaroo Korner… awesome!! Definitely a favorite!! I had ordered this pouch before I had Ry. We got it in the mail the day after he was born. It was perfect timing! This picture, Ry is 1 day old.

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Ry with Grandpa

Ouchy new front teeth…

Me & my boys..