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Ep 5 - Natalie's Home Birth Story of Gene
144 Plays6 months ago
In this unfiltered episode, we dive into Natalie's recollection of her home birth experience. From the unexpected twists and turns, the instincts, and the sacred (and sometimes hilarious) chaos of bringing babies earthside, we’re sharing raw reflections and real talk on birth, postpartum, and what it means to trust your body through it all. Come for the storytelling, stay for the crunchy mom vibes and candid moments you won’t hear anywhere else.
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Transcript
Intro
Episode Milestone Celebration
00:00:51
Felicia Devine
Hello and welcome back to episode five.
00:00:54
Natalie Richards
Hi.
00:00:55
Felicia Devine
Hi Nat.
00:00:56
Natalie Richards
So excited to be here
00:00:57
Felicia Devine
we've We've made it five episodes.
00:00:59
Natalie Richards
I can't believe it.
00:01:01
Felicia Devine
I know.
00:01:01
Natalie Richards
That's like, it it takes lot of a lot of effort actually.
00:01:05
Felicia Devine
It does.
00:01:05
Natalie Richards
As easy as it's been for us because I think we've been so excited, it takes like the planning and the dedication and all the figuring out of all the weird details.
00:01:09
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:01:16
Felicia Devine
Right.
Managing Podcast Nerves
00:01:17
Felicia Devine
And I feel like I've gotten more nervous every time we film.
00:01:20
Natalie Richards
I know. Like it gets harder, I think. But we still don't – like we don't prepare anything.
00:01:23
Felicia Devine
it It was easier.
00:01:26
Natalie Richards
We just talk.
00:01:26
Felicia Devine
no Right.
00:01:27
Natalie Richards
So this could be a lot harder.
00:01:28
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:01:31
Felicia Devine
Also, it could be a lot easier if we prepared.
00:01:36
Natalie Richards
Maybe.
00:01:37
Felicia Devine
Maybe we need to start preparing.
00:01:37
Natalie Richards
Oh my God. I don't know, i guess. otherwise I think I'll be more nervous. that Like this one, my birth story, when I actually have to like look at my notes because i half the stuff I don't even remember –
00:01:43
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:01:49
Natalie Richards
I'm like a little nervous, but it's going be fun.
00:01:52
Felicia Devine
I was...
00:01:52
Natalie Richards
We'll just chat.
00:01:53
Felicia Devine
Yeah, I was nervous too. I wrote down tons of notes for when we recorded mine because I didn't want to have to go backwards during the story to reference things.
00:01:57
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:02:00
Natalie Richards
Right.
00:02:02
Felicia Devine
So i was like, if I can just like lay it out chronologically, then it will sound a little better.
00:02:03
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:02:06
Natalie Richards
Exactly.
00:02:07
Felicia Devine
But so like Natalie touched on, we're going to listen to her birth story.
00:02:08
Natalie Richards
Exactly. Exactly.
00:02:12
Natalie Richards
who
00:02:13
Felicia Devine
Yay. yeah
00:02:14
Natalie Richards
It was so funny to like go back and look through. Like I had my whole – had a note section on my phone that as I was going through labor, I was writing down like my when my contractions were and like all of this stuff.
00:02:27
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:28
Natalie Richards
So it was cute to like go back and – read my own notes to myself like in the moment.
00:02:32
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:02:34
Natalie Richards
And then I also checked in with my midwife and I said, hey, can you just like write down a couple a couple like quick things that you – if you remember anything or if had anything written down about about my birth story. so it was really – was kind of fun to go back and and listen and think about it.
00:02:54
Natalie Richards
And then some of the things that Kyle said that he remembered, it's just so – so funny.
00:03:01
Natalie Richards
So,
Nat's Pregnancy and Birth Interest
00:03:01
Felicia Devine
I can't wait to get Kyle's take on this.
00:03:04
Natalie Richards
right? And then there's so many things, even about my pregnancy, that blocked out because it was chaos. And I was like, oh my God, I did do all of that while I was pregnant. That's ridiculous.
00:03:16
Natalie Richards
Like I did the opposite of what I did the opposite of what any what i would tell somebody to do.
00:03:25
Natalie Richards
So my pregnancy was chaos, but I should probably, before I get into all of this other stuff, I should go back and give like a little background about what my childhood was like because birth has been a part of my life for a very long time.
00:03:45
Natalie Richards
i used When I was like four years old, I would watch the what was it called? It was called a Baby Story on TLC.
00:03:52
Felicia Devine
What?
00:03:53
Natalie Richards
Did you ever watch that show? Guaranteed you didn't because it was an adult show.
00:03:59
Felicia Devine
Guarantee you had parental locks. What is that?
00:04:02
Natalie Richards
It was like people's birth experiences. Like literally they were they had their lives filmed in their pregnancies and then they would go to the hospital and it would be their birth filmed.
00:04:15
Natalie Richards
Like I –
00:04:15
Felicia Devine
why Why did they stop that? That's so interesting.
00:04:17
Natalie Richards
I don't know. It was amazing it was an amazing show.
00:04:20
Felicia Devine
Okay, I didn't know this about you.
00:04:20
Natalie Richards
I loved it. So, I mean, maybe until until I was like seven, let's say.
00:04:21
Felicia Devine
You were obsessed.
00:04:26
Natalie Richards
i you know how like parents will tell their kids like bedtime stories, right?
00:04:34
Felicia Devine
Where's this going?
00:04:37
Natalie Richards
For some reason, i basically forced my dad into creating birth stories in his head to tell me as a bedtime story.
00:04:51
Felicia Devine
You would make up birth stories?
00:04:53
Natalie Richards
Yes. Can you imagine this as a parent? Like i like if Gene asked me to think of come up with a birth story to tell him to go to sleep, I...
00:05:06
Felicia Devine
Night after night?
00:05:07
Natalie Richards
Night after night. I remember this vividly. I was probably ah ah probably seven or eight, I think, because we were still in our other our old house. It's just funny thinking back, like, oh my God.
00:05:18
Felicia Devine
Oh my goodness.
00:05:20
Natalie Richards
So needless to say, I've always been interested in birth from a very young age and like the real stuff.
00:05:25
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:05:29
Natalie Richards
Like like I was watching people give birth in the hospital and it was great.
00:05:33
Felicia Devine
Oh my gosh.
00:05:35
Natalie Richards
I loved it. It was like,
00:05:37
Felicia Devine
That's incredible.
00:05:38
Natalie Richards
It's just so funny to think back to that. So since then, fast forward to like chiropractic school and all that stuff, I was like, I love pregnancy.
00:05:48
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:05:51
Natalie Richards
I love birth.
00:05:51
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:05:52
Natalie Richards
I really, even at that point though, I kind of was saying, i don't know if I actually want to do this.
00:05:58
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:05:59
Natalie Richards
I really like helping other people through it, but I just wasn't – my whole life I was like, oh, I'm going to be a mom.
00:06:02
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:06:05
Natalie Richards
I'm going to be a mom. Yes, yes. And then once like college came, i was like, I don't know. I don't think this is for me.
00:06:11
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:06:13
Natalie Richards
But I loved it still. I loved the whole experience of it. Loved other people being pregnant, loved babies, all that stuff. So, has jeans laughing in the background.
00:06:24
Natalie Richards
He's going,
00:06:27
Felicia Devine
Oh,
00:06:28
Natalie Richards
he's so funny. so, Chiropractic school was interesting because you can kind of go in a lot of different paths. So you could choose the sports stuff. You could choose the the activator stuff. You could choose like the really low force techniques or the pregnancy things and and all of that. So I definitely did a lot of birth and pregnancy training.
00:06:51
Natalie Richards
in school too along with my sports stuff that I was doing.
00:06:55
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:06:56
Natalie Richards
But then afterward, once I really got into practice, like we took Webster's together. So we did the Webster's technique and that was the education in that course is really cool because it goes through, here are the cardinal movements of birth.
00:07:02
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:07:12
Natalie Richards
Here are the things that should be happening normally in a normal situation. And here's all the ways that our system screws it up.
00:07:20
Felicia Devine
Here's everything that goes wrong.
00:07:23
Natalie Richards
So here's what happens if you go in, here's what happens if you go to the hospital and go through all these like cascades of intervention is what they call it.
00:07:31
Felicia Devine
Right. You like take out a domino.
00:07:34
Natalie Richards
Right. And then probably 10 years ago while we were still in school, do you remember I forced you to listen to that podcast? It was like the ancestral biology of birth on the Rewild Yourself podcast.
00:07:42
Felicia Devine
Yes. Yes. Yes. Rewild. Oh my goodness.
00:07:47
Felicia Devine
That was a while ago.
00:07:48
Natalie Richards
it what It was, that was like, we're talking like 10 years ago almost probably.
00:07:51
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:53
Natalie Richards
So that podcast, it was Sarah Buckley. She's an incredible researcher from Australia.
00:07:57
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:08:00
Natalie Richards
And she the her thoughts on birth and her research that she's done is incredible. So I… Listened to that podcast and I was like mind blown, like absolutely blown.
00:08:12
Natalie Richards
Like this is revolutionary to have this education on here are the steps of birth and how it happens naturally.
00:08:16
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:08:21
Natalie Richards
And here's all the ways that it gets screwed up. in a hospital type situation.
00:08:26
Felicia Devine
and
00:08:26
Natalie Richards
Now, not everybody has a horrible situation, but a lot of people do, unfortunately.
00:08:29
Felicia Devine
Right. Right.
00:08:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:08:34
Felicia Devine
It's more common than not.
00:08:35
Natalie Richards
It's more common than not. I think it's it's really rare these days to have somebody come out of a hospital experience and have a really good feeling about it where they don't have some sort of trauma that was was caused by that birth.
00:08:45
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:08:50
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:08:51
Natalie Richards
I think everyone knows that.
00:08:53
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:08:53
Natalie Richards
Everyone hears stories of their friends who are like, oh yeah, I was induced and then it was a horrible labor and then I had a blah, blah, blah, like all this stuff.
00:09:01
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:09:02
Natalie Richards
So I knew if I were to ever have a baby, that was not going to be my path.
00:09:08
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:09:09
Natalie Richards
I was not going to be in a hospital. just...
00:09:12
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:09:13
Natalie Richards
I knew too much. I didn't want to fight my way through. Like ah I knew in my head if I ever were to do this, it would not be the traditional route.
00:09:21
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:09:22
Natalie Richards
So right
Choosing a Home Birth
00:09:25
Natalie Richards
before, of like around the time I met Kyle, I would say, i was really diving into pregnancy and birth just because my patients were really drawing that out of me.
00:09:25
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:09:38
Natalie Richards
Like I needed to give more education, more knowledge, more help. to the patients I was seeing because I was like, there's got to be another way to go about this, right?
00:09:47
Felicia Devine
ready right
00:09:49
Natalie Richards
So I had listened probably, think I listened to almost every episode of evidence-based birth like before I was ever pregnant because I was just curious.
00:09:59
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:10:01
Natalie Richards
like i If I was going to give education and give tips to people, I wanted to make sure that it was
00:10:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:10:04
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:10:08
Natalie Richards
it was evidence-based backed by really what the science is really saying.
00:10:08
Felicia Devine
Evidence-based.
00:10:13
Natalie Richards
and
00:10:14
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:10:14
Natalie Richards
And that's very different than what actually happens in a hospital. So if anybody's curious, like evidence-based birth is a really cool resource. If you really are trying to compare your options between between all the hospital options, all of the home birth options, birth center, all of that stuff, she has so many resources on.
00:10:34
Natalie Richards
Here's what the literature actually says. And here's what these risk factors really mean.
00:10:38
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:10:40
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:10:41
Natalie Richards
So that was cool. So i I had a pretty good background on, you know, I was going to have a home birth for myself if it ever happened.
00:10:47
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Right.
00:10:50
Natalie Richards
So then, ah ah well,
00:10:50
Felicia Devine
would you Would you have considered free birth?
00:10:53
Natalie Richards
hu
00:10:54
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:10:57
Natalie Richards
because as things turned out, once I found out I was pregnant,
00:10:57
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:11:01
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
Midwife Search Challenges
00:11:02
Natalie Richards
I was calling around and I was like, okay, I live in chain Illinois, and there's not a lot of midwives that are options for me here.
00:11:14
Felicia Devine
Right, right.
00:11:15
Natalie Richards
So i was – there's some suburban midwives. I was trying to really even decide between like CNM and CPM at that time too, knowing in my head that a CPM was the better option, but I just couldn't find anyone.
00:11:31
Natalie Richards
Like there were – and I think it's because they don't advertise.
00:11:32
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:11:36
Natalie Richards
So like when when you try to look for people, especially in Illinois, because at the time CPMs actually were illegal –
00:11:44
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:11:44
Natalie Richards
So they weren't like they weren't licensed in Illinois. So only CNMs were technically licensed. And I said, I don't care. that doesn't
00:11:51
Felicia Devine
You got on the the dark web.
00:11:52
Natalie Richards
That doesn't matter to me.
00:11:54
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:11:55
Natalie Richards
I don't need you to be licensed. i It's okay. I need you to know how to support me in labor.
00:12:00
Felicia Devine
I'm consenting to that.
00:12:02
Natalie Richards
Like, I don't care.
00:12:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:12:04
Natalie Richards
So
00:12:07
Natalie Richards
i was like, I have to find a CPM. So I ended up calling around. Everybody was like, no, like you're out of my hour distance that i that i will travel. So then I start thinking like, okay, I could go to my parents' house, I guess, and have and give birth at my parents' house, which I totally could have.
00:12:22
Felicia Devine
Oh, yeah.
00:12:24
Natalie Richards
Maybe I should have because I would have been more maybe more comfortable there. I don't know. Because I lived there for so long.
00:12:30
Felicia Devine
Right, you grew up there.
00:12:32
Natalie Richards
Yeah. And then I ended up finally finding my midwife who is just over the border of Wisconsin. So in Wisconsin, CPMs are licensed.
00:12:41
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:12:45
Natalie Richards
So she could advertise...
00:12:48
Felicia Devine
She could advertise.
00:12:49
Natalie Richards
Right. And really, like I was an hour away. like Like her limit was an hour and I was an hour from her.
00:12:55
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:12:58
Natalie Richards
and so So it was like, ah ah thank goodness I called her.
00:12:59
Felicia Devine
Oh my goodness.
00:13:03
Natalie Richards
Please be able to take me. Because I was thinking it was so stressful those first – I was only five weeks pregnant, I think, when I was searching around for and for a midwife.
00:13:10
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:13:11
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:13:12
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:13:12
Natalie Richards
I was so stressed. I was like, how I cannot go to a hospital, so what am I going to do? i either but literally go get an Airbnb somewhere closer to somebody I really want, go to my parents' house, or birth.
00:13:18
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:13:23
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:13:27
Natalie Richards
And i totally, i totally considered it.
00:13:27
Felicia Devine
Yeah, you considered it.
00:13:31
Natalie Richards
I think Kyle would have died.
00:13:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah, I think so too.
00:13:36
Natalie Richards
think he would not. Would not have been able to handle that. And honestly, like – I would – if i had to do it again, which I'm not doing it again, if I had to do it again, i would consider free birth the second time, maybe.
00:13:46
Felicia Devine
here
00:13:52
Natalie Richards
Maybe. No. Because I really loved my midwife.
00:13:55
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:13:56
Natalie Richards
If I didn't like my midwife situation, I probably would have.
00:13:59
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:13:59
Natalie Richards
But I loved everything that she did. So anyway, I'm getting too far ahead of myself.
00:14:01
Felicia Devine
You
00:14:04
Natalie Richards
But – so pregnancy.
00:14:06
Felicia Devine
have to tell us what you loved.
00:14:07
Natalie Richards
So Linda – was the midwife I found, Linda Bentz, and she's in Janesville and she's incredible.
00:14:11
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:14:14
Natalie Richards
And, at the time, at the time it was slightly sketchy because I, she would not have been able to come into the hospital with me if I had to transfer because like
00:14:25
Felicia Devine
Okay. Why is that?
00:14:26
Natalie Richards
because she wasn't licensed in Illinois.
00:14:28
Felicia Devine
Oh, in Illinois.
00:14:29
Natalie Richards
So she was definitely doing me a ah ah favor for sure.
00:14:29
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:14:31
Felicia Devine
and
00:14:33
Natalie Richards
Not that it's like it was a huge – now they're licensed. Like it's not a huge deal. It would have been fine. But I would have either had – right, she could have been my doula.
00:14:38
Felicia Devine
She could have been like your doula in the hospital or something.
00:14:41
Natalie Richards
Exactly.
00:14:41
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:14:43
Natalie Richards
So I would have – so that was like the only thing where it was like, okay, this could be a little bit complicated. If something were to happen, then it gets complicated. But I – I could have gone to Beloit in Wisconsin and could have gone to that hospital and she would have been able to be with me like nothing ever happened, you know?
00:15:01
Natalie Richards
So it would it wouldn't have been ah ah huge deal.
00:15:01
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:15:05
Natalie Richards
So my pregnancy… after I found her, was was not super stressed like from a pregnancy standpoint because i really i had a pretty good experience.
00:15:14
Felicia Devine
here
00:15:16
Natalie Richards
i didn't really have any sickness, unlike you. I didn't really.
00:15:21
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:15:22
Natalie Richards
um um i i really felt pretty good. I felt pretty energetic. Yeah. I then, ah ah but all the other stuff on the back end of my life was hectic because I found out that I was pregnant.
00:15:36
Felicia Devine
So chaotic.
00:15:40
Natalie Richards
Jean? What do you need, honey?
00:15:44
Natalie Richards
I can't, honey.
00:15:47
Natalie Richards
Do you need me to get dad? Because you're going to go to the park with dad. Are
00:15:53
Felicia Devine
ah
00:15:54
Natalie Richards
So I had to do so many things because we found out I was pregnant a day after a day after we got engaged.
00:16:06
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:16:08
Natalie Richards
And because – I can't remember if I said this on the other episode, but because I'm crazy, I needed to have a winter wedding. And this was in – we got engaged in November and I said – Well, I really want to have a winter wedding.
00:16:22
Natalie Richards
So that means we do it probably this winter. Because
00:16:27
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
Pregnancy and Life Events
00:16:27
Natalie Richards
I didn't want to wait a whole other a whole other year.
00:16:30
Natalie Richards
i didn't want a huge wedding anyway. I wanted a small, intimate – I was like, I can do this.
00:16:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:16:36
Natalie Richards
It's fine. So what that meant – is that I had to start planning that wedding immediately post engagement.
00:16:48
Natalie Richards
Meanwhile, my parents didn't even know I was pregnant yet because I didn't tell them until I was probably – told them like before – yeah, we had our own Christmas like a little before, like a couple weeks before.
00:16:52
Felicia Devine
Oh yeah.
00:16:56
Felicia Devine
You told him at Christmas, on Christmas morning.
00:17:01
Felicia Devine
Oh, did you? OK.
00:17:03
Natalie Richards
i was definitely – waited until I was like 10 weeks to tell them, I think. Like I waited a long time.
00:17:09
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:17:10
Natalie Richards
so ah ah mainly because there were too many things going on. and So we had to, i told my parents, we were kind of in the in the planning phase of the wedding at that point.
00:17:25
Natalie Richards
my but My parents, like they were excited, but I remember my my mom's reaction. Did I ever show you the video of her when we told, opening the onesies?
00:17:32
Felicia Devine
Opening the onesies? Yeah.
00:17:34
Natalie Richards
She goes, oh,
00:17:38
Felicia Devine
Anita?
00:17:41
Natalie Richards
And then she cried. But like her first reaction was like,
00:17:42
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:17:44
Natalie Richards
oh
00:17:48
Natalie Richards
but She was not that excited. but Let's just put it that way.
00:17:51
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:17:52
Natalie Richards
But then she was excited afterwards, but it was just so funny.
00:17:53
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Right, right.
00:17:59
Natalie Richards
So she really wanted us to have a Catholic wedding, which i it was I was fine with it, but that meant that we had to go through all of our Catholic prep classes
00:18:03
Felicia Devine
ahead
00:18:11
Felicia Devine
Training.
00:18:12
Natalie Richards
training during our very short engagement. So while I was pregnant, while we were renovating our house, while I had to move out of my moldy apartment, what because I i paid rent longer than when I actually moved out.
00:18:18
Felicia Devine
While you were pregnant.
00:18:31
Natalie Richards
So I technically moved into Kyle's house in August-ish just to watch his dogs when he was and in the in the academy.
00:18:31
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:18:36
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:18:40
Natalie Richards
And then I think I kept paying. I was paying on my rent basically until March, I think. so So we were like renovating our house, Kyle's house, painting, doing things, like changing the floors, like doing all kinds of stuff.
00:18:49
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
00:18:53
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:18:59
Natalie Richards
And then I had to physically like actually move my stuff out of that moldy apartment. so And it was like, that apartment was so bad.
00:19:10
Natalie Richards
it felt like you were getting slapped in the face by like the most horrendous mold, mildew smell. Like it would literally, you would open the door and it would smack you in the face, burn your eyeballs, burn your nostrils.
00:19:25
Felicia Devine
Really?
00:19:26
Natalie Richards
Like I had to be, it I was in there pregnant. Like it was not what I should have been doing, but I had to like quickly pack up all my stuff
00:19:30
Felicia Devine
oh my gosh. Mm-hmm.
00:19:34
Natalie Richards
It was bad. Like I've never experienced anything that bad.
00:19:36
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:19:38
Natalie Richards
And it's like, no wonder I got sick as heck from this apartment.
00:19:40
Felicia Devine
Yeah, right, right.
00:19:42
Natalie Richards
And it just really kept getting worse and they were trying to fix it and nothing was helping. So I had to get out of there. So i was also driving an hour to see Dr. Wallace every two weeks because he was taking care of me.
00:19:56
Felicia Devine
Right, which is our staff doctor.
00:19:59
Natalie Richards
Yeah. He was our doctor who trained us on pretty much – the technique that we both still use.
00:20:04
Felicia Devine
Currently is. Mm-hmm.
00:20:07
Natalie Richards
I was driving an hour, hour and a half to Dr. Wallace, an hour to Linda in Janesville every, you know, few weeks, whatever.
00:20:12
Felicia Devine
okay
00:20:17
Natalie Richards
So I was like going all these different places, hour and a half in the car every day just to go to work from my house.
00:20:22
Felicia Devine
okay
00:20:24
Natalie Richards
What else was going on? I was going on ski trips. living my lifestyle.
00:20:30
Felicia Devine
we we We had that ski trip and you told everyone on the ski trip.
00:20:34
Natalie Richards
Yes. You guys were the first people I told because it was like – I was maybe like eight weeks pregnant.
00:20:37
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:20:39
Natalie Richards
I don't know. It was like the beginning of – it was the beginning of December, I think.
00:20:40
Felicia Devine
No, it was early.
00:20:44
Felicia Devine
December.
00:20:46
Natalie Richards
So I was probably – I think it was like eight weeks and I hadn't even told my parents yet.
00:20:49
Felicia Devine
No.
00:20:50
Natalie Richards
And we were sitting there and you we were sitting at dinner because you were the only person who knew.
00:20:55
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:20:56
Natalie Richards
And you're like, okay, I'm just going to like dump your drink. I'm going to dump your drink in because the the boys had made us, or like our gay friends had made us margaritas.
00:21:04
Felicia Devine
Margaritas.
00:21:06
Natalie Richards
And we're like, I'm sitting there.
00:21:06
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:21:07
Natalie Richards
I'm like, I know they're going to have welcome drinks for us when we get there.
00:21:09
Felicia Devine
Oh, 100%. Mm-hmm.
00:21:10
Natalie Richards
Like, what am I going to do? So I have to figure this out. I have to either like be really sneaky or I have to tell everybody. And you're like, I'll just pour, I'll just pour your drink into mine.
00:21:20
Natalie Richards
And you're like on the side of the table
00:21:21
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:21:23
Natalie Richards
pouring your margarita or my margarita into yours. And meanwhile, I look over to Brian and he's staring at the whole counter and they knew immediately.
00:21:30
Felicia Devine
They knew the second you walked in that door. Yeah.
00:21:37
Natalie Richards
I'm like, oh boy. So then I knew I had to tell everybody.
00:21:41
Felicia Devine
I think, I think you told them like that first night.
00:21:43
Natalie Richards
I think I did. Yeah.
00:21:44
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:21:45
Natalie Richards
And Brian's like, yeah, I know.
00:21:49
Natalie Richards
It was so funny. So then went, I think I went on like
00:21:50
Felicia Devine
Oh my gosh.
00:21:53
Natalie Richards
I skied with Jean in my belly at least four times.
00:21:56
Felicia Devine
A lot.
00:21:57
Natalie Richards
Yeah. At least four times.
00:21:59
Felicia Devine
Like for trips.
00:22:00
Natalie Richards
Four. Yeah. Uh-huh.
00:22:01
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Cause you s skied at your wedding. We s skied at your wedding. Yeah.
00:22:03
Natalie Richards
Yep. Yep. So it was it was definitely four trips.
00:22:07
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:22:07
Natalie Richards
So that was, it was just, there were so many things going on, but it was good. It was it was overall a very good pregnancy.
00:22:15
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:22:15
Natalie Richards
I did do a 20-week scan only because i just did. i don't know. There wasn't anything. i i thought the benefits outweighed the risks of that one because it's like, you know, I really want to have a successful home birth, I need to know at least I don't have like a placenta previa.
00:22:26
Felicia Devine
Right, right.
00:22:33
Natalie Richards
or some really really weird abnormality of the baby, something that would require a lot more attention post-birth.
00:22:35
Felicia Devine
hey
00:22:41
Felicia Devine
Intervention.
00:22:42
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:22:42
Felicia Devine
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:43
Natalie Richards
So I thought that was reasonable.
00:22:45
Felicia Devine
here
00:22:46
Natalie Richards
then Kyle really wanted to know the gender because he really needed to know if it was a boy or and And I knew it was a boy.
00:22:52
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:22:53
Natalie Richards
i like i really did, but he needed that validation.
00:22:56
Felicia Devine
Yeah, yeah.
00:22:57
Natalie Richards
And I remember sitting in that room and he was like, He was sweating bullets. Like he couldn't wait to find out if it was a boy or not.
00:23:02
Felicia Devine
Was he?
00:23:05
Natalie Richards
And he was pumped. He was so excited.
00:23:08
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:23:09
Natalie Richards
It was so cute. So other than that, like, so then six months pregnant, ah we get married. And then a month later after that seven months pregnant, we had a 350-person party at my parents' house to celebrate our wedding.
00:23:25
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:23:25
Natalie Richards
And then then it's getting into summer and I was like, i really need – was being very minimalist on all the things that I wanted pre-pregnancy for postpartum.
00:23:34
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:39
Natalie Richards
or for for you know postpartum But I still, like, there were things that I needed, you know? Like, I need diapers or I need, like, things.
00:23:47
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:23:49
Natalie Richards
And I was just getting kind of stressed about all of, like, the financial stuff of having to take time off work and, like, all this stuff. And I was like, okay, I really do kind of want a baby shower, but, like, not really because I don't want all the stuff, you know?
00:24:04
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:24:05
Natalie Richards
just want, like, the few things I needed.
00:24:07
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:24:07
Natalie Richards
Like, I just had – I needed, like – I want a stroller.
00:24:08
Felicia Devine
Specifically. Mm-hmm.
00:24:11
Natalie Richards
I want a – like the very, very basic things, right?
00:24:15
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:24:17
Natalie Richards
And then there was this whole thing my mom was like – because I was just going to throw my – I was going to just have a party, right?
00:24:23
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:24:24
Natalie Richards
I was going to throw my own baby shower, whatever.
00:24:26
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:24:26
Natalie Richards
My mom's like, no, I talked to all your aunts. You can't do that. I was like, okay, cool. And they're – sweet.
00:24:33
Felicia Devine
Which was more stressful for you.
00:24:33
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:24:34
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:24:34
Natalie Richards
Way more stressful. And then – my my one aunt, she's my godmother. She's so sweet. She's like, we'll throw you a baby shower because it was getting hectic.
00:24:44
Natalie Richards
like things Things were really busy.
00:24:45
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:24:47
Natalie Richards
The birth was coming up really fast. like It was going to be hard to plan something. I will i totally admit to that. But she was like, oh, i'll just I'll throw you something after the baby's born. And I was like,
00:24:59
Natalie Richards
That kind of defeats the purpose of like de-stressing myself.
00:24:59
Felicia Devine
the
00:25:03
Felicia Devine
Yeah, that's more stressful.
00:25:04
Natalie Richards
Like that's way worse.
00:25:06
Felicia Devine
And then you have this new baby around all these people.
00:25:08
Natalie Richards
Yeah. there would There's no way.
00:25:09
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:25:10
Natalie Richards
Like, no, no, no, no.
00:25:11
Felicia Devine
No.
00:25:12
Natalie Richards
So I i i was just like, no, we're just not going to do it. And meanwhile, like a few days after Jean's born, she gets meningitis and almost dies, loses her hearing.
00:25:23
Felicia Devine
Your, your aunt.
00:25:23
Natalie Richards
My aunt who was – Yeah. So like she, it was like, okay, so we're really not going to do this baby shower afterwards.
00:25:31
Felicia Devine
Wait, she's deaf?
00:25:33
Natalie Richards
She, yeah, my aunt Sally. Yeah.
00:25:35
Felicia Devine
I didn't know that.
00:25:35
Natalie Richards
She has like completely, she near, she was like very close to death, very close to death.
00:25:42
Felicia Devine
Oh no.
00:25:44
Natalie Richards
She has all kinds of like vestibular issues now and all kinds of like crazy things.
00:25:49
Felicia Devine
Oh my goodness.
00:25:50
Natalie Richards
She had like crazy bacterial meningitis. Like she really should have
00:25:53
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:25:55
Natalie Richards
Yeah, it's crazy. So that just taught me a lesson.
00:25:58
Felicia Devine
No baby shower.
00:25:59
Natalie Richards
I was like, no, like we're not waiting for anything. Like life is, yeah, life is happening.
00:26:03
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Life is happening.
00:26:06
Natalie Richards
So I ended up like throwing ah ah just like a diaper party and didn't invite any of my family actually because I was just like, well, okay, I'm just going to take care of this myself and you guys don't have to do that.
00:26:11
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:26:17
Natalie Richards
So it was just a whole, I was so, oh God.
00:26:17
Felicia Devine
You're not invited.
00:26:22
Felicia Devine
I remember live time. You were like, this is too stressful.
00:26:26
Natalie Richards
it was too much that at the end.
00:26:27
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:26:28
Natalie Richards
So then I just said, okay, I'm just going to like buy everything I need and then not stress about it. And I just did that and it was better that way anyway.
00:26:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:26:36
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:26:36
Natalie Richards
So it was just ridiculous. It was like an unnecessary amount of amount of stress at the end.
Unexpected Early Labor
00:26:45
Natalie Richards
So then getting closer to my due date,
00:26:48
Natalie Richards
Kind of. It was like a month out probably. I'm like telling people, okay, you know, in and about a month I'm going to be going on maternity leave.
00:26:51
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:26:57
Natalie Richards
Like I'm only going to be out for probably about four weeks then I'll be back like ready to take care of you. They look at me they're like, what? What do you mean maternity leave?
00:27:09
Natalie Richards
I'm like, oh, I'm having a baby in a month. they're like, what?
00:27:13
Felicia Devine
Yeah, you did not show. Like your belly was so tiny.
00:27:15
Natalie Richards
There was nothing. Especially at like 36 weeks, like there was not much there.
00:27:22
Felicia Devine
So tiny.
00:27:23
Natalie Richards
I had some pictures taken around that time.
00:27:25
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:27:26
Natalie Richards
i had to push my belly out to look like I was pregnant.
00:27:28
Felicia Devine
To look pregnant. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:31
Natalie Richards
Otherwise the pictures would have looked ridiculous. Like ah ah somebody at Pilates, because I did Pilates until think like the week before Jean was born.
00:27:32
Felicia Devine
and
00:27:39
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:27:40
Natalie Richards
Somebody at Pilates was like, your belly is the size of a pimple. Like what? Yeah.
00:27:45
Felicia Devine
You look bloated.
00:27:46
Natalie Richards
you look just a little bloated. And that's really, it's like me now bloated with dealing with my postpartum issues.
00:27:51
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:27:53
Natalie Richards
Like that was me pregnant.
00:27:53
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Right.
00:27:56
Natalie Richards
So 38 weeks comes around. It was Friday, I think. So i my last day of work would have been that Thursday. and I was like, okay, I'll see everybody next week.
00:28:04
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:28:07
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:28:08
Natalie Richards
i i think, what did we do? Thursday night after work, Kyle and I went to go hit some balls, go golfing. and we were golfing. It was so nice out. like We just had such a good came home and i came home and I realized like some of my mucus plug came out and I was like, oh God, this is like actually maybe like within the next week, like something's going to be happening.
00:28:30
Felicia Devine
and
00:28:36
Felicia Devine
Yeah. and
00:28:38
Natalie Richards
And i had I had planned to work another two weeks. Like I was planning on working until 40 weeks and then seeing what happens. If I go to 42, then okay, whatever.
00:28:49
Natalie Richards
Then I'm not going to work for a couple weeks.
00:28:50
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:28:52
Natalie Richards
So i was I knew he would be early in the back of my mind. I knew it. But everybody tells you, no, you know, first time mom, it's going to be 41, 42 probably.
00:29:03
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:29:04
Natalie Richards
like, okay, yeah, I'm just going to prepare for that. Yeah. and
00:29:08
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:29:10
Natalie Richards
nothing was ready. Like we had nothing ready. Like his diapers were piling up in his crib. Like they're not that we would have used a crib anyway, but nothing was done.
00:29:18
Felicia Devine
Right. and here
00:29:20
Natalie Richards
There were things that had to be done renovation wise with the house still. Trim had to be put on his bedroom. Like there were so many things that I just wanted to have finished
00:29:29
Felicia Devine
Open projects.
00:29:33
Natalie Richards
But they weren't. So that Friday morning, which was July 3rd, yes, July 3rd, I wake up at like 1 a.m.
00:29:36
Felicia Devine
this
00:29:44
Felicia Devine
and
00:29:45
Natalie Richards
and I was feeling a lot of pressure, a lot of like pelvic tightness, and it was kind of cyclical. And i was like, okay. And i had had a lot of Braxton Hicks actually.
00:29:57
Natalie Richards
So I had Braxton Hicks from like honestly, like 24 weeks on, which I think it was just because we work on our feet and we just, but I had them all the time and it was fine.
00:30:02
Felicia Devine
Same. Right. Mm-hmm.
00:30:06
Felicia Devine
right
00:30:09
Felicia Devine
and man
00:30:10
Natalie Richards
Nothing was wrong. it was, it was all good. Oh, one side note about measuring or about, looking like I wasn't pregnant.
00:30:18
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:30:19
Natalie Richards
My belly measurements were on point every single month.
00:30:22
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
00:30:23
Natalie Richards
It's just cause I'm so tall. Like he, I'm just stretched out more, but he measured
00:30:24
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:30:27
Felicia Devine
He wasn't coming out. He was like tucked in
00:30:29
Natalie Richards
to the week every single time.
00:30:30
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:30:33
Natalie Richards
there was no like there was no concern. And on on the scan anatomy scan, he was like 50th percentile. He was totally fine.
00:30:41
Felicia Devine
Perfect.
00:30:41
Natalie Richards
so two So back back to the morning when I was feeling pressure, i think Kyle would have woken up.
00:30:51
Natalie Richards
He was working days at that time. So he was working 5 a.m.
00:30:53
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:30:54
Natalie Richards
to 5 p.m.,
00:30:57
Natalie Richards
and he because he wanted to work out in the mornings, he would wake up at like 3 a.m. So i was basically – by the time he woke up, I was like, I'm awake. At 3 a.m., I was like, okay.
00:31:06
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:31:08
Natalie Richards
Because I was looking at – every time I'd feel something, I would look at my phone and I'd be like, oh, that's – not many minutes have passed.
00:31:18
Felicia Devine
Oh, wow.
00:31:18
Natalie Richards
And I was like, oh God, like this is this is maybe happening. So then i think around like 3 a.m. I started to actually time them. They were coming like, i think at the beginning it was it was like six minutes apart while I was laying in bed. i was like, okay, like things are definitely happening.
00:31:38
Natalie Richards
I think around that time I got up I lost a little more mucus plug from what I wrote down. i got in the shower. i think Kyle was working out. I got in the shower to see if this was like real. Because if you usually get in the shower and try to relax yourself, if things slow down, then it's probably not real labor.
00:31:58
Natalie Richards
But it actually caused contractions to come closer together. so So we were at like four minutes apart at like 4 or 5 a.m.,
00:32:06
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:32:08
Natalie Richards
And was like, all right, like these things are happening. So Kyle's sitting out having breakfast and I come out and he's like, what's going on? It's really like 4.30 in the morning.
00:32:16
Felicia Devine
Why are you awake?
00:32:18
Natalie Richards
Like, um, I don't know. Like, I'm just feeling some things. He goes, yeah.
00:32:23
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:32:25
Natalie Richards
So at five, he he goes to work. I'm awake because i there's no way I'm sleeping anymore, like through any of this.
00:32:31
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:32:36
Natalie Richards
So i it's 5 a.m. m I'm changing the sheets. I'm doing all the things that I have not prepared yet because I was really not ready. I had my birth kit that I had purchased from the midwife and all of that.
00:32:45
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Okay.
00:32:49
Natalie Richards
So that was ready. I had all the stuff, but it was all in our guest room, like not really put together. So I was like putting plastic stuff on the bed and putting the sheet.
00:33:00
Natalie Richards
I was like trying to get all this stuff together like in the morning. So I was like, if I'm having contractions four minutes apart already, like this could actually be be happening like really fast, really soon.
00:33:12
Felicia Devine
soon
00:33:14
Natalie Richards
So because it was only a few hours in.
00:33:17
Felicia Devine
here
00:33:17
Natalie Richards
And they were four minutes apart. Like what? So they were getting a lot more intense around like 6.30 in the morning, 7 in the morning. And I was like, I called Linda. i was like, this is, I'm pretty sure this is happening. Like they're a minute long. There's Jean. Hi, Jean.
00:33:34
Natalie Richards
Hey, sweetheart. do you want to sit on my lap while I talk about you? Okay.
00:33:40
Natalie Richards
Nope.
00:33:44
Natalie Richards
So I call Linda. I think around like 7.45, 8 in the morning, she arrives. And then Kyle also comes guns blazing.
00:33:50
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:33:53
Natalie Richards
Like he's he he said he drove like 100 miles an hour to get back home. And I told – I'm like, Kyle, you had a little – no, no exaggeration.
00:33:58
Felicia Devine
And that's no exaggeration. Mm-mm.
00:34:02
Natalie Richards
ah Kyle, you didn't have to do that. He's like, I thought the baby was coming. and like, I mean, like soon, but not like flying out right now.
00:34:09
Felicia Devine
yeah So like we're in labor. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:13
Natalie Richards
So you he comes in and he's like high up on adrenaline, like already.
00:34:17
Felicia Devine
who
00:34:17
Natalie Richards
And I'm like, oh God, okay.
00:34:19
Felicia Devine
That's, that's part of where this problem started.
00:34:20
Natalie Richards
It's also early. Yeah. It's also early morning. Sun is beaming into the house.
00:34:27
Felicia Devine
hmm.
00:34:27
Natalie Richards
i'm i feel Linda and her assistant come in the house and I feel my body literally just shut down.
Labor Progress and Setbacks
00:34:38
Natalie Richards
Like I was like, okay, this is interesting.
00:34:38
Felicia Devine
Mm hmm.
00:34:42
Natalie Richards
So then I had to then almost like concentrate on bringing the contractions back because just like hearing them, even just talk in their like low voices, i was like, oh, what do they need?
00:34:51
Felicia Devine
here
00:34:53
Natalie Richards
Do they need something? Do I need to help with them? Like, what do I need to be doing? Do I need to like get them something to drink?
00:34:56
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Are you thirsty?
00:34:58
Natalie Richards
I was like, I am not comfortable having other people in my house right now.
00:35:01
Felicia Devine
Yeah. No.
00:35:05
Natalie Richards
Like this is not, it's bright as ever in this house.
00:35:06
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:35:11
Natalie Richards
i So I then went outside and I was pacing the driveway and then i because I just had to get away from people.
00:35:16
Felicia Devine
Right. Right.
00:35:18
Natalie Richards
And then I'm walking around the house and I'm like, okay, contractions are coming, but like I have to actually concentrate on this now.
00:35:24
Felicia Devine
focus.
00:35:26
Natalie Richards
like I don't think my body is really feeling this. I then had Kyle adjust me because I have Kyle adjust me sometimes.
00:35:31
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:35:36
Natalie Richards
that helped to like change up my contraction pattern a little bit because I was feeling a lot of like a lot of hip pain only on one side, i think at the beginning.
00:35:49
Natalie Richards
So then when I, when I had him adjust me, that distributed the contraction across my whole belly then at that point.
00:35:57
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:35:58
Natalie Richards
But I'll tell you my theories to all of this after.
00:36:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:36:05
Natalie Richards
i when i like When Kyle was around, I would like hug him and my contraction would come back.
00:36:11
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:36:12
Natalie Richards
And I'd be like, oh, I don't have to try so hard.
00:36:12
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:36:14
Natalie Richards
Okay, cool. But the midwives are still there and I'm still feeling like just weird.
00:36:21
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:36:21
Natalie Richards
So then I go in the shower to try to like calm myself down a little bit, try to see if I can get into it. into the like the patterns again. And I did, and it helped, but I was still having to like concentrate to allow myself to relax enough to let the contractions come at the rate that they were.
00:36:30
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:36:39
Natalie Richards
And I should have known at that point, like that something's not working here. Like this is not right.
00:36:42
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:36:45
Natalie Richards
I think I'll go back right now. No, I won't. I'll come back to this later.
00:36:56
Natalie Richards
i then – There were like many hours that went by where nothing was really progressing. it wasn't – It was really intense. Like – My midwife's notes said like you were getting to the point in the shower that you were probably nearing transition.
00:37:16
Natalie Richards
Like it i I really was.
00:37:17
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:37:18
Natalie Richards
And now going through it, I know I was.
00:37:19
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:37:21
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:37:22
Natalie Richards
But it just wasn't quite – it just still wasn't quite getting there. Like I still had to concentrate to do it.
00:37:26
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:37:31
Natalie Richards
But it was super, super intense. But then once I kind of stopped trying to bring them on, they really they really halted.
00:37:39
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:37:39
Natalie Richards
And I got out of the shower. My midwife was like, why don't we check you just to like see what's going on? I was like, at that point, I was like, yeah, let's just see.
00:37:48
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:37:48
Natalie Richards
She checked me. i was my uterus was completely posterior still, which essentially is like the position that it would be in before labor even starts.
00:38:01
Felicia Devine
Oh no, Natalie.
00:38:03
Natalie Richards
But I know for a fact, just based on like how they were feeling before, I know that wasn't the case in that whole first part of labor. I know it's not.
00:38:11
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:38:14
Natalie Richards
And i kind of I talked to her about this after and i because that can that can happen. It's kind of like you can undilate if your body does not feel comfortable.
00:38:19
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:38:22
Felicia Devine
Okay. Comfortable.
00:38:25
Natalie Richards
And that's it happens all the time with wild animals.
00:38:25
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:38:28
Natalie Richards
like They can stop their labor and and retreat, basically.
00:38:31
Felicia Devine
Yes. Yeah.
00:38:32
Natalie Richards
So i am I'm certain that that is what happened. Yeah.
00:38:37
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:38:38
Natalie Richards
So she determined that she was going to leave. It was like 6.30 PM m at that point. So it had been from one in the morning where things were really getting intense.
00:38:45
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:38:47
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:38:47
Natalie Richards
And then there were multiple hours where things were fizzling. And she was like, I think we're just going to go. She told me to take a ton of magnesium to kind of reset my contraction pattern.
00:38:58
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:38:58
Natalie Richards
And it it helped. It brought them down to like probably every 30 minutes.
00:39:02
Felicia Devine
I don't
00:39:02
Natalie Richards
so But I was contracting all through the night that next night.
00:39:06
Felicia Devine
know.
00:39:06
Natalie Richards
every 30 minutes. So I really, no, zero sleep because I just knew like, first of all, was frustrated.
00:39:08
Felicia Devine
Could you sleep at all? Oh. Oh.
00:39:16
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:39:16
Natalie Richards
and Second, I just can't sleep through something like that. Like there's two, I can't sleep through a contraction like that.
00:39:20
Felicia Devine
No. Mm-mm.
00:39:22
Natalie Richards
Heck, heck no.
00:39:24
Felicia Devine
Mm-mm.
00:39:24
Natalie Richards
So,
00:39:26
Natalie Richards
Then let's see. Oh, she wrote in her notes. She goes, I wrote for some reason around this time that you ate tacos. And when she sent that to me, I was like, tacos?
00:39:39
Felicia Devine
What?
00:39:39
Natalie Richards
Did I make tacos? Did I order tacos? Nothing delivers to us. I was like, where did I get tacos to eat?
00:39:46
Felicia Devine
Tacos.
00:39:48
Natalie Richards
And she like wrote that in her notes and she thought that was so funny. And i was like, what do you mean?
00:39:52
Felicia Devine
Do you remember?
00:39:52
Natalie Richards
So I was, no So then asked Kyle, what and
00:39:58
Natalie Richards
And let me tell you ah ah the next day first and then and the tacos will come in.
00:40:01
Felicia Devine
Okay. The tacos will come back to play.
00:40:05
Natalie Richards
So I woke up in the morning at some point. It's a blur. So like this is 4th of July. i wake up and the 4th of July is such an important holiday for our family.
00:40:11
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:40:16
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:40:16
Natalie Richards
Like we go have this whole day celebration.
00:40:16
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:40:19
Natalie Richards
We watch fireworks. We do all the rides. Like there's so many things that go on. and I was feeling really defeated, but i look I don't remember the entire first half of that day.
00:40:28
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:40:31
Natalie Richards
I i blocked it all out.
00:40:31
Felicia Devine
wow
00:40:34
Natalie Richards
I only remember... taking a bath at one point because I was just like frustrated and done and exhausted really because I hadn't slept. I was still contracting every, you know, 30 minutes.
00:40:48
Natalie Richards
I wrote down that after the morning happened, I was contracting more like seven minutes apart, but they weren't they weren't very intense at all.
00:40:55
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:40:58
Natalie Richards
Like it was just kind of like bleh. like a blah contraction, but it was still every seven minutes.
00:41:00
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:41:05
Natalie Richards
I decided to take a bath. I cried in the bath. I just like let it all out. And then by the end of my bath, I said, okay, I'm done. I'm giving up.
00:41:15
Felicia Devine
That's over. Mm-hmm.
00:41:16
Natalie Richards
I'm over. Like i I'm not going to care about this anymore. I'm not going to think about it. I'm just going to let it go from my brain and we're going to go for a drive.
00:41:25
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:41:25
Natalie Richards
So we went on a drive to Walmart. i don't even, because that's the only place we can drive to around here.
00:41:32
Felicia Devine
And probably that was open on 4th of July.
00:41:33
Natalie Richards
And it was open on 4th of July. Exactly.
00:41:35
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:41:36
Natalie Richards
So we were like, okay, we're just goingnna we're going to go to Walmart. I think I must have – this is where I don't remember.
00:41:44
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:41:45
Natalie Richards
i i was talking to Kyle and I go, when did we have tacos? And he goes, oh, we went to Tecas, which is like the Mexican restaurant. that we go to.
00:41:56
Felicia Devine
You went out to dinner?
00:41:57
Natalie Richards
I go, you why what? in What possessed me to say, yeah, let's go to get Mexican food.
00:42:03
Felicia Devine
to go out to dinner?
00:42:06
Natalie Richards
But thinking back now, like nothing else would have been open on 4th of July.
00:42:07
Felicia Devine
While in labor.
00:42:10
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:42:12
Natalie Richards
like Mexican food, yeah, because they're open. They don't celebrate 4th of July.
00:42:16
Felicia Devine
Oh my gosh.
00:42:18
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:42:18
Felicia Devine
They're capitalizing on us coming to their restaurant.
00:42:21
Natalie Richards
like Chinese restaurants being open on Christmas.
00:42:23
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So you went eight tacos?
00:42:27
Natalie Richards
So we went and sat down at a restaurant. He goes, yeah, we sat at this table. And I'm thinking, I was like, I do not remember this at all.
00:42:37
Felicia Devine
Wow. You blacked that out.
00:42:38
Natalie Richards
I do not. I blacked it out. But at some point, I think I must have been having stronger contractions because I wrote down in my phone that around like 4.30, the contractions were coming on stronger and five minutes apart.
00:42:52
Natalie Richards
I don't think I ate anything at the restaurant.
00:42:53
Felicia Devine
It was that carne asada.
00:42:55
Natalie Richards
I don't think I ate anything because I think that's what I ate later.
00:42:56
Felicia Devine
Really?
00:42:59
Felicia Devine
Oh, like you took it home.
00:43:00
Natalie Richards
was so funny. Yes.
00:43:02
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:43:03
Natalie Richards
So funny. I don't know. so
00:43:09
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:09
Natalie Richards
by 6 p.m. So this is the 4th of July. By 6 p.m. that day, this is it's just like so long.
00:43:18
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:18
Natalie Richards
So from the time that Linda left was 6 p.m. on the 3rd.
00:43:23
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:24
Natalie Richards
6 p.m. on the 4th, 24 hours later, a 24-hour latent labor phase, which is crazy long.
00:43:29
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:33
Felicia Devine
Mm. You poor thing.
00:43:36
Natalie Richards
I am determined again.
00:43:40
Natalie Richards
I'm like, we're doing this.
00:43:40
Felicia Devine
And we're back.
00:43:42
Natalie Richards
like
00:43:43
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:43:43
Natalie Richards
We're going to make this happen. I'm going to have this baby today. like if we're I'm done with this crap.
00:43:47
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:49
Natalie Richards
I was so frustrated.
00:43:51
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:43:52
Natalie Richards
I was like, okay, I'm going to take my birth herbs, which is like the gentle birth tincture.
00:43:56
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:43:56
Natalie Richards
i did the raspberry leaf tea. i was sitting next to Kyle. I told him, I need you near me because knowing what I know from the first stage, I need you to be close to me because that's obviously helping my contractions come on.
00:44:07
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:44:09
Natalie Richards
I don't know.
00:44:09
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:44:10
Natalie Richards
So we were like cuddling. We watched a movie. We watched a war movie, which what?
00:44:14
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:44:16
Felicia Devine
So many questionable choices, Natalie.
00:44:17
Natalie Richards
What? That was all we had though.
00:44:21
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:44:21
Natalie Richards
So we had all we had at our house because we didn't have TV.
00:44:22
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:44:25
Natalie Richards
We didn't have Wi-Fi.
00:44:25
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:44:26
Natalie Richards
We still didn't up until like a month ago and or a few months ago.
00:44:29
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:44:32
Natalie Richards
We had Kyle's DVDs. Yeah. So I'm looking through. I'm like, okay, I guess we're watching Heartbreak Rich.
00:44:45
Natalie Richards
We it's starting to finally get a little darker out. I'm feeling like, okay, things are happening. Like I feel better about this the second time around.
00:44:56
Felicia Devine
You reset.
00:44:57
Natalie Richards
We have a record playing. we have – like we're both kind of like we've both given up enough that we just kind of are like we're chilled out a little bit.
00:45:04
Felicia Devine
Chilled out.
00:45:07
Natalie Richards
We're dancing. We're both crying. like It was like a such a sweet so just sweet like moment.
00:45:10
Felicia Devine
oh
00:45:14
Natalie Richards
We have the candles going. And I was like, okay, this is what I need for this next round. And I said, okay contractions are really coming on stronger, faster, whatever. like This is what i needed the first time around.
00:45:31
Natalie Richards
And now i was like, I'm going to get in the shower. i need you to call Linda. I do not want to know when they arrive.
00:45:37
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:45:37
Natalie Richards
I cannot hear them come in.
00:45:39
Felicia Devine
Do not tell me.
00:45:39
Natalie Richards
I do not want to know that they're here, but I want to know that they're coming.
00:45:41
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:45:43
Natalie Richards
I just want to know that we're good, whatever.
00:45:43
Felicia Devine
right
00:45:45
Felicia Devine
and
00:45:46
Natalie Richards
So Linda then gets stuck in a thunderstorm. She had to pull over on the side of the road because there was such a bad thunderstorm on the 4th of July that year.
00:45:55
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
00:45:57
Natalie Richards
So she's coming, but also like not.
00:46:00
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:46:02
Natalie Richards
So it's like 9.30, 10 o'clock by the time she even gets to my house.
00:46:02
Felicia Devine
Wow.
00:46:07
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:46:07
Natalie Richards
And thankfully, I didn't hear her come in I was in the shower. Everything was dark. I didn't want any lights put on
00:46:15
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:46:15
Natalie Richards
And that was working for me so much better. The funny thing about my story is that I really got to go through labor twice.
00:46:18
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:46:24
Felicia Devine
Yeah, you got to redo it.
00:46:26
Natalie Richards
I really got a second chance and I got to completely change the energy and change the feeling of my labor.
00:46:28
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:46:33
Natalie Richards
if i would have I would have been like a chaotic monster the first – I don't think it would have worked the first time around.
00:46:37
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:46:40
Natalie Richards
Obviously, it didn't. My body knew that that wasn't working.
00:46:43
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:46:43
Natalie Richards
So it said, okay, we're just going to stop and reset and try again.
00:46:45
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:46:46
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
00:46:47
Felicia Devine
Take two. Okay.
00:46:48
Natalie Richards
My theory is that when Kyle adjusted me, I think Gene was not in the right position.
00:46:51
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:46:56
Natalie Richards
Let's just say that.
00:46:56
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:46:57
Natalie Richards
I think he could have been. He was tiny enough that he would have figured his way out.
00:47:01
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:47:01
Natalie Richards
But I think when – and i that's why I was feeling contractions so much harder on one side.
00:47:06
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:47:06
Natalie Richards
When Kyle adjusted me, it distributed everything and allowed him to change his position and try again.
00:47:13
Felicia Devine
Yeah. He almost like retracted before he got back into.
00:47:15
Natalie Richards
he He retracted.
00:47:16
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:47:17
Natalie Richards
He did. so And that's why my uterus had come had had retracted back because it changed the feeling of the entire thing.
00:47:21
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:47:26
Natalie Richards
So that was a good thing.
00:47:26
Felicia Devine
said
00:47:27
Natalie Richards
I think that was that was pivotal actually, and it made things actually work.
00:47:28
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:47:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:47:33
Natalie Richards
and So then by the time it really happened, then the second time,
00:47:33
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:47:37
Natalie Richards
Things were going. like in it I didn't have to try. like It was happening. was in and out of the shower. I actually spent most of my time after Linda got there backwards on the toilet with a pillow.
00:47:48
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:47:50
Natalie Richards
Then i I remember I had listened to a home birth podcast at one point. and somebody said that they did that. And it was just in the back of my mind. I was like, oh, weird, but okay.
00:48:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:48:02
Natalie Richards
And then I was like, oh, I need that. Because meanwhile, I think I think i had 30 bowel movements in my whole labor like experience
00:48:14
Felicia Devine
Oh no.
00:48:15
Natalie Richards
i don't know why i just had to like
00:48:16
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:48:18
Natalie Richards
I had to be on the toilet the whole time because every contraction that happened, i i had to poop basically.
00:48:20
Felicia Devine
Oh yeah.
00:48:25
Felicia Devine
Really?
00:48:26
Natalie Richards
Almost all of them.
00:48:27
Felicia Devine
oh no.
00:48:28
Natalie Richards
So in order to like feel really relaxed, I had to be on the toilet.
00:48:30
Felicia Devine
And like open.
00:48:31
Natalie Richards
Yeah. So i I stayed there vert
00:48:36
Felicia Devine
In the shower, on the toilet.
00:48:37
Natalie Richards
most of the time.
00:48:37
Felicia Devine
In the shower, on the toilet.
00:48:38
Natalie Richards
Pretty much that was it.
00:48:40
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:48:40
Natalie Richards
So the last like few hours, I was just on the toilet backwards because every – My contractions never came closer than two minutes apart. Like they, even until the very, very end, they were no closer than two minutes apart.
00:48:50
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:48:56
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:48:56
Natalie Richards
So I was able to actually, sleep I was sleeping in between contractions like
00:49:00
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:49:01
Natalie Richards
backwards. Thank goodness.
00:49:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:03
Natalie Richards
So my water broke on the toilet, convenient.
00:49:06
Felicia Devine
Wow. Yeah. this
00:49:09
Natalie Richards
started to then like feel like I needed to start pushing. Apparently, according to Linda's notes, she actually checked me again at that time, which I really also blocked out.
00:49:19
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:49:23
Natalie Richards
I do not remember that one at all. um But she said that I was at like a nine, nine and a half-ish. And she said that i should wait a little bit to start pushing.
00:49:33
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:49:33
Natalie Richards
So I did apparently. i i don't remember any of that, truthfully.
00:49:37
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:49:37
Natalie Richards
It's like I have no clue. So then she said as I started pushing on the toilet, i if I wanted to have the baby on the toilet, I could, but I would have to catch him because she couldn't really get in there.
00:49:49
Felicia Devine
In there.
00:49:50
Natalie Richards
to help. And I was like, okay, I don't trust myself enough to do that.
00:49:54
Felicia Devine
That's a lot.
00:49:54
Natalie Richards
A slippery, slippery little baby.
00:49:57
Felicia Devine
In a little tiny hole.
00:49:59
Natalie Richards
Like, I don't think that's going to be a good decision. So I determined that I was going to come out into the living room. I have no idea why I chose the living room instead of the bedroom. No clue.
00:50:11
Natalie Richards
But I just like didn't want
00:50:11
Felicia Devine
Crazy.
00:50:13
Natalie Richards
to do it. I didn't want to have a baby in my bedroom. I don't know why. So we came out to the living room. i went through like real, real, real transition with a birth ball.
00:50:25
Natalie Richards
Like I threw up a couple times. Like I was, it was like, it was major and it, that's so funny.
00:50:27
Felicia Devine
Did you?
00:50:30
Felicia Devine
I never hit transition, so I didn't even know what that felt like. What do you feel like in your head?
00:50:37
Natalie Richards
like you're not in your head. Like it's you're not you're not present.
00:50:39
Felicia Devine
Oh.
00:50:41
Natalie Richards
At least i felt.
00:50:42
Felicia Devine
Really?
00:50:42
Natalie Richards
Like i it I still even thinking back to it, it's a complete blur because it's so just like intense feeling that it blocks out every other thing.
00:50:47
Felicia Devine
Really? Okay.
00:50:54
Natalie Richards
Like you you can't think about really anything else.
00:50:57
Felicia Devine
How were you throwing up? Was it during a contraction? what like Was it like violent? What was it like?
00:51:01
Natalie Richards
It wasn't violent. It just was like like I had to purge it out. I don't really know why. Like it's just one of those like pain, I guess a pain response throwing up.
00:51:12
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:51:12
Natalie Richards
I don't know. But I didn't really, i didn't feel like it was crazy painful. Like I, I asked Kyla, was like, was I screaming? Like, what was I doing?
00:51:20
Felicia Devine
Right.
00:51:20
Natalie Richards
He goes, no, you were, you were not, you were not acting like it was crazy painful.
00:51:23
Felicia Devine
yeah So maybe it's just like a purge.
00:51:26
Natalie Richards
But Yeah. I think it was just a purge throw up, which a lot of people do.
00:51:30
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:51:32
Natalie Richards
A lot of women throw up like in that transition phase and that's how you know like things are happening.
00:51:32
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:51:35
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. It's happening? Yeah.
00:51:38
Natalie Richards
Yeah. I think I was only out in the living room maybe 15 minutes
Gene's Birth
00:51:42
Natalie Richards
because I was pushing for 15 minutes on the toilet, came out, pushed for I think only 15 minutes more.
00:51:42
Felicia Devine
Okay.
00:51:48
Natalie Richards
And i've maybe I maybe – think it was only – yeah, 15 minutes sounds right because I was actively trying to get his head out I think only like eight to 10 pushes. And I had two minutes in between each it's contraction.
00:51:59
Felicia Devine
okay
00:52:01
Natalie Richards
And I was not pushing without ah without a contraction.
00:52:01
Felicia Devine
and Right, right.
00:52:04
Natalie Richards
So i let's see.
00:52:08
Felicia Devine
What?
00:52:08
Natalie Richards
while When we were in the living room, Linda did ask me, she said, she said because your labor has been so long, do you want petosin you want like a shot of Pitocin just in case?
00:52:22
Natalie Richards
And I said, no, I don't want to do that yet. If we have to, we will. like If I end up bleeding a ton after, then you have permission to do that.
00:52:27
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:52:32
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:52:32
Natalie Richards
I just didn't want to do it preemptively, not knowing what my body was going to do. i just It didn't feel right to me.
00:52:37
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:52:38
Natalie Richards
And I was lucid at that point enough to tell her that
00:52:38
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:52:42
Natalie Richards
Like in between contractions, I was like – after transition, I was good.
00:52:42
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:52:44
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:52:45
Natalie Richards
Like once you get to the pushing the head out phase, I was very lucid.
00:52:46
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:52:50
Natalie Richards
Like not – I was very alert. And i think it was only like eight – eight pushes or eight contractions to get his head out.
00:53:01
Natalie Richards
And then i waited definitely two minutes, a full two minutes for him to turn and push his body out in one one push and his body was out.
00:53:07
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:53:12
Natalie Richards
And I was, as I was pushing his head out, I was feeling – I was, Linda said, she goes, you can touch around just to see, like feel the tissue, help it stretch a little bit. And I did that.
00:53:22
Felicia Devine
I did.
00:53:23
Natalie Richards
And I was really, cause it feels like you're breaking in half. Like there's, there's no way that your body is not breaking in half.
00:53:27
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:53:31
Natalie Richards
And you did, but I, you actually did.
00:53:33
Felicia Devine
i did i did
00:53:35
Natalie Richards
I didn't, but I could have sworn to you that I was like, it feels like
00:53:39
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:53:41
Natalie Richards
It's breaking. It just does. so But it helped for me to like feel what was happening and feel the tissue and kind of like help his head come out a little bit.
00:53:48
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:53:52
Natalie Richards
So he comes out. Everything was great. His hand did have cord wrapped around it. And his hat what I figured out after, because his head had like a side cone on it,
00:54:00
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Oh.
00:54:07
Natalie Richards
His hand was like shoved up under his – because on at the 20-week ultrasound, his hand was right here. i was like, oh, he's chewing on his hand.
00:54:13
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:54:16
Natalie Richards
How cute.
00:54:17
Felicia Devine
Cute.
00:54:18
Natalie Richards
Well, his hand was jammed up under his chin, i'm confident, and that cord was was around his hand so it wasn't moving very well, and he had to like tilt his head to the side.
00:54:22
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Oh.
00:54:26
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:54:30
Natalie Richards
in order to get out. And he was tiny, so he it worked, but he was only six and a half pounds.
00:54:34
Felicia Devine
may
00:54:37
Natalie Richards
so But he definitely had had to try pretty hard to like get his little get his little body out.
00:54:43
Felicia Devine
yeah
00:54:45
Natalie Richards
So um afterward It was – I'm trying to remember like the feeling. it was definitely a lot of relief feelings, right?
00:54:56
Natalie Richards
once that Once the baby's actually out, you're like, oh, thank God that it's over.
00:54:59
Felicia Devine
thank god yeah yeah
00:55:01
Natalie Richards
And then you're like, oh my God, this is crazy. Like what did I just do? That was insane. it was so funny because i have to read Linda's linda's account of Kyle during the pushing phase because
00:55:18
Felicia Devine
Oh, Kyle, no.
00:55:20
Natalie Richards
remember looking over to him and he was like he was like laying down on the couch. And i'm I remember thinking like, what are you doing laying down?
00:55:32
Felicia Devine
Are you sleepy, Kyle?
00:55:34
Natalie Richards
Oh, also, he also told me when I was on the toilet, he was researching golf clubs to buy. was
00:55:41
Felicia Devine
Kyle.
00:55:44
Natalie Richards
like, why are you sleeping right now? I'm like literally going through the hardest moment my life.
00:55:49
Felicia Devine
He's like, need to take a nap.
00:55:49
Natalie Richards
But that's what I was, was, he was like laying down on the couch. I'm like, why are you laying on the couch right now? Like, there's a lot of things you could be doing. Jeannie. We're talking about when you were born, sweet boy.
00:56:01
Felicia Devine
And you're sleepy.
00:56:01
Natalie Richards
Are you listening?
00:56:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:56:02
Natalie Richards
Are you listening to me? find Okay. I'm going to talk a little bit longer. Okay.
00:56:10
Natalie Richards
So Linda said in her email that she sent me, one thing that stands out to me about your birth is when the baby was just about to be born, you were on your hands and knees on the floor.
00:56:23
Natalie Richards
i looked at your hubby, trying to convince him to come down where we were to watch or even catch him. He locked eyes with me very intensely. His look was so intense.
00:56:34
Natalie Richards
I wasn't sure what was up until he started to slowly drop to his side on the couch. Yeah.
00:56:42
Natalie Richards
I don't remember if he completely passed out. like told the assistant to get him some water and put a cloth on his head.
00:56:51
Natalie Richards
His account is that he passed out 10 times. like ten times
00:56:57
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
00:56:57
Natalie Richards
So he just like kept having to like lay down on the couch. And that's what I was seeing. I was like, why are you laying on the couch?
00:57:03
Felicia Devine
You thought he was sleeping.
00:57:04
Natalie Richards
I thought he was sleeping. was like, what's wrong with you?
00:57:07
Felicia Devine
He was passing out.
00:57:08
Natalie Richards
But he was he was he was passing out. He was like either trying not to pass out or was actively passed out.
00:57:13
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:57:15
Natalie Richards
Because I think he just was – He was so overwhelmed by the whole thing.
00:57:16
Felicia Devine
Kyle.
00:57:19
Natalie Richards
He started on like level 10 intensity and then had to like somehow figure out how to like relax out of that. and And he also – Like he said, he's like, I couldn't do anything to help you.
00:57:34
Natalie Richards
So I i felt completely helpless and I didn't know what to do with myself.
00:57:38
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:57:39
Natalie Richards
And he – Like Kyle's seen a lot of stuff, okay?
00:57:41
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:57:41
Natalie Richards
Yeah. birth was enough to literally derail him, which just cracks me up.
00:57:44
Felicia Devine
derail him.
00:57:51
Felicia Devine
That's so good. we love a main character moment for Kyle.
00:57:55
Natalie Richards
Oh my God. It was so funny. So After birth, I'm like pushing the placenta out.
Postpartum Experience
00:58:05
Natalie Richards
Spoiler alert, didn't need Pitocin because linda Linda said I bled the least amount of anyone she's ever seen.
00:58:14
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
00:58:15
Natalie Richards
like post-placenta birthing, which is crazy.
00:58:17
Felicia Devine
That's amazing. Mm-hmm.
00:58:19
Natalie Richards
It's amazing. So I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. I will say my ferritin levels were really optimal my whole pregnancy, which was kind of strange.
00:58:26
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:58:28
Natalie Richards
I don't know what they are now, but like during pregnancy, my ferritin was like really good and I really was doing liver
00:58:36
Felicia Devine
A lot.
00:58:36
Natalie Richards
liver pills a lot. And she was like, I'm interested to see what that does because I don't think she had ever had anybody just do liver for their prenatals because I really didn't do – I didn't do a traditional prenatal.
00:58:49
Natalie Richards
Like I did – I piecemealed a bunch of things together.
00:58:49
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:58:52
Natalie Richards
Like I was not going to be – yeah, I made my own.
00:58:52
Felicia Devine
Right. You made your own.
00:58:55
Natalie Richards
But the majority of the multivitamin section was ah was a dried organ supplement and it was a multi-organ. So she was curious how that was going to work.
00:59:06
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
00:59:07
Natalie Richards
And apparently it worked. i don't know if that was I don't know if that was the reason or if it was something else.
00:59:08
Felicia Devine
It worked.
00:59:12
Natalie Richards
If you hear Gene tinkering with his Play-Doh in the back, he needed to be part of his birth story today.
00:59:12
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:59:17
Natalie Richards
So just ignore the little sounds of cars and Play-Doh and dropping things and...
00:59:20
Felicia Devine
The little Play-Doh tinker.
00:59:26
Natalie Richards
Typical three-year-old stuff. He was really interested in just hearing what his mom had to say about when he came into the world.
00:59:32
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:59:33
Natalie Richards
Kyle the placenta's out. kyle then the placenta's out Gene is attached to the placenta still, probably for about an hour.
00:59:43
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
00:59:44
Natalie Richards
I think like an hour and a half. I think we left it left it attached. It's in a bowl.
00:59:48
Felicia Devine
and
00:59:49
Natalie Richards
Placenta in a bowl, baby on the couch. Kyle's holding Gene. He goes, you need to take him. You need to take him. And he literally almost passed out again. Poor thing.
01:00:01
Natalie Richards
It was just too much. Yeah.
01:00:03
Felicia Devine
I cannot take this. Did you feed him? He needs to be fed.
01:00:07
Natalie Richards
Yes, he was eating the tacos at the same time was apparently.
01:00:10
Felicia Devine
oh no, Kyle.
01:00:17
Natalie Richards
adrenaline.
01:00:22
Natalie Richards
It just cracks me up.
01:00:23
Felicia Devine
Oh my
01:00:23
Natalie Richards
and So my midwives are like, they're making me a placenta smoothie and I'm like sitting on the couch.
01:00:27
Felicia Devine
god. Wait, you ate your placenta immediately fresh?
01:00:31
Natalie Richards
i dead I did.
01:00:32
Felicia Devine
Was it good?
01:00:32
Natalie Richards
did. made like a strawberry placenta smoothie.
01:00:36
Felicia Devine
Yum.
01:00:36
Natalie Richards
So yeah it was, I mean, it was good. i think that probably helped me a lot.
01:00:41
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:00:41
Natalie Richards
I didn't eat it ever again, but but I did eat it once at least. Yeah.
01:00:50
Felicia Devine
Mine's still in my freezer. Maybe I could have a smoothie.
01:00:51
Natalie Richards
And I only did it because they made it for me. I don't think I would.
01:00:54
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:00:55
Natalie Richards
I don't think I could have done it. I just don't.
01:00:57
Felicia Devine
No.
01:00:58
Natalie Richards
I just don't.
01:00:59
Felicia Devine
You didn't need to see that.
01:01:00
Natalie Richards
I didn't. So I was very happy that they made me a fresh one.
01:01:06
Natalie Richards
i i
01:01:07
Felicia Devine
Honestly, Kyle, Kyle could have benefited.
01:01:08
Natalie Richards
really, Kyle, I probably, well, he would have died because strawberries, he's allergic to strawberries.
01:01:10
Felicia Devine
He could have had one.
01:01:16
Natalie Richards
I could have made him a different kind. Yeah.
01:01:18
Felicia Devine
No, Kyle.
01:01:19
Natalie Richards
He probably would have benefited from that. I wonder if that's like a thing in the wild. Like if if male animals also eat the placenta if it's just the mother.
01:01:28
Felicia Devine
I doubt they do.
01:01:29
Natalie Richards
I doubt. They're like, ew, unclean.
01:01:31
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Unclean.
01:01:39
Felicia Devine
ah
01:01:39
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
01:01:41
Natalie Richards
from start to finish
01:01:42
Felicia Devine
Because he was born on the 5th.
01:01:44
Natalie Richards
because he was born on the 5th at 1.52 in the morning.
01:01:47
Felicia Devine
Wow.
01:01:47
Natalie Richards
So he decided he needed to have his own birthday ah apart from America.
01:01:50
Felicia Devine
Yes. Yeah.
01:01:52
Natalie Richards
So Kyle wanted a July 4th baby the whole time.
01:01:53
Felicia Devine
Yep. Mm-hmm.
01:01:56
Natalie Richards
Like he was like, oh, I really hope gene i really hope he's born on the 4th of July. and I was like, maybe. and But then I went into labor on the 3rd. I was like, oh, I don't know if that's going to happen.
01:02:05
Felicia Devine
Oh. And then the fourth flew by.
01:02:08
Natalie Richards
and then the 4th went by
01:02:09
Felicia Devine
Yes.
01:02:12
Natalie Richards
And Gene decided he needed to be born on a day all to himself.
01:02:15
Felicia Devine
hint
01:02:16
Natalie Richards
So he was born on the 5th at 1.52 in the morning.
01:02:16
Felicia Devine
yes
01:02:20
Natalie Richards
And he was 6.5 pounds. And he was like 22 inches long two weeks early, which I can't even imagine if this kid cooked a little bit longer.
01:02:32
Natalie Richards
would been like the longest baby on record. I've never even seen – mean, there's not many babies who are longer than 22 inches.
01:02:37
Felicia Devine
Whoa.
01:02:41
Felicia Devine
No. And Seth was six and a half pounds, 19 inches. And he was a thin little rail.
01:02:45
Natalie Richards
I know. so it Gene was the the string beaniest little baby that you would have ever seen.
01:02:47
Felicia Devine
i'm Gene was skin and bones.
01:02:53
Felicia Devine
Oh my gosh.
01:02:54
Natalie Richards
it was crazy. So he...
01:02:56
Felicia Devine
22. So he really will be seven feet tall. That's no exaggeration. Yeah.
01:03:00
Natalie Richards
I really don't think so. Oh my God. So then, okay, he's born at 152 in the morning. I have felt like 20 years have gone by.
01:03:11
Natalie Richards
like i
01:03:11
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:03:12
Natalie Richards
But then it's like, what do you do now?
01:03:14
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:03:14
Natalie Richards
like i We initiated breastfeeding. Everything was going really well. But then like, oh my God, you have to change like their first diaper when they're screaming and crying overnight. And you're like, what do i do Like, how do I do this?
01:03:23
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:03:25
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:03:27
Natalie Richards
The midwives leave.
01:03:27
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:03:29
Natalie Richards
You're like, what happens now?
01:03:29
Felicia Devine
Right? Mm-hmm.
01:03:31
Natalie Richards
Like, I don't know how to actually take care of a child.
01:03:34
Felicia Devine
Do this.
01:03:36
Natalie Richards
It's crazy. So then postpartum is just like wild.
01:03:37
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:03:39
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
01:03:39
Felicia Devine
Yeah. when did When did your parents come first?
01:03:43
Natalie Richards
They didn't come, I think, for like a week or a few – it was either a week or a few days. I can't remember. Maybe it was a few days.
01:03:50
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:03:52
Natalie Richards
But Kirsten and Kevin had come to decorate my yard like that day. like it was I think 10 a.m. on the
01:04:01
Felicia Devine
So you had told Kirsten and then she like snuck over?
01:04:03
Natalie Richards
I had told Kirsten and they like came and brought flowers and they like weren't going to come in.
01:04:05
Felicia Devine
Oh. Yeah.
01:04:08
Natalie Richards
And Kyle's like, oh, Kirsten and Kevin are here They just brought flowers.
01:04:08
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:04:11
Natalie Richards
Like they're not coming in. I go, bring them in. I need, I need to see people.
01:04:15
Felicia Devine
I need see someone.
01:04:17
Natalie Richards
This is the longest I've gone without seeing people in my entire life.
01:04:20
Felicia Devine
48 hours.
01:04:24
Felicia Devine
Oh no.
01:04:24
Natalie Richards
I was like, get them in here right now.
01:04:26
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:04:27
Natalie Richards
Need to see people. So they came in. I think Jean was like six hours old, like eight hours old.
01:04:32
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Yeah. oh
01:04:34
Natalie Richards
was so funny. And I was so happy they did because I had just, I needed to see people.
01:04:40
Felicia Devine
yeah
01:04:40
Natalie Richards
So then I forced myself. And when I say forced, I mean forced. I forced myself to stay in bed for three days because I knew, I knew
01:04:44
Felicia Devine
That
01:04:50
Felicia Devine
is a long time for you. Mm-hmm.
01:04:51
Natalie Richards
It's a long time. I said, I'm going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs for three days and I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to get up and go walk around the house. like I'm not going to do it because I knew i had to be back at work
Parenting Philosophy and Adaptation
01:05:03
Natalie Richards
in four weeks.
01:05:04
Natalie Richards
So I was like, I'm taking this four weeks and we are going to it.
01:05:04
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:05:07
Natalie Richards
we are going to do it well.
01:05:10
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:05:10
Natalie Richards
And we're going to make sure breastfeeding is going really well. I had like all these things that had to happen so that I could go back to work.
01:05:15
Felicia Devine
and yeah Yeah.
01:05:17
Natalie Richards
and thank God it worked. So like three days after, i honestly feel like a million bucks after three days. I was like, this is great. Is it the placenta ate? I don't know.
01:05:29
Natalie Richards
i will never know because I'm never doing this again.
01:05:30
Felicia Devine
I'm trying that next time.
01:05:33
Natalie Richards
I do remember I was sitting on the toilet during my labor, during my contractions, and I'm like, i i didn't feel like it was the worst experience of my life. Like it wasn't. Like it was not that bad and that hard.
01:05:48
Natalie Richards
But I just remember sitting there thinking, I am not going to be doing this again. i Like this is my experience.
01:05:53
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:05:54
Natalie Richards
Like this is the experience that I was meant to have and I am good with it and I am not doing this again. So I'm like pretty confident that I'm not having any more kids.
01:06:06
Felicia Devine
You heard it here first.
01:06:06
Natalie Richards
But you heard it here first. But I did, healed, there's of course always a chance.
01:06:09
Felicia Devine
There's always a chance.
01:06:13
Natalie Richards
I did, I help i healed really well. I did have like an internal abrasion because of his little hand sticking out that
01:06:16
Felicia Devine
yeah.
01:06:19
Felicia Devine
oh yeah
01:06:22
Natalie Richards
didn't allow him to come through very easily. But that healed really quickly. I used that like Earth Mama balm. Did you ever use the balm?
01:06:29
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:06:31
Natalie Richards
Oh, the balm was so good.
01:06:32
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:06:34
Natalie Richards
So that helped really well. And then at four weeks, I was back to work, which was insane. So my mom came my mom came to the office.
01:06:39
Felicia Devine
Wild.
01:06:41
Natalie Richards
i scheduled my patients in like two-hour blocks, two hours of adjusting, one hour of breastfeeding. My mom came and like fed me and and like did all that stuff.
01:06:51
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:06:52
Natalie Richards
So that was really, really nice. But in those first four weeks, I was like – I was determined. I had to know how to do things myself. Because Kyle was working a lot of the time.
01:07:03
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:07:04
Natalie Richards
i had to know how to get him out of the house. I had to get baby wearing figured out. I had to get breastfeeding set so that we could be on a schedule four weeks in. And thank God for the Thompson method.
01:07:13
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:07:15
Natalie Richards
I'm going to shout out the Thompson method again because i there's no way I would have known what to do.
01:07:17
Felicia Devine
if Shout out. RIP. Mm-hmm.
01:07:24
Natalie Richards
There's no way i would have known how to breastfeed and what is normal and what's not.
01:07:30
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:07:30
Natalie Richards
without her, without her.
01:07:32
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:07:32
Natalie Richards
It was amazing. um thank goodness it all worked out and I was doing pretty good postpartum up and and I breastfed Gene until until he was like 11 months old, I think.
01:07:47
Natalie Richards
But then after that, all my hormones tanked and now we're in the situation that I'm in now.
01:07:47
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:07:53
Natalie Richards
So first year postpartum was great.
01:07:54
Felicia Devine
Oh.
01:07:56
Natalie Richards
We did everything, brought him everywhere.
01:07:58
Felicia Devine
Oh.
01:07:58
Natalie Richards
I went out of the house every single day. There was not a day that I did not leave the house with him.
01:08:02
Felicia Devine
You did.
01:08:06
Natalie Richards
Because i just i if I was going to parent, I would rather parent around other people or like elsewhere but rather than being stuck at home.
01:08:13
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:08:15
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:08:15
Natalie Richards
So that was just what worked for me. It's, again, not what I would recommend to anybody else
01:08:23
Felicia Devine
Don't recommend that.
01:08:23
Natalie Richards
But for me, it worked really well.
01:08:26
Felicia Devine
Yeah. No, I did. And i I would say like looking at your parenting like with Kyle, it's exactly what I would have pictured it.
01:08:35
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
01:08:35
Felicia Devine
Like your life did not stop when you had a baby.
01:08:37
Natalie Richards
No. No, it didn't.
01:08:39
Felicia Devine
Mm-mm.
01:08:40
Natalie Richards
It wasn't going. There was no way that it was going to. I think if I had more kids, it would have to stop in a way.
01:08:45
Felicia Devine
Mm-mm.
01:08:46
Natalie Richards
But yeah, we just do we do whatever with him. we don't There are no kid-centered things that I'm like, oh, I'm not going to do this because I have a kid.
01:08:53
Felicia Devine
Mm-mm.
01:08:56
Natalie Richards
Oh, oh I'm not going to do this because he has to go to sleep.
01:08:57
Felicia Devine
Yeah. Mm-mm.
01:08:59
Natalie Richards
That's not how we live. So he
01:09:01
Felicia Devine
No.
01:09:01
Natalie Richards
is on the schedule that works for us. And that ends up being very unconventional compared to everyone else.
01:09:05
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:09:08
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:09:09
Natalie Richards
So he goes to bed at 10 when I go to bed, he wakes up at 8.30 when I want to wake up.
01:09:10
Felicia Devine
Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:09:15
Natalie Richards
and
01:09:15
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:09:16
Natalie Richards
And that's just kind of how it's been. But we co-slept, bed shared, co-slept for
01:09:22
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:09:24
Natalie Richards
six months, I think, because it just was not worth me getting physically up in the middle of the night to go feed him.
01:09:26
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:09:32
Natalie Richards
I was getting too exhausted. So we sidelined breastfed overnight for six months until I got touched out and I said, I can't do this anymore.
01:09:43
Felicia Devine
yeah. Mm
01:09:45
Natalie Richards
I'm trying to think what else with my postpartum. Yeah. I kind of just, I have the mentality that I'm not going to try too hard or be too stressed about something just because somebody says that I have to do something in a certain way.
01:09:57
Felicia Devine
hmm.
01:10:02
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:10:02
Natalie Richards
So I, Kirsten just texted me the other day. She goes, when did you put a, when did you let Jean have like a stuffed animal in his crib? I was like, say safe sleep was like, honestly, nah, I followed zero rules.
01:10:12
Felicia Devine
Immediately.
01:10:18
Natalie Richards
He slept with a blanket around his head like E.T.
01:10:20
Felicia Devine
i was going to say, sleeps... Yeah, he sleeps with blankets on his head.
01:10:23
Natalie Richards
with shearling pillows around him, and he was a cozy boy, and i everything was good.
01:10:24
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:10:29
Natalie Richards
Everything was fine.
01:10:30
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:10:31
Natalie Richards
I don't know. I'm not telling people to do that, but it just is what it is.
01:10:33
Felicia Devine
No, don't do that.
01:10:36
Natalie Richards
I i did what worked what worked for us because I couldn't handle any extra stress, and Kyle wasn't really there to help, truthfully.
01:10:36
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:10:45
Natalie Richards
like He was working.
01:10:45
Felicia Devine
Yeah. He was back on night shifts too, wasn't he?
01:10:47
Natalie Richards
So I, have yeah, so every single bedtime is me.
01:10:48
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:10:51
Natalie Richards
Every single, that's just how it is. So it's just how it is.
01:10:54
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:10:56
Felicia Devine
You had to find what worked for you guys.
01:10:58
Natalie Richards
Yep.
01:10:59
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:11:00
Natalie Richards
Yep.
01:11:00
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:11:01
Natalie Richards
So that's that.
01:11:02
Felicia Devine
Oh my gosh, that was lovely.
01:11:02
Natalie Richards
I think those are like the main points.
01:11:06
Felicia Devine
ah ah so funny.
01:11:06
Natalie Richards
Those are the main points. It's fun to like go back through and think about it and talk about it again because it really – was an amazing experience.
Home Birth Reflections
01:11:14
Natalie Richards
I cannot even – if I were to be in a hospital from my experience, first of all, I never would have had a baby.
01:11:19
Felicia Devine
You would have never dilated. No, it'd still be inside of you.
01:11:25
Natalie Richards
If I couldn't even be here with people just like whispering in the background, there's –
01:11:28
Felicia Devine
That you loved and trusted.
01:11:30
Natalie Richards
Yes. And I adored.
01:11:32
Felicia Devine
in her
01:11:33
Natalie Richards
There is no way I would have ever had a baby.
01:11:35
Felicia Devine
No, no.
01:11:37
Natalie Richards
And yes.
01:11:37
Felicia Devine
And that is common. and People, people stop dilating or even go backwards when strangers come into the room, which is a hospital setting.
01:11:42
Natalie Richards
Yes.
01:11:45
Felicia Devine
I mean, there's shift changes.
01:11:45
Natalie Richards
Yes.
01:11:47
Felicia Devine
There's, there's you like student observers, like so much happens in a hospital setting out of your control that a lot of people do.
01:11:47
Natalie Richards
Yes.
01:11:53
Natalie Richards
Yep.
01:11:56
Natalie Richards
Yep. That's just how it is.
01:11:57
Felicia Devine
Go. Yeah.
01:11:58
Natalie Richards
Yep. So it's it's it's like a wild animal.
01:11:59
Felicia Devine
Mm.
01:12:01
Natalie Richards
Like we're not, they don't want to be giving birth with people around them like and have lights like
01:12:02
Felicia Devine
Mm.
01:12:06
Felicia Devine
Right. Observation. Yeah.
01:12:09
Natalie Richards
hanging over their head. Like it's just, yeah.
01:12:11
Felicia Devine
yeah
01:12:11
Natalie Richards
So it was an amazing experience. I would not trade it for it anything, even though it was 48 hours technically on paper.
01:12:17
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:12:19
Natalie Richards
I was like, I mean, it was fine. it it is what it is.
01:12:22
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:12:22
Natalie Richards
I got to actually reset my labor and actually do it twice and do it the way that I wanted to the second time.
01:12:24
Felicia Devine
And do it twice. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:12:28
Natalie Richards
It was really cool. So yeah, for sure.
01:12:30
Felicia Devine
That's awesome. Well, thank you for sharing.
01:12:32
Natalie Richards
and loved it.
01:12:33
Felicia Devine
I think this is you know such a fun way of portraying home birth, but also like you and I had such different home births and different postpartum.
01:12:41
Natalie Richards
Yes. And different postpartums.
01:12:42
Felicia Devine
so
01:12:43
Natalie Richards
It could not be any different, really. It's crazy.
01:12:46
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:12:47
Natalie Richards
So it's just fun. It's nice to talk about it. Nice to just – it also like gives a good glimpse into who we
Future Discussion Topics
01:12:55
Natalie Richards
are also.
01:12:55
Felicia Devine
yeah
01:12:56
Natalie Richards
Yeah.
01:12:56
Felicia Devine
Yeah. It's very telling. Yeah.
01:12:59
Natalie Richards
So i think next episode we're of course going to talk about something crazy or fun or whatever.
01:13:05
Felicia Devine
Yes.
01:13:07
Natalie Richards
We'll figure it out the night before.
01:13:08
Felicia Devine
Maybe maybe a tad bit of business. We should sprinkle in some business.
01:13:10
Natalie Richards
Maybe. yeah I know. I know there's – I think there's definitely a desire for some baby eating that we need to talk about, some baby nutrition, and I think like a little bit of business and like how you were raised with your siblings and stuff too.
01:13:19
Felicia Devine
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:13:29
Felicia Devine
Oh, yeah.
01:13:30
Natalie Richards
so
01:13:31
Felicia Devine
Mm-hmm.
01:13:31
Natalie Richards
So there's a lot of things that we need to touch on that we're going to get to.
01:13:33
Felicia Devine
Yeah. People have asked about.
01:13:35
Natalie Richards
Yep.
01:13:36
Felicia Devine
Yeah.
01:13:37
Natalie Richards
Okay.
01:13:37
Felicia Devine
All right.
01:13:37
Natalie Richards
Okay.
01:13:37
Felicia Devine
Well, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.
01:13:40
Natalie Richards
Bye.