Season 2 episode 1: A whole new life... literally!

When we say a new life, we mean it. Xan came into our world early this morning after Chanté worked the hardest she ever has... period. She worked hard partly because we decided not to go to the hospital, but to use a midwife without all the wonderful intervention. The only medicational intervention we used was a drug called cervadil, which helps the uterus to efface and eventually start contractions. After the second dose labor had definitely started, which made chante go from This:

Chanté and midwife katie monitoring baby.

To these:

Relaxing between contractions,

attempting to relax during contractions.

Chanté labored for 14 hours and pushed for over 3 hours. I don't know how she did it but she did not complain about the clearly present pain or complain that it was too hard. After so many hours of changing positions and going through contractions and pushing, she was physically exhausted, but did not complain. Then Xan's head started to emerge just enough you could see his hair. Midwife Marsha told her she could touch his head, once Chanté could feel her baby she got a whole new wave of energy and painfully but willingly pushed until, with the assistance of an episiotomy, until our little Xander popped his head completely out.

Many people have rolled their eyes and questioned us when they heard we were using a midwife saying things like it's not safe, or she will want the epidural. Here's what I have to say to all who even doubted in their minds: Chanté is a warrior who birthed a baby the natural way and survived. Now Mom, Dad, and Baby are at home 6 hours after birth getting acquainted once again, instead of walking the halls at the hospital and looking through the glass at the nursery.