In this informal vlog, Victor Justin Rhodes interviews his partner Rebekah Rhodes as she walks through the preparations for her upcoming home birth, her fourth. They review the home‑birth kit, including a Moses basket, birth ball, medical supplies (pads, ice packs, heating pad, oxygen, Pitocin), clothing options for the baby, diapers, blankets, and protective plastic for the mattress. Rebekah explains how the kit was assembled with her midwife’s guidance and discusses the flexibility of the birth location—bed, floor, living room, or bathroom—depending on how labor progresses. They talk about the role of their dog Teddy, lighting considerations for filming, and the timing of labor, noting that contractions are slow and she is uncertain when to call the midwife. Victor outlines how they will inform their YouTube audience via the community tab when the baby arrives, emphasizing a low‑pressure, supportive approach. The tone is conversational, light‑hearted, and slightly anxious about the unknown timing of labor, while showing enthusiasm for the home‑birth experience.
Chapters
Becky, you're only gonna have a shelf for so much longer. Are you really holding your brownie on your shirt? All right, I am. How about a tour of what you do to get ready for a home birth? Okay, Miss Experienced Home Birther.
Can I, um, finish this?
Of course, finish that brownie. This is gonna be your fourth home birth, Beck. I think you're quite experienced at this. I think the ladies would love to see it.
I think I'm a little, uh, relaxed about it now, I think, because—
Yeah, you're super pro.
Like, the first one I was like, you know, so nervous, and now I'm like, well, Saturday, I mean, we did our trial run.
We were in labor Saturday, so we, so we got there, we got the bedroom cleaned up, and we got everything we needed. So show Just show, just, just go through. I mean, you got the Moses basket here. What's this? Is this fur?
No, that's actually—
that's just— it needs to go. Okay.
All right, all right.
It's a little anticlimactic there, but anyway.
Well, so I have my home birth kit up there.
This is, uh, the home kit right here.
Yeah, stuff may fall out of it.
I shouldn't have done that with one hand.
No, you shouldn't have.
All right.
Okay, it's fine. It worked out. So, so, well, my midwife has a kit that she wants her people to have, and, um, I guess this was part of it. I don't even remember. Ice pack, those are ice packs. But I set out two, um, little outfits for him, and the assistant was like, which one do you want him to wear? I'm like, whichever one fits. I don't, I don't really care. But it's a little gown that's cute, and then, um, a couple choices. The midwife likes to dress him first, so yeah, so you can wear the hat with either one of them.
Okay.
And then of course, you know, you have all your pads and just all the, the medical things that the midwife needs that she uses. Okay.
I see the photographer had put out some, uh, yes, lights. That's nice.
Yeah.
But don't you see why you should have the baby during the day for the camera-wise? Like, isn't this Such nice lighting.
This is everything.
As opposed to that orange ugly light at night. So you got this birth ball.
Yes, I have the birth ball that I like to sit on it. Not everybody does, um, but I like it, and then hopefully I can use it after the baby comes to bounce the baby on it.
Nice.
We'll see, and maybe, maybe, just maybe I'll exercise on it because that's really what it is, is an exercise ball.
The Moses basket.
Yeah.
Before you pass it over. Are you gonna actually let him sleep in there?
Well, there's a cushion on top that I'll take out of it. And then— I mean, I planned on using that for like maybe out in the living room. Maybe he'll sleep in it. I have no idea. We're just gonna see what kind of person he is.
Alright.
Because they all have different personalities. I like that to have so that he can— like when I'm out in the living room if he wants to stretch out. Because we have Teddy, it makes me a little bit nervous with Teddy like jumping on him and stuff, so I like that. Next up, I have— well, one's a throw-up bowl and one's a placenta bowl for when the placenta comes out. They'll put it in there, and, um, I don't know if we need a bigger bowl. I'll have to ask them if we need that. Then I have my diapers. We are cloth diapering, but in the beginning, I like to use disposable while we're getting our bearings of new parenthood. Um, we have blankets, sheets, towels, plastic in this to protect the mattress, and that's from Saturday when you went downstairs.
Greenhouse plastic.
Garden stock. Cuz, cuz quite honest, it, it was within the safe window of having a a delivery when on Saturday, but it was, um, it's a hair early than I had ever planned to have a baby. So, um, we weren't necessarily prepared. I hadn't purchased a, um, mattress pad protector. Teddy just wants to be the star of the show. I think he's having a hard time.
I think he knows something on the ground.
Well, he also, I think, knows something's happening. He's been more chewy lately. He's been chewing things.
You think we're down here playing with you, but we're not.
Are we here to play with you?
All right, is that it on the floor? I'm gonna have to help you.
Um, yes.
1, 2, 3. Ah, no, there's, there's a bit more stuff over here.
Stop it, Teddy. Really, Teddy? Really bothering me. Okay, hold on, I need to see what's in this. The midwife assistant put this all together. Oh, it's just—
that's a heating pad.
Yeah, a blanket.
Or that's a heating pad for him to lay on. Yeah, there's like— there was like medical stuff here.
Well, they took it.
They took it home.
Yeah, so oxygen, and then they have like, uh, the Pitocin, all the things that, um— okay, the things that, um, midwives bring to birds to help for whatever reason if needed. Um, so yeah, they have like boxes, like plastic boxes of things that— medical supplies that they bring that they need. But my midwife is a backup midwife for other people. So she was like, I have to take it. And I think she was like nervous that I was going to be like crushed because that means that I wasn't having a baby right then.
Yeah.
And I was like, no, it's totally fine. I didn't— I was shocked that they even left it.
So, um, for the little bit that they did, are you gonna have the baby right here where you had Lily, or are you gonna have the baby in there where you had Gideon? Or are you gonna have your baby in the living room like you had Josiah?
No, I'm going to— I don't know where I'm gonna have this baby. I mean, maybe in the bed, maybe on the floor, maybe in the bathroom, maybe in the closet. No, my midwife always jokes that, um— Teddy.
Really, Teddy? Hey, we didn't put that mattress down for you.
So we brought that—
Why did we put that mattress down?
Well, just in case I decide I want to give birth on the floor. Like, um, I— maybe I'll be more comfortable on a mat as opposed to being on a hardwood floor. But my midwife always laughs and says that a woman finds the smallest possible place to give birth, and then everybody has to crowd around. Yeah, to make it happen. So I don't know. I mean, we'll see what happens. Um, I don't plan on giving birth in the other parts of the house. Like, I plan on doing it in here. So, but again, we did find ourselves out in the living room kind of hanging out on Saturday when the labor— right before the labor fizzled out, I was out there and everybody was sitting on the couches and chairs out there.
Everybody's a little more comfortable.
Yeah, so maybe— I don't— it just depends on how fast it happens. Who knows? I don't think I want to do it in the bathtub again. Right, okay, because I like hurt my tailbone.
We'll follow your lead, babe. You're the boss.
So, all right, maybe over in that corner.
People want to know like when you're gonna have this baby. We don't know. It's gonna happen when it happens. You guys will know. I think we'll post— we'll post in like— YouTube has a community tab on our channel. We'll just post in there and we'll say something like, we've had the baby, video coming soon, contractions have started up again.
We'll just see what happens.
Are you having one right now? Yeah, so all right.
I mean, it's, uh, nothing is— nothing is going too fast, let's just say that. Yeah, it's all very slow labor, which, you know, maybe this kid's just a really slow decider.
Hopefully when it hits the end, it speeds up.
Yeah, it's going to. I'm gonna—
hopefully we're not gonna be afraid to call the midwives.
No, no, the midwife said that I'll know. So, okay, we'll see. Because I was like, I'm honestly a little bit like nervous about calling you because I thought I was, you know, I mean, I was in labor on Saturday. Like, I thought it was the thing, and she did too. I mean, like, they were surprised when it all stopped. She said, you'll know. She said, I bet you'll know after 3 contractions that you're really in labor. Okay, to call us that it's time.
Yeah. You've been having— still having contractions. We know it's not time to call.
No. Well, and it's like when I start timing them and thinking about them, it goes away. So it's okay if I just— and it's not super painful, it's more of a mind game. I feel like, when do I call? Do I pay attention? Do I not? Like all those things. It's not really like, oh, I'm in so much pain and I just want this to be over with. That's not it. It's more just like the second guessing of, of what I No.
Well, folks, we'll be the first to let you know. Hopefully she'll have this on Friday. I don't have to shoot a vlog that day and have all weekend to edit it, and we'll get it up Monday.
He keeps telling me all these things like, you could have the baby—
no pressure—
this time, this would be good. I know he's messing with me.
I—
he, he knows that babies come when babies come, and it's number one.
It's a priority. Everything else aside, so we'll just put out a little quick note.
He's just a jokester.
Yeah. Might even take a few days to put it up, depending on how it goes.
Yeah, I mean, we're just gonna see how things happen.
