On episode 88, Kerra lives in small town Graham, Texas and has a blended family with her husband and six boys. Her oldest son is 25-years-old and youngest is two-years old. Kerra is the director of a pregnancy and life resource center. In her free time, her and her husband have a podcast and lead worship at their church.
Kerra got pregnant with her high school sweetheart when she was just 18 years old, so she was four months pregnant at her high school graduation. She looks back and thinks about the support she had with her family and her church which is what carried her through. It really didn’t feel like a tough time because she had so much support. Eight years later, she married and had four more boys in Tucson, Arizona. She ended the relationship about five years ago and moved to Texas. Kerra had no intention of getting married again and having more children. Her focus was her boys and never looked for a relationship. The summer she moved to Texas, she was asked to sing and lead worship with a man she knew from town at a church neither of them attended. She didn’t see him again until the next fall of that year. He asked her to sing with him at another church together and a strong friendship formed from there. Before she knew it, he was her best friend. Her divorced was still fresh on her mind for her, so a relationship was still the last thing on her mind until one day, things just switched for her.
He kissed her and fireworks went off. She felt like a kid again. The next day he told her he couldn’t have children because he had cancer a few years back. It didn’t matter to her because she already had five children. Just a month after their relationship changed, she knew they were going to get married. While they dated, she felt in her spirit that they would have kids, but she assumed they would adopt. They didn’t date even a year before they got married when she was 41. After they got married, she looked into adoption and did training on it. She knew it was God telling her they were going to have at least a child together. She asked him if he would be open to medical interventions that could possibly increase his fertility, but he said no immediately. The first couple of months they were married, it was always in the back of her head. She believed it was possible she could get pregnant. After a few months, she stopped thinking about it. Four months later, she remembers being at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens with her mom and girlfriend, and thought she was starting her period because she was spotting. It ended up not being anything. Kerra got home that night and she thought that was weird because the only other time that happened was when she was pregnant. Her cycle was two weeks late. She had to go get a test, but she didn’t tell her husband yet. The next day she bought a pregnancy test, and it was positive. She waited for him to get home, but he brought his nieces and nephew with him. She wanted him in private, so now she to had to wait until they left. When they were finally alone on the sofa, she told him she bought something for him at the store. She told him it is a pregnancy test when he couldn’t guess what it was. The look on his face told her he was very confused. When he got it, he asked her if she took it. She told him she did and the results. She watched her husband go through all of the emotions from complete shock, to laughing to denial assuming it was a COVID test. He cried tears of joy when he finally realized Kerra was really pregnant. They stayed up talking all night about it.
Pretty much every time she’s been pregnant, everyone wants it to be a girl for her. Kerra doesn’t care. Her husband wanted it to be a girl because he wanted her to have that experience. She found out through the online purchased sneak peek test. It arrived with many warning stickers to keep male DNA away from it. That’s how the test: If there is male DNA in her blood, then they know it’s a boy. Because her house is all males except for her, she scrubbed her arms with soap. She realized her son used that bar of soap, so she wanted to start over. It came back positive for a boy, but she thought it still could be a girl if she messed up the results. The ultrasound she had later wasn’t 100% sure, but they said it’s likely a boy. She was so happy it was a boy for her husband.
I didn’t feel it was more difficult because of my age.
Kerra felt really good during her pregnancy. Strong food-aversion were something unique to this pregnancy that lasted the whole time. Coffee made her nauseous, and she couldn’t eat or smell fruit until she was 3-months postpartum. She didn’t have morning sickness. She was just nauseous all the time with all the smells and even the fruity lotions would make her sick. Even in the grocery store, with all those smells didn’t make her feel well. She said she was going to exercise because he helped with her last pregnancy eight years ago, but she didn’t. She wasn’t more tired at 42 than any of her other pregnancies. Kerra worked twice a week until she went into labor at work.
Kerra says she’s been on a slow journey to going to more and more natural births. Her ex-husband didn’t approve of a midwife, so she thought this is her chance to have a midwife and a home birth she always wanted. She found a midwife that was 45 minutes away, and her current husband approved. It made her a little nervous being that far away because her last birth came so quickly while she was still in a wheelchair. It was a really great experience. It was a different type of care from all of her other experiences. She enjoyed having all kids experience the home appointments with her.
Kerra picked up breakfast on the way to work when she was 40 weeks, her due date. Her total at the shop was $7.77. She knew it was going to be a great day. The first contraction started the minute she got out of a meeting at 8:00 pm that night. Five minutes later, she had another one. Contractions grew stronger throughout the day and she tried to finish everything up because she knew she wasn’t coming back. She texted her midwife when contractions were five minutes apart while she was on the way to get ice cream. Kerra assumed the midwife would be on her way, but she told Kerra to keep her updated. Kerra got home to an empty house because the other boys were with their dad. She relaxed by sitting on the yoga ball and listened to worship music while to labored. Her midwife arrived at her house about 11:00 pm. Kerra knew she was getting close to transition, and she was right. She was eight centimeters when the midwife checked at 11:30 pm. She transitioned while she was on her knees leaning her head on the bed. The midwife told her to push when she was ready about midnight. She didn’t push for long. Once the baby’s head came out, the midwife told her to stop pushing. The cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck. Once the midwife got the cord unwrapped, she says she pushed with everything she had to get his shoulder’s out. Then the midwife helped her pulled her baby to her, and they sat there and cried tears of joys. It was everything she had wanted in a home birth. She did skin to skin until the placenta was birthed. She didn’t feel like ice cream after that. She had steak instead.
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Resources:
Over 40 Fabulous and Pregnant on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/over40fabulousandpregnant/
Kerra on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerra.jon/
Goats milk formula: https://mtcapra.com/product-category/goat-milk-formula/
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