Ryatt's Birth Story

 Ryatt George Michael was born on March 19, 2025 at 10:22 in the evening. He weighed 7 pounds and 10 ounces and was 21 inches long. His birth story started long before this evening and wouldn't be complete if I didn't start from the beginning. 

One summer afternoon Jada walked into my bedroom and said they needed feminine hygiene products. Baffled I just stared at her. Typically I buy every size in bulk when I'm on my cycle since we have 4 of us in the house and I've done this for several years. Without her seeing the pure terror on my face I told her I'd order some. I immediately grab my phone and start going through online receipts trying to pinpoint the last time I bought products. Months... it had been months. I'm panicking. There's no way I'm 3 months pregnant. I immediately scheduled an appointment. With my history there's just no time to question anything. They got me in for an ultrasound the very next day. Of course I'm only thinking of worst case scenarios and I'm a mess. The next afternoon I find myself on a table undressed from the waist down thinking about how I got here? It makes zero sense. My tech asks me all kinds of questions not knowing my history and its just a horrible visit. When we finally go to look at the screen there is nothing there. I'm numb at this point. The black hole of emotions has sucked everything out. I'm now thinking cancer, phantom pregnancy, or I've lost a pregnancy and my body hasn't gotten the memo. Walk over to my midwife and she orders some blood tests. I drive an hour home in tears. Not even 3 hours later I get a phone call that I have a significant amount of HCG and she wants a repeat blood draw in 48 hrs. Still makes zero sense to me. To her, she believes my dates are off and I'm just really early pregnant. I don't even think that's an option. Sure enough my levels tripled and she ordered another ultrasound in a week. In the mean time she starts me on a prenatal, baby aspirin, and progesterone. 

That week was hard. My thoughts were everywhere and I just didn't know how to feel about any of it. When that Friday came again I made the hour drive for a repeat ultrasound. Tech still unaware of my anxiety and history starts the scan again. Shockingly there is a fetal pole and sac. I am indeed pregnant. What?! I head over to the midwife appointment and wait to talk to her. She's fully aware of my history and we go over all my options. Right now the only thing we can do is wait and see how this pregnancy will progress and I'm just so far removed from it all. She goes over my notes and explains the findings. I am very early pregnant. My ultrasound showed a large cyst on both my ovaries and she shares that may be why I've missed 3 cycles. The first cycle created a cyst on one ovary the next cycle on the other ovary and that third egg got fertilized and implanted. Which honestly in hindsight probably allowed me to keep this pregnancy. All the extra hormones from 2 eggs and the very early detection that had me start on meds way earlier than anyone would have. 

I'm still a hot mess as you could expect. I took each milestone as a miracle. Each week I was just thankful that we got there with zero expectations on having a happy ending. It's the only way that made it bearable. We had to cancel our 2 week trip to norway and either prepare to have a baby or lose a baby. We only told immediate family and kept that secret for months. Up until 30 weeks we had 100% planned a very medicated hospital birth. I didn't mesh well with the second midwife and I couldn't imagine her birthing my baby. We changed gears quickly. Birth sucks, its incredibly painful and I really didn't want to be in that kind of pain again. I've had 6 unmedicated births and just wanted to be numbed up this time. The change of plans immediately changed my heart. I can do hard things. I have done hard things. It won't last forever. I can do this again. I started planning and getting my mind in the game. I prepared to over cook and have another long labor. I expected this. My shocking surprise came when my water broke a day early!

March 19th at 2:25 in the morning I thought my water broke. I called my midwife unsure of what  to do. I've never questioned a ruptured membrane before and this time I was uncertain. She told me to grab my birth kit, there was a tester and to test. Sure enough after more than a half dozen pregnancies I peed myself for the first time. I giggled changed my clothing and climbed back into bed. Not long later it happened again and I knew it was my waters. Checked and sure enough the tester was positive. I texted my team the update and fully expected nothing to happen and told them I was climbing back into bed. I called aric at 3:12 am and told him my water broke and he should start making his way home. I ended up getting back out of bed and did all the dishes and changed over the laundry. Straighten up my room and by 4ish I was climbing back into bed. We texted on and off those 4 hrs and I dozed in and out and then finally fell asleep when he got home after 7am. 

When I woke back up around 9 I gave my birth team the update that nothing was happening. My midwife said she would see clients throughout the morning and be to me by 3pm. During that time alone I tried to rest as much as possible when 10 hours hit and still nothing was happening I started my labor tea mocktail and birthing ball. Another hour passed and I started miles circuit. Midwife showed up right at 3 and I was finishing the circuit. Still not actively in labor I finished the circuit and she checked me. I was only 3 maybe stretch to 4 cm and 50% effaced. We communicated my options and all scenarios. I do better with all options on the table. At this point my membranes had been ruptured for 12 hours. At 24 we would start ABX and at 27 we would be making plans to transfer if I wasn't in deep active labor. I would continue ball and birth sling work and additionally start on cotton root tincture every 15 minutes for 4 hours starting at 4. So that's what we did. 4 on the dot I took the first dose of tincture and for the next 3.5 hours I took it every 15 minutes. We planned to do another cervical check at 8pm to see how I progressed. Shared this with my doula and birth photographer and my doula would come at 8 no matter what and photographer would come when I told her. 

Cotton root. Tincture of the labor Gods for sure. The first 3 hours not much changed and I was getting anxious. After all this mental work going to the hospital would suck. During this time I ate, listened to music, drank my tea, pumped, and had clary sage diffusing. Aric was running kids to and fro practices and checking in on me regularly. He got them dinner around 6. At 7 I was starting to get some pretty intense CTX and by 7:30 I was struggling. Aric was giving me counter pressure during each ctx and I was pacing in-between them. My team was outside and I texted I needed them. My doula came in, observed me and I'm quickly spiraling, everything was happening so fast and I wanted to get in the tub. I vocalized this and at 7:44 I texted photographer she was needed. After that I zoned everyone else out. 

I climbed into the tub. I felt completely out of control. Had a minute cry fest. Ideally I would have been in the tub 45 minutes earlier and I would have been better mentally prepared. I was struggling to get things back on track. My stomach was upset and I ended up having a couple loose stools. I had to get back out of the water to take care of that. I knew if I didn't I wouldn't have enough hot water to fill it back up and I did not want to birth on land. This was hard but I managed and made it each time. I was changing positions a lot. Nothing felt good so I just kept moving. I had several that I just wailed through. This was my most vocal birth and I ended up hoarse and loosing my voice. Time was irrelevant to me.  I felt like pushing but was nervous my cervix wasn't ready. After several cycles of this, Counter pressure, changing positions every other CTX, I wanted to be checked. I felt like pushing but was unsure. A quick check showed I was complete with a sliver of cervix. She asked if I wanted her to push it aside during the next CTX?  I immediately recoiled and said no. I've had this done before and it was brutal. She pulled away I instinctually knew what to do. 

I flipped over to hands and knees and gave myself 4 CTX. I got to work opening up my hips. Knees in. Feet out. Visualizing that sliver opening and slipping away. I'm not sure if I lasted those 4 CTX but I started to bear down. The first one was straight up torture and did not progress. The second I got caught on the ring of fire and backed off because it hurt. I mentally scolded myself, if I want this to be over I have to push past this. I think I even said aloud, "Why does this have to hurt so much?" Next CTX I was ready, pushed passed it and took a deep breath. Something I normally do not do. I just eject them right out. I knew the shoulders hurt just as badly and I needed to be a good pusher and not stop. Next CTX he rotates, I push and he's out, I have a less than a second to freak out because I'm on hands and knees how am I getting him?! Aric the "not the MVP" because that's totally me but definitely the second mvp takes ahold of him and guides him between my legs until he's secure and in my arms. I did it. 

I just birthed my last baby. He's crying. He's definitely a boy. (I still had my reservations)  He's perfect. I did it. Deep Breath. I asked what time it was and they said 10:22. Shocked, mouth agape, what?! I thought it was the next day! That only took a couple hours. 

Jada was present during the pushing and delivery. She's seen and heard enough births to where she knew in the change of my sounds what was happening and snuck in. She quickly grabbed Patrick and then Tori wandered in. Patrick asked if he was a skin walker. We all had a laugh, reassured him that he was NOT a skin walker and that satisfied him. 

We transitioned to the bed. He latched and I focused on trying to get the placenta out. It took the longest out of every birth and with the help of a little tug came out whole. His cord also had a true knot which was kinda cool and terrifying as I've never had one of those before. We switched sides and latched again. Aric, my partner, my rock, the best counter pressure giver there ever was, made me a plate of food and I scarfed down as much as I could. He truly is the best support person for my home births. Jada cut the cord which allowed Aric to get some baby snuggles so I could get cleaned up and changed and back into the bed. He latched again and birth team went to the kitchen to investigate my placenta and gave us some privacy with the baby. 

This is honestly why I home birth despite the pain. My family here, in our home, snuggled in bed welcoming a new baby into the mix. It's magical. It's the perfect ending to an intense event. Patrick was trying to stay awake but he was literally just falling asleep every other minute. Ryatt was then measured, weighed, and looked thoroughly over. He was much tinier than I imagined but utterly perfect. We latched again and my room is full of life. Deep Breath. We have another little Kassner baby. 

We are all chatting and calming down from the after birth high. Sharing notes and observations from his birth. It was the perfect ending of a whirlwind of a day. 19 total hour from waters breaking but less than 3 hours of active labor. I was pleasantly surprised and overjoyed it was so short. While birth still sucks and after pains are just as torturous as I remember it was a perfect labor. As labors go. Slowly everyone starts cleaning up and making their departures. Around 1 am its Aric, Ryatt and I snuggled in. We stared at another little miracle. Bonus son we never intended to have. Shared a kiss and I whispered we really did it again. We really did...

The start of Kassner Party of 8.