The lovely Liz Bird with her daughter Sadie (3) and son Campbell (10 months). Liz's first pregnancy was lost to miscarriage at around 11 weeks. She was aware that she'd had a subchorionic hematoma but wasn't mindful of the fact that it would lead to the loss of her baby. Liz was devastated, and took her time to grieve, she sought treatment and credits her faith to getting her through it. Once she was feeling better, they decided to try again and conceived Sadie. Liz had really awful morning sickness which caused her to lose quite a bit of weight and have a difficult time. Her pregnancy was without complication otherwise, and she felt great about the changes in her body. She chose to give birth at a birthing center and was very much looking forward to the support of the midwife she'd built a relationship with. She ended up going into labor a week early, and her midwife was on holiday, so she had the support of backup staff. She labored about 19 hours with 2 hours of pushing but never felt quite ready to. While Sadie was born without complication, Liz had quite a bit of pelvic floor damage and went through about 6 months of physical therapy before she felt she could sit down comfortably. She was able to breastfeed without issue but was incredibly sleep-deprived. Sadie did not sleep well and nursed about every hour on the hour through the night. Liz was losing weight rapidly and was generally unwell. When Sadie was about 14 months old, they went to a center for a week to help her learn how to sleep better and just days into the stay she slept through the night, and Liz started to feel much better. She was able to conceive again with Campbell without issue. She had a lot of morning sickness again but chose to take medication this time so that she could feel well enough to keep up with Sadie. She was much larger during this pregnancy and says she got a lot of comments from strangers wondering if she was due very soon or expecting twins. The comments and her size made her feel bad about her growing body and she was really struggling to enjoy the things she did in her previous pregnancy. She planned to deliver Campbell at home, but his arrival was unexpected. She woke up in labor around 2am one morning but didn't actually acknowledge it was time. She worked through contractions and very soon her water broke and her boy arrived just after 3am. Her midwives and support hadn't had a chance to arrive yet, so her husband caught him and brought him up to her chest. Even though she had a fast labor and delivered a much larger baby, she physically felt wonderful after her birth. Breastfeeding is going beautifully this time as well.
