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Sean's Birth
We had just come back from a 2 week beach vacation with our 14 month
old son Aidan and my parents. Sean's guess date was still 2 weeks
away, and since Aidan came 3 days after his guess date I wasn't
expecting the birth to occur any time soon. I was wrong. DH and I
finally had some intimate time and this kick-started the birthing
waves (same thing happened with our first son). So 10pm on Sunday
night. The waves started out at about 5 min apart, and I had to use
the ladies room since my body was apparently "cleansing" before
birth time.
I still could not believe this was it. I had back labor with my first son
and it was intensely p***ful - this was not. It was intense and I can't say
there was no p***, but I had
rest in between waves that I didn't have with the back labor the
first time. The waves were quite intense and I squatted and leaned
back into DH during each one, while I used the belly lift technique
and DH gave me a hip squeeze. This helped to relieve pressure and
allowed me to direct energy into the process. I would also repeat
some of the Hypnobabies phrases in my mind (especially "open") and
make sure I relaxed my pelvic floor and cervix.
After an hour of birthing waves we decided it might be time to pack a bag
because
this really is it. At about 11:30, I called my mom to come over to
watch Aidan. She was at our house by midnight and we took off to
the hospital. I listened to the Hypnobabies birth time sequence on
the mp3 player on the way and when I got there. After checking in
and answering some questions, the nurse checked me at 12:41pm and I
was 4-5cm. I then felt "pushy", I gave it a go and pushed my water
out.
After that I had 2 or 3 extremely intense waves, so intense
that I asked for drugs -- since I was only 4-5cm I thought I still
had hours to go and there was no way I could keep up with that
intensity... well after those waves, I felt the baby move down and
told them I was going to start pushing (I guess the waves would have
to be pretty intense to dilate me 5+cm in a matter of minutes!).
The nurse told me to wait and checked me and her response was "Oh
no, this can't be... you are complete". No need for drugs! So they
rushed doc in, prepped for "catching" and in 2 pushes, out came baby
Sean, born at 1:03am, weighing 6lb 14.6oz and 18in long. I had a
2nd degree tear, doc stitched me up and I was good to go.
I imagined Sean's birth time to be between 2-4 hours total, and it
ended up being 3 from first wave to birth. Not bad! It was a
miracle birth, I felt like a million bucks afterwards. I know it
was because I practiced Hypnobabies everyday and kept a positive
attitude about the birth.
Sean latched on at 2:30am for a good first meal. He then slept for
hours and was not interested in eating. That was ok though.
When the nurse came in at 8am to check our vitals, she heard a murmur in
Sean's heart. (Side note: I had a blissful pregnancy with not one
problem and his 20 week ultrasound showed nothing abnormal). It
turned out that he had a congenital heart abnormality called
pulmonary stenosis. The valve in his heart was severly constricted
and could not pump blood to his lungs. They transferred him to the
NICU at New England Medical Center in Boston and kept him on
medication for days until they could do the procedure, which was a
cardiac catheterization and ballooning to open the valve - no need
for open heart surgery, thank goodness.
Thank you to the entire nursing staff at NMEC for taking such wonderful
care of Sean (and
us!), and to the doctors who performed his procedure, Dr. Nagm from NMEC and
Dr. de Moor from Massachusetts General Hospital, for fixing our son's heart
and saving his life.
It was a trying week for DH and
I, but we have a huge support system and lots of prayers went out for Sean and
were answered. We are so grateful. He came home with
us on 07/17/07 and is as perfect as can be.