Avani’s Great Hypnobabies Birth

My daughter Avani was born on Sept 23 (7 lbs, 8 oz) … easily and beautifully … and I have Hypnobabies to thank! My water broke at 3:00 a.m. I called the midwife and the doula, and they advised me to sleep unless I did not feel the baby moving.

I did feel the baby moving, but of course, I could not go back to sleep with such excitement, so I started packing up my stuff and laid down for a while. I started noticing very minor birthing waves about 20 minutes apart.

The doula arrived at the house at 10 a.m. We left for the birthing center at 11 a.m. When we arrived, I was 3 cm dilated so the midwife recommended I walk around, which I did for a couple of hours, as the birthing waves intensified and lasted longer and longer.

At 2 p.m. I was officially admitted to the birthing center, and Avani was born at 4:43 p.m. The 13 hrs went by extremely quickly, even the pushing part.

My experience was that there were many physical sensations that could be characterized with a variety of different
words; however, I was able to more or less simultaneously calmly accept and disassociate from these sensations. I was actually surprised at how relatively easy and natural the birthing process was … I listened to the pushing track for a little while, but that’s it; I was pretty zoned out / tuned in … I am VERY pleased with my daughter’s natural, drug-free, epidural-free, IV-free, tear-free, episiotomy-free birth … and am 100% sure that the repetitive conditioning/programming from Hypnobabies was key in enabling it!

Read Full Post »

Nora’s Newsworthy Entrance

I wanted to share my birth story….This is my third baby and my first time doing Hypnobabies…

On October 12th (after 2 days of doing maternity acupressure) I took 2 tablespoons of castrol oil in a sugar free chocolate shake.  I started having pressure waves an hour later which continued for 5 hours (absolutely no castrol oil side effects which was a relief- I only took a very small amount).

My pressure waves lasted no more then 45 seconds and were irregular but some coming every 3 minutes.  I stayed relaxed through out each pressure wave.  I called my Doula at that time just to let her know what was going on.  I listened to my early first stage CD and fell asleep in my bed.  I woke up very relaxed. At that time my pressure waves stopped.  It was a very nice and relaxing day.  My husband was with our two boys so there were no distractions.

Later that night after my sons were in bed I decided to take another small amount of castrol oil in a shake (2 tablespoons).  The pressure waves started an hour later…I walked around for most of them in center and said my peace cue word which worked help me relax.  About 1030 I went to the bathroom and discovered that I had some bloody show.  I immediately called my Doula and then my midwife who advised me to come in since I was 45 minutes away.

From this point on (after calling my babysitter and then my friend to come over so we could leave sooner) things went very fast..the pressure waves seemed on top of each other.  We got into the car and I told my DH to drive fast (Later I realized I was already in transformation).  I had my headphones on trying to listen while hanging on to car handle as my DH drove quite fast to get us to the hospital.  The pressure waves were very intense and at one point my DH turned a corner and my headphones flew off of my head.

My DH told me later that I was very quiet with each pressure wave and the only way he knew I wasn’t having one was when I spoke or sighed.  I was saying to myself “baby stay in..baby stay in..”  My PW’s were not p***ful but they were so INTENSE (and this is b/c I think I only had 20 seconds in between each one).

My water broke and I immediately felt intense pressure of her head. I told my DH to pull over (he thought I was kidding at first!)  He pulled into a driveway and honked the horn and started calling 911.  I kept thinking I have to get my jeans off b/c I can’t deliver her in my jeans.  While my DH was on the phone with a dispatcher I took my jeans off and walked to the back of the van.  My DH at that time was trying to get stuff out of the back of the van for me to lay down…the dispatcher was telling him that I needed to lay down….I told my DH that I didn’t need to lay down.

I then told him “I need you to catch the baby now.” At that time, I pushed (it felt so great to be able to push)..our baby into my DH hands.  I toke her and discovered she had a loose cord around her neck..I pulled it over her head and started wiping her down with my DH’s shirt that he took off.  I then got into the front seat and put her to my chest and blasted the heat.  Four minutes later the paramedics arrived.

We were then taken to the hospital were my Doula and midwife were waiting.  Nora Jane weighed 7 pounds 15 oz and checked out just fine.  I had a 1 degree laceration which was repaired with a few stitches.  My DH and I look back and we just can’t believe her birth story.  We later discovered we were 10.2 miles away from the hospital.  And the driveway where she was delivered the house was for sale and vacant.  Which I am relieved b/c I really didn’t need an audience at that moment.

My DH said that I was so calm and quiet through out the entire birth.  I felt calm, but didn’t realize how quiet I was b/c everything felt so intense inside my body as I was experiencing my labor and birth of Nora. I am so pleased and happy with my Hypnobabies birth experience. Nora is such a calm and mellow baby which I also contribute to Hypnobabies as well.  My DH is an ER nurse and I worked as a L+D nurse for 5 years (I have been at home for 3 yrs now) and even with our experience it is a completely different feeling when it is happening to yourself.  And not making it to the hospital is not something we ever planned or visualized, but she was ready and nothing was going to stop her from being born at that moment.

Read Full Post »

Bryce’s Beautiful Birth

My birthing time started on Monday night, 2/02/09 around 9:20. I went to bed with my tailbone hurting so I turned on my heating pad and lay down to read. After a little while I wanted to change positions so I moved and I felt a bubble pop and my water broke. So I got up and changed my pajama bottoms and let my husband and my mom know. My mom had come in from out of town just in case I started my birthing time on my guess date, which was 2/2/09.  After laying back down I started feeling some pressure waves that were more intense than any Braxton Hicks I had previously had. So I tried to time a few on my own and thought they seemed very close, 1 to 2 minutes apart. I decided to be sure I would have my husband start writing them down to be sure I was right. After about an hour of pressure waves being 1 or 2 minutes apart, I called my doctors office who said to go ahead into the hospital to be checked out. The ride to the hospital took a great deal of focus for me to stay relaxed, every bump in the road was tough!!

Once we arrived at the ER, they wheeled me in because I just couldn’t walk very well at that point. Once I was checked in completely they took me to a room where an internal exam was done, I was 5 centimeters! The week previously I had been to the doctor and she had told me I was 3 centimeters and 50% effaced. My doula Kristin arrived at the hospital and helped me with position changes and when I started feeling sick she had some good smelling peppermint oil to ease the feeling some. The whole time I listened to my Birthing Day track and was able to remain relaxed. Occasionally it was difficult when my legs started aching, which was surprising to me. Kristin massage my legs with oil to help ease the ache.

Not long after my legs acting up, I ended up vomiting my dinner (never again will I want Italian food!). I then started feeling a lot more pushy, so I sat on my birthing ball to help bring the baby down more. During all of this I continued listening to different tracks of hypnobabies. When the nurse came back around I asked if she could check me to see if it would be ok to push. Once checked she said I was fully dilated but there was a little bit of my cervix that was still slightly in the way. So we waiting for maybe 30 more minutes (I don’t really remember the time) and I told the nurse I was ready to push and she said ok, the cervix might move on its own if I went ahead with pushing.

Pushing was difficult and I felt like I wasn’t making a whole lot of progress until I asked my doctor if she had any suggestions for me. She told me to hold my breath with the pressure wave and push hard at that point. I had not wanted to do any holding of my breath, but if I had not I think the birthing would have been at least another hour longer. I pushed for a total of 2 and half hours and then my little Bryce Violet entered the world!!

My experience was almost exactly like I had visualized it! I had visualized a 7 to 8 hour birthing and it really happened! I can honestly say I never felt P***, just intense pressure. All of the nurses and my doctor were so impressed with my birthing time! The hospital is actually going to interview me for their monthly magazine as well as the local newspaper regarding my birthing time and the methods I used for a natural birth experience!

Read Full Post »

Jillian’s Birth – One of the Most Beautiful Experiences of My Life!

In my Hypnobabies study, I visualized going into labor on a Friday, at 38 weeks plus 5 days.  With both of my previous non-induced births, I went into labor on a Friday, so my mind naturally went to the same day of the week.  Then, a few weeks out from that date, I mentally set a goal to make it through 1/23 before going into labor.

• I needed to finish up a major project at work that week
• I had a three hour spa appointment (a Christmas gift from my employees) scheduled for that morning
• My husband and I planned to take our twelve year old daughter out to a nice dinner that night.
• I literally told myself that I had permission to have the baby after dinner on Friday night.
• I even put the date of 1/24 on the birth announcements that I mocked up a few weeks before.

The mind is a very powerful thing, so 1/23 is when our birth story began…

On Friday morning, 1/23, I started my massage at 10 AM.  It was a wonderful time to relax and contemplate that we would soon bring our fourth child into the world.  The massage was followed by a facial, a spa lunch, a pedicure and a manicure.  It was blissful!  I came home and took a nap around 4 PM.  During the hour long nap, I was woken up by a few waves of pressure in my back.  I had experienced many rounds of “false” labor prior to this time, so I mentioned it to my husband, but wrote it off.

While getting ready for dinner, I felt several more waves, but nothing consistent.  We went out to a lovely dinner with our oldest daughter at a fondue restaurant.  This was an important time for us to spend with her to celebrate some incredible decisions that she is making in her life.  We all joked about the pressure waves that were coming every 7 to 9 minutes.  When I felt a wave coming, I would put some meat in the fondue pot, turn my switch to off, and rest my head on my hands.  When I turned back to center, my meat was done!

On the way home, we called my hypnodoula to let her know that we might be in early labor.  I actually started getting excited!  I got the birthing ball out, set up my laptop to contractionmaster.com, covered up in a blanket and set out to start timing things “officially”.  At 11 PM, the contractions stopped completely!  I couldn’t believe it!  I was fooled again!  I called my doula to let her know that things had stopped and that I was going to bed.

I drifted off to sleep, but was awoken with pressure waves again at 5 AM.  The waves were very random ranging from 5 to 12 minutes apart.  I lay in bed timing contractions and trying to get some work done on my laptop until 9 AM.  At that point, I figured that if a pattern wasn’t organizing itself, that it was probably false labor – AGAIN!  I made a joke about it to my husband and started my day.

I decided to stay home from work because – even if it was false labor – I was mentally frustrated and would probably be a distraction to my coworkers.  I called my doula around 11 AM because I was very frustrated.  The waves wouldn’t go away, but yet, they wouldn’t get closer together either!

• She told me to make a conscious decision that this was my early birthing time and to start listening to my birth day affirmations.
• She recommended that I release the fear that the waves may stop again.
• Finally, she recommended that I stop frustrating myself by timing the waves and just trust that my body would know if they were getting closer together and getting more intense.

All of that advice allowed me to relax and at that point, I turned on the Birth Day Affirmations, turned to center and started nesting.

That bath felt so good and was so peaceful!  I turned on the jets and leaned on the side letting the water hit my belly during the waves.  I was enjoying being totally quiet and totally by myself.  About ten minutes into the affirmations, I realized that I had already had three or four waves!  I decided to time a few on contractionmaster.com.  I had the laptop on the floor right out of the tub, so when a wave would come, I would lean over the side of the tub, press the space bar, and turn off.  The waves were coming 2 ½ minutes apart and were lasting 90 seconds.  I was still so calm, relaxed and comfortable that I had a hard time believing that they were that close.  I didn’t want to get out of the tub… REALLY didn’t want to get out!

But, I knew that if I didn’t, we could end up in trouble.  I didn’t think that I was in transition, but I knew that if I hit transition, we might not make it to the hospital since in my last birthing time, I progressed from 5 cm. to delivered in 20 minutes.  I hauled myself out of the tub, got dressed and went to wake up my husband.  Upon telling him how close the contractions were, he hurriedly loaded up the car!

We took off for the hospital, but had to turn back about 5 minutes into the trip since we forgot to leave our car keys with my mother in law!  I was joking with my husband that it seemed like the waves were spacing out and would probably stop before we got there. I put on my makeup in the visor mirror and just turned to off for my waves.  I was still very comfortable and assumed that if this was my real birthing time, I was probably at 4 or 5 cm.  When we got to the hospital at around 5:45 PM, my husband dropped me off at L&D.  I walked in and waited for him at the elevator.  I realized things had picked up when I had three waves just waiting for him to walk in from the car.

When we checked in at L&D, I was still answering questions, walking on my own, and turning to off when I had a wave.  I didn’t even need to lean on my husband.  I just stood in a wide stance, dropped my head, closed my eyes and swayed.  The nurse took us to triage, but after watching me turn off a couple times, she said that we were going straight to a room.

I got on the gown, and gave her a urine sample.  Thank goodness my hypnodoula arrived at that time!  I was having more trouble turning off while they were putting the heplock in and strapping on the monitors to establish a baseline.  She was great at reminding me to release and saying scripts to me to help me go deeper.  The nurse checked me once the monitors were in place and to everyone’s surprise, I was 8 cm!!!  Wow!  Walking, talking, calm and collected at 8 cm!  I love Hypnobabies!!!

My doctor came in about that time.  I asked if he would let me get into the jacuzzi tub.  He laughed and said that he didn’t think so, since I was already at an 8.  I begged him, so he agreed if he could check me first.  He found that I was completely dilated, so the jacuzzi was definitely not an option!!!  I was instinctively moaning through my waves at that point.  My doula was encouraging me to “breathe the baby down” pushing as I felt the need.  We did that for a few minutes and then I had the urge to turn on my side.  She held my top leg up to open up my pelvis, while my husband held my hands.  I got a strong urge to push, and my water broke spraying three to four feet across the room!  That relieved a lot of the pressure for a few minutes.

I could then feel Jillian’s head move down.  Honestly, that was the only time that I felt any fear or trepidation.  I was scared that pushing would hurt so I tensed up which made the pressure more intense.  My husband, my doula and my doctor all encouraged me to slow down, relax my bottom and breathe.  It was hard to relax, but I focused very hard, gathered myself and gave a couple huge pushes.  I think I sounded like a momma lion during those pushes!  That was all it took!  Jillian came sliding out at 6:47 PM – less than one hour after arriving at the hospital!

Jillian was pink, alert and nursed immediately for over 45 minutes.  Her apgar scores were 9 and 9.  She was more alert than my first three, because she was completely unmedicated and because it was such a peaceful birth!

After the doctor checked me out, he found that I didn’t tear at all, even though I had scar tissue from two previous episiotomies and a previous tear!  All it took was delivering on my side instead of on my back and my ob using olive oil and perineal support as Jillian crowned!  Because Jillian was able to nurse so well immediately following birth, my ob was able to skip the pitocin shot – my uterus was already contracting very well on its own.  All said… my only medical intervention was a heplock which we agreed to.  That’s not bad for a hospital birth with an ob!

In summary, this was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life! It was not scary, painful or out of control.  I was able to have my 8 year old son and 12 year old daughter present for the birth, and was able to give them the wonderful gift of watching a peaceful, comfortable birth, which is something they will remember for the rest of their lives.  I was also able to give Jillian the gift of an unmedicated start to life!  It was everything that I hoped for!  Thank you Hypnobabies!!!

Jennifer

Read Full Post »

Danielle – Dad caught her while Nurses were scurrying about.

Hypnobabies rocks!  Keep practicing and I know you all will be amazed on your baby’s beautiful birth day.  I’ll post Danielle’s complete birth story soon but here are the highlights in a nutshell:

Danielle Nicole was born on  January 12 at 8:39 pm (guess date was Jan 21st).  She was 6 pounds 15 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long at birth.

She is doing very well – eating like a champ and her mom, dad and brother are just in awe.  I was able to convince the doctors to discharge us just shy of 24 hours after she was born and we have been much more comfortable getting to know each other at home!

I was able to use all my Hypnobabies skills to “labor” at home for most of Monday.  We arrived at the hospital just in time on Monday evening – around 6 pm – and she was born about 2 1/2 hours later.

That is not to say that it was a short labor.  I had prodromal labor that began on Saturday.  The regular 5 minutes apart pressure waves began on Monday morning and I was able to stay at home for most of Monday until my water broke around 5 pm and the pressure waves were about 2 minutes apart.

We packed up the car and headed off to the hospital at around 5:30 or so.  Before we knew it the baby was on her way and nothing could have stopped her ;-).  The doctor didn’t get there in time and it was the nurse and Daddy who “caught” her.  I’ll save the details for later.

The humorous part is that when the nurse realized she was coming RIGHT THEN she ran out to get some help.  My poor husband could see that she was coming out and he was all by himself.  I heard him yell “She’s coming NOW!” and then say “Where is the call button?”.   For a brief moment I thought he might be leaving to go find the nurse and I begged him not to leave.  Five seconds later three nurses rushed in just as she was born – one nurse helped to guide her out as my husband caught her while the other nurses started frantically grabbing supplies.  My husband said it looked like a comedy routine down to the baby just about flying across the room.

It was everything I had hoped Hypnobabies would help me with –

• the ability to stay at home as long as possible
• a quick birth once we arrived at the hospital
• an alert, healthy, beautiful baby
• who was able to nurse immediately.

Read Full Post »

Miley’s Vaginal Birth after 4 Cesareans, success even with a mean OB

I was told 19 years ago that I could never have a vaginal birth. This was told to me when I was pregnant with my first child by my doctor. Everyone told me I was just too little and I was just not made to birth a baby. She was a c-section and I had 3 more c-sections after that. Laboring with all of them. One, failure to wait. Two, frank breech. Three, breech. Four, because I didn’t know any different. I knew in my heart I could be normal. I believed this. I just needed someone to believe in me.

I was pregnant with my fifth child. There was only one physician said he would let me try. That’s all I needed to hear. I even scared the midwives and they wouldn’t take me. I finally was going to have a vaginal birth. Well, shortly after that I was devastated to find out I had suffered a miscarriage.

After I got the o.k. we tried again. After trying for one month we were pregnant. I did every thing I could to stay and keep healthy. I took my vitamins, ate healthy, walked 3-5 miles a day and started to see my chiropractor. I also started with Hypnobabies at 13 weeks. (I listened while sleeping at night & used the VBAC cd) Nothing and no one was going to stop me. Thanks to Hypnobabies and my big ‘bubble of peace’ I fought everyone off including my husband.

Here’s my story:

The baby was very low and had been for a couple of weeks. I knew she was going to come early. I didn’t think it would be quite this early though. It was September 5 and I was 36 weeks and 5 days. I woke up at 7:00 a.m. with my water broken. Not a gush, but not a trickle either. I hadn’t had any pressure waves yet. I knew if this was like my last birth they would start soon, even though the last one was a planned section. I woke up my DH and told him today is the day.

At 8:15 my DH called my mom and told her she would need to come and take our DD soon. She is just shy of her third b-day.  We got the kids off to school. Of course, they all wanted to stay home. I started to pack up my things.

9:30 My pressure waves were barely starting.

9:45 They had picked up enough to start timing them. They were 9-10 minutes apart and 30-45 seconds long. I couldn’t feel anything except for tightening. No pain yet. At this point I was getting the car seat put together. I also spent a few minutes cleaning the kitchen.

At 10 a.m. I called my doula to give her heads up. I told her I thought it might be a while so don’t be in any big rush. I was just getting started. She said it was funny I called because she was just thinking of me and how I was. I finished up the kitchen.

10:30 a.m. I went up stairs to get the rest of my things together. I started to time my pressure waves again. To my surprise they were 2 minutes apart 45 seconds long. I knew they were a little closer. I didn’t they were that close because I had NO pain! I called my doula back to let her know. We talked about what I should do, wait it out, her come over, or go to the hospital. I didn’t want to go to soon so I decided to stay at home. Since I wasn’t in any pain I didn’t think she needed to come yet. I went on and put in my birthing day affirmations.

11:30 My mom came over to see how I was doing. She couldn’t believe I was in labor. Finally, I had to ask her to leave so I could stay focused (all she wanted to do was talk). Still no pain, only pressure.

12:00 Mom left. I got in the shower. My pressure waves are 2 minutes apart and 45 seconds long.

12:20 I got out of the shower and laid down. I put in easy first stage. At this point my two year old kept hitting the cd player and turning it off. I told my DH since I couldn’t stay focused because of DD to call my doula and mom and tell them to come. My pressure waves seemed to slow down but were more in tense.

12:25 My doula and mom were called.

12:30 My mom came.  I called my doula and told her I was sweating and shaking. I had also gone to the bathroom and there was bright red blood in the toilet. She was still surprised to see how calm and in control I was. She knew because of my symptoms I was in transformation. We both agreed to meet at the hospital. I didn’t want to get there to early but now I thought I wish we had left sooner. No pain, only tightening.

1:00 We were off to the hospital. I still wasn’t in pain but the pressure waves were very intense. My DH was going 55 mph I told him he might want to go a little faster. That was a very long half hour drive.

1:30 We get to the hospital not before DH tries to go to the doctors office first. I get out of the car with no shoes on. We get buzzed in and I have a pressure wave at the door and this LOUD buzzer goes off. My ipod couldn’t drown this out. With the help of Hypnobabies and my doula I make it through. I opt out of using the wheelchair and choose to walk to triage. They ask me to pee in a cup and put on a gown I decline both and ask if they can just get me to a room.

Of course, they have to check me here first. I think they all about fell on the floor when they found out I just had an anterior lip and was +1. That got them moving a little faster.

The rest of  this I am blurry on times. I remember getting to LDR and my doula tells my DH that I was pushing. I didn’t even know I was until she pointed it out. I was vocalizing at this point. Things were so intense I don’t know what I would of done without Hypnobabies or my doula.

The next thing I knew this doctor walks in that wasn’t my OB. My OB catches his own. I ask who he was. He was filling in for my OB. This was not in my plans. From the start he was rude and wanted to intervene in every way he could. My BOP was tested tremendously. I fought him for two hours. Love that BOP.

The hospital was NOT Hypnobabies or naturally birth friendly at all. He said I should be glad he was there because no one else would take me after so many c-sections. He asked if I wanted him to leave. I said yes, then he wouldn’t go! He said no one else would take as a patient. Whatever!

He also kept saying he was only giving me 15 more minutes then he was using forceps or the vacuum, this would speed things up and ease up any pain. One of the nurses said he had somewhere to be. They turned the lights on, I was center stage for people to came watch, I was told I was only thinking about me not my baby because I wouldn’t use interventions, and they told me as the baby was crowning that if I didn’t use an internal monitor I would have a dead baby! Her strip was fine. He just wanted to be in control.

I still say my BOP protected me, if only my DH knew how to use it. I was doing MUCH better than him. Also, I did get to reach down and touch my babies head, that was AWESOME!

3:28 My baby was born. The mean doctor did two episiotomies without consent! As he was sewing me up from my 2nd degree laceration when my doctor walks in. He drove in from two hours away driving 80-100 mph to catch the baby only to miss it by 10 minutes at the most. The mean doctor was giving my doctor some big spiel about how I had ruptured and I needed an IV. Yes, I won with the IV and hep-lock, I didn’t have one. I even got to wear my own clothes-no gown. I think the way I was all over the bed it would have been the way.

So, my doctor checked me and said ‘no, I hadn’t ruptured and there was no need for it’. I think he was really bummed he missed it.

I had done it. A 100% natural VBA4C. No meds at all. This gives me the courage to do it again!

In the end, it was a very bittersweet day. It was a year ago today that I found out that I had miscarried. And today I was blessed with a perfect baby girl and a natural vaginal birth that everyone doubted I could have. God is good!

Stats:

Miley Reyce

5 lbs. 13 ozs.

19″ long

Apgars: 9 and 9. Pretty good considering ‘I was self centered and the jerk was threatening me with the internal monitor with the baby not doing well’.

4 hour pain free labor-2 hours of BOP pushing. Thank You Hypnobabies!

I couldn’t have done it without my doctor, Hypnobabies, my chiropractor,and my doula.

Read Full Post »

Elliott’s Long Anticipated Birth

Elliott’s Wonderful Hypnobabies Home Water Birth (First Baby)

A bit of background: Before I had Elliott, I had been a doula for about 5 years and a Hypnobabies instructor for about 3 years. We struggled with infertility that whole time so there was such mystery to me surrounding childbirth, even though I worked in the field and loved my job.  I always hoped I would be able to experience pregnancy and childbirth but didn’t know for sure if I would get the opportunity.  When we finally got pregnant on our 5^th attempt at IVF, the first thing I remember thinking was, “I’m going to finally give birth to a baby.” I had a perfectly healthy, although physically difficult pregnancy, dealing with nausea the entire 40 weeks.

I was due on January 28^th, the day before my 35^th birthday and on Feb 1^st, I still had no signs of my birthing time beginning. My brother and his wife called to see if there was anything going on and I told them there was nothing – not a single birthing wave. But I was fine waiting for the baby to come whenever he or she was ready.  I was 40 weeks and 4 days and agreed to a non-stress test at 41 weeks so that’s the only thing I was dreading a little. Otherwise, I was completely fine waiting.

I remember looking at the clock when I got off the phone with them and it was 9:30pm. I felt my pelvis ache when I got off the phone but it passed. I asked my husband if he would read me a Hypnobabies script. I had been mostly listening to the scripts on CD during the maintenance phase of the program. But I loved hearing him read the scripts to me more than listening to them on CD so I was glad he agreed to read me one. It had been a while since we had done that. We probably finished the script at about 10:30 pm. I remember feeling my pelvis ache twice during the script. After the script was over, we turned out the lights and I had another ache in my pelvis that came and went.

I didn’t think anything of these aches because they felt nothing like how anyone had ever described birthing waves to me. To me, it felt like someone was tightening a vice on my pelvic bones. I just figured it was pregnancy discomfort, as I was pretty miserable towards the end of my pregnancy. Then I had another sensation and decided to look at the clock, just to see if there was a pattern. It was 10:59pm.  Another one at 11:09pm. Then around 11:25pm. Then 11:34pm. I got up to use the bathroom and had some bloody show. I hadn’t had any spotting throughout my pregnancy so that was definitely different.

I came back to bed and told DH that I thought someone might be starting.  He went back to sleep and I spent the next half-hour or so just sending my anesthesia to my pelvis and relaxing through the waves. I got up a little after midnight to call the midwife and give her a head’s up, even though I felt silly for calling her so soon. I went back to bed and relaxed through the waves and got up a few times to use the bathroom, only to see more bloody show. I called the midwife back around 3:00am to tell her the waves were still coming and seemed stronger and closer together.  I tried to wait as long as I could to wake up DH but after I called the midwife, I woke him up and told him I thought I needed some help.

The midwife said to try a bath so DH ran a bath for me. I got in and laid on my side and he put the CD player in the bathroom so that I could listen to my Birthing Day Affirmations while he rubbed my lower back, as I was starting to feel discomfort in that area along with my pelvis. Then I would turn on my other side for a while and do the same thing. I felt like I was relaxing very well and just saying, “Ahhhh,” during every wave. At that point, I was making noise because it felt good.  I decided to get out of the bath after an hour or so and tried a few birthing waves leaning over the side of our bed and on my hands and knees.

Around 5:00am, we called the midwife again. She asked if I wanted someone to come be with me but I told her I could call her back in an hour. I called her back in 45 minutes! I told her I probably needed someone to come check on me, as things weren’t slowing down at all. I realized now that I was making noise because I HAD to. I had DH call my mom and tell her to come (she had about an hour drive) and to call my fellow Hypnobabies instructor, Susan, who was going to be at the birth.  I wondered before the birth how I would feel about having people around me while I was in my birthing time but in that moment, all I knew is that I wanted all the help I could get!

My mom thought we were going to call her back later to tell her to definitely come but when DH told me this, I told him  to call her back and tell her to definitely come now!  It seems like everyone got to the house around 7 or 7:30am. I can’t remember who got there first but by that time, the midwife’ assistant and Susan were there, faces smiling knowingly at me! The midwife’s assistant asked it I wanted to be checked and I told her I wasn’t sure because I was worried I wouldn’t be very far along. I asked her what she thought and she said she thought it would be a good idea to see where I was.

So she checked me around 7:45am or so and I was 6cm!  I had never been as happy as I was to hear that!  My birth team started getting the birth pool set up and DH rubbed my back and butt through each birthing wave. Susan ran back and forth to give me physical and verbal cues during birthing waves and work on filling up the birth pool in between. I finally got in around 8:30am. I hung over the edge of the pool and the  water felt so good. I had little bites of bagel and cream cheese in between birthing waves and plenty of water. DH, Susan, and my mom were all surrounding me.

The physical and verbal cues were really helpful because I had practiced them so often and was able to relax instantly when I heard or felt them. I was still breathing deeply and Ahhh’ing through the birthing waves. I felt like I got louder and louder as the intensity of the waves built up. But I was focused on relaxing and it felt good to keep leaning over the edge of the pool. Pretty soon, I started to feel my body bear down and I let the midwife’s assistant know. She called the midwife to give her an update.  They were trying to figure out if she should leave the third-time mom she was currently with or stay with her.

So the midwife’s assistant asked me to get out of the tub to get checked, so they could make a decision. I was fully dilated and it was about 9:00am. I got back in the tub and they called the backup midwife, who was about 45 minutes away.  Susan put the Pushing Baby Out track on in the kitchen where I was. The midwife’s assistant told me to still try not to push but let my body do the pushing. I think that was partly because she wanted the backup midwife to get there but mainly to just allow for a gentle second stage.

I was a little confused about what I should be doing so I tried not to add to my pushing but my body was definitely pushing. It was getting harder to try and relax but I felt where the baby was inside of me and I could feel that he or she was making progress downward so that was inspiring! At one point, I felt a little pop inside and I think that was the hindwaters releasing because I could still feel the forewaters very taut around the baby’s head. The was so much pressure that I thought about asking the midwife’s assistant to break the forewaters but right when I was thinking that, she said how good it was that they were there to protect the baby’s head. The midwife’s assistant let me know that the baby would be crowing in the next few birthing waves.

I remember feeling intense pressure as he or she crowned and I let out my only shriek as the baby’s head came out, although I had to be told that that’s what had just happened. The baby didn’t wait for the next birthing wave but came out all at once instead. It was 10:58am. The midwife said, “There’s the baby,” and nudged him or her between my legs. I turned around quickly and brought the baby up out of the water as I sat down. I looked and said, “Oh!  It’s a boy!”  He was making noises and had a great heart rate. DH laughed and said, “You caught him yourself!”  The back up midwife walked through the door right after he was born. We couldn’t believe we were holding our baby boy after waiting so long for him and that everything had gone so smoothly!

 

Read Full Post »