In this vlog, the family documents Rebecca’s early labor on their homestead. As contractions become more frequent, they debate whether to call the midwife, recalling a previous rapid birth (Ben and Meg Holler). The narrator prepares a home‑birth setup using greenhouse plastic and old sheets while juggling farm chores like cooking baked beans, milking a cow named Phyllis, and showcasing a newly built sheep stanchion by Jonah. The midwife and doula arrive, but the labor slows, leading the team to send everyone home and rest. Throughout, the video interweaves personal reactions—Rebecca’s nausea, burping, and anxiety about a “Valentine’s Day baby”—with typical homestead life, providing a candid, informal snapshot of a home birth experience on a working farm.
Chapters
Rebecca went into labor yesterday. Oh, Becky! Oh my gosh, I just started having contractions about 2 hours ago, about 30 minutes apart. Now they're getting like 10 minutes apart, so much so we called the midwife just to see what happened, see what's happening. Hey, she might be in labor, guys. It is past time to make supper. A little busy just cleaning things up, getting cameras ready.
Woo!
This be it? That would be exciting. All right, uh, we need to get supper on. Baked beans, barbecue chicken. You might have to tend it though. It's hard calling people here because you don't want them to come and not— but I don't want to do this Ben Holler style, Beck. No, I know, I don't either. I want, I want the midwife to be here, so slow down. This baby's going out fast. Ben and Meg Holler had the baby so fast there was no time for the midwife to get there.
Well, the midwife is on her way.
So now I have the baby.
Maybe. It looks like that. It looks like it might be that way.
Is it turning into that?
Hopefully. And then once it comes into that, then I'll push him out. This is something we could do. Should we get greenhouse plastic since that's the only plastic we have and put it on the bed? And I have, I have old sheets. I don't have an old blanket though.
You know you're a homesteader when you're going down and getting some greenhouse plastic for your plastic sheets for a home birth. Like, it was so serious, we got the midwives and the doula here. This will be like our 5th baby, so Rebecca's gone through many labors before. It was very much like the labors before it, and because because the contractions were getting— they were getting closer together, more intense. I felt like we were justified in calling the midwife. Okay, aid has arrived.
I didn't—
having another one?
No, I'm not.
Like, what is the deal with this? Like, come on, man.
They just stay here until you have the baby.
Maybe he has turned, but Did you have another one? Yeah, I'm having one.
Phew! We still might have this baby today.
Yeah. Oh gosh, I do feel pukey though.
Just puke on the side of the road.
Except maybe it's just a burp. I burp so much too.
Did you stop for the burp or did you stop for the baby?
Both.
Okay, we're heading back now. She has continued to have contractions.
You dropped my bowl.
Oh yeah. We're going places. We's going places.
Does that mean it's a little more painful?
Well, it's just starting. Yeah, I guess it's— and it's like, I feel like the pain's starting higher, maybe. Like, I felt like in the beginning the pain was really low, like it went down. I feel like it's— the pain's more all over now. Is your midwife on her way? Yeah. Wow. And the assistant's here, and then Helen's Okay, it's so funny because these two are like so interested and those two are like— I thought it was funny that only those two were walking down the road with you.
So yeah, you can have this baby before Valentine's Day. You're gonna give us a Valentine's Day baby?
Well, if it's gonna be 12:01.
Okay, she's got, uh, you got less than 6 hours, babe.
Lily was—
are you getting your Valentine?
It's gonna be a long labor for me, so I don't think I will have a baby Do that. I don't need to have magic.
I definitely wanted to get these ladies here because it was looking that way and I just didn't want to do this by myself. By the way, yes, we are going to milk Phyllis in this stanchion. Nice. Hey, you guys got it covered in everything. Look at this cover job. Wow, Jonah, how many loads of wood chips you put in there?
Uh, like half a million.
Well, that's enough. You did good. Jonah built a sheep stanchion. Let's get to that right after this labor story. I'll show you why I'm putting her in the stanchion. See that? See that? I just touched this teat and she, she starts moving. There's a little— there's a sore there, scabbed over. When she's in the pole barn, it's a little difficult. Here she has a butt bar and she's in a stanchion. Thankfully, help arrived and Rebecca just continued down the road of labor, and things just progressed and got more intense and closer together. And eventually we went on another walk. Time for a walk.
That will be my—
you're getting too comfortable on that ball. She's out on the phone. You're having too much fun.
You want to move around? Like, what should I do? You're okay. You're okay.
Pretty heavy one?
I mean, I'm feeling like, is this gonna happen myself?
But that was kind of a point where things kind of slowed down, became less intense.
I don't know what it is. I don't know what this is. If I was farther along, then maybe I would be hurting more.
I don't know.
I feel shaky and like weird. I had so many burps out there.
And ultimately everybody decided this looks like it's slowing down. How about let's everybody— let's split up. Folks go home, get some rest. They're on call if they need us. And that's where we left it, and we had a pretty good night's sleep. You got to see what Jonah has done with these sheep.
I built a sheep stand.
Which one is this? This bale?
Yeah, she's the one that'll get in here without fighting against the head gate. As long as they got off of it, they're fine. Yeah, and they're not so picky.
Yeah, look. Yeah, you got to practice that, I reckon. See, she's not letting you, is she?
No, but I think that—
no, no, no, don't, don't, don't make her uncomfortable or she won't come in there. Just, you know, just get a little bit every day. These are St. Croix sheep, I think traditionally dual purpose, so they are hair sheep. They don't give wool, but they could give meat and milk. Are you really gonna try milking her and baby when they have the baby?
You get pretty much everything from a sheep. Yeah, these you could sell them and you could eat them.
Yeah, this particular line of sheep has been bred a while for meat, so we'll see how that goes, but it won't hurt to try. Oh, on the bouncy ball!
I'm the exercise bottle.
How you doing?
Good.
No baby?
Slept last night.
Yeah.
Sent everybody home because I wasn't progressing.
Yeah.
I'm sure I'm still progressing some, but very slowly.
So could you give us a Valentine's baby, please? I mean, it'd be your little Valentine forever.
It's not my, uh, it's not possible. I don't, I don't have that within me to make it happen. If he's ready to come and he comes, yeah. So I would love to have Valentine's Day too.
Yeah. Oh, you're awake. Will you put me in a blanket? You've never taken that. This must be something.
It kind of hurt. Not like terrible, but it's just annoying. It's just like one of those things I'm just ready to— like, I would rather just be on the postpartum journey already. I've never done this with any of my children.
Just pace yourself, get some rest. I'm closing this out because if you have this baby today, it's It's gonna have to go in tomorrow's video because I've got so much footage I need to edit. We have a live show tonight premiering Rooted. So guys, if you missed the live show, hopefully it still happened, you know, because of all this. But anyway, um, if you missed it, it's up until the 16th for free, so go check it out. Watchrooted.com or link in the description.
