Sofia's birth story:

PRE-LABOR:
I started noticing surges off and on around March 12th. I determined
that they were a little more than Braxton Hicks and realized I needed
to get myself in gear because I had a long list of things I needed to
do before baby arrived (I'm doing my Masters and had a test I wanted
to take before the baby got here). I took the test on Wednesday and
again began having some surges during the test and had to relax some
before driving myself home that evening. They went away after a nap.
On Thursday evening, I lost my mucus plug and began having some bloody
show. All new to me since I had never had any pre-labor signs with
Paulina. I decided to skip my aqua aerobics class and instead nested
around the house until bed time. I worked at home Friday anticipating
the start of labor and sure enough, I began to have "real" surges
Friday night around 11:30. At first I actually questioned what they
were but soon realized that I recognized these as more powerful surges
with a beginning, middle and end. They picked up a pattern of about 5
to 7 minutes apart and by 2:30 in the morning, I was up baking cookies
for the nurses (I like to bribe nurses at the hospital – they tend to
be more open to my birth plan with a cookie in their mouth).

EARLY LABOR:
At around 5:30 I called my doctor's office to tell them that my surges
were around 5 minutes apart and they promptly told me to call back
when they were 3 to 4 minutes apart. I then waited and called my
back-up doula at around 8:30 in the morning. I was a trying to be as
open as I could be considering that my doula was out of town until
Saturday evening and my doctor wouldn't be on-call again until Sunday
at 8:00 AM. My back-up doula was very supportive and even though we
had never met, she made me feel very comfortable and put me at ease
right away. I think it was helpful that I had called her earlier in
the week to talk just in case the big even happened while my doula was
on vacation. I took a nearly 2 hour warm bath that morning and a good
friend called that I hadn't talked to since the holidays. I told her
that I must be sending out labor vibes since she thought to call me
that morning out of the blue. The bath really helped with the surges
and I can see why a hot bath is called the mid-wives epidural. It is
so relaxing and really takes the edge of the power of the surges. I
remember getting on my hands and knees in the bath tub and gently
moving my hips back and forth while listening to one of my older
daughter's children's' CDs. The swaying motion not only took my mind
of my present condition but made feel productive as I figured that it
was helping ensure my baby was in a good position to be born. After my
bath I don't remember everything I did, only that I ate a light lunch
and that time was not a continuum but a scattered series of moments:
playing with my daughter, talking to my husband and mother and
listening to my hypnobirthing CD's (especially my birthing affirmations).

That afternoon, my cousin called to chat (also someone I don't talk to
that often) and I again thought that I must be sending out labor vibes
to other mothers in my life. The interesting thing was that around
4:00 PM my surges seemed to just go away. It was as if my baby said –
ok, this is a lot of work and I'm going to rest and let mommy rest. I
called the back-up doula and asked her what she thought. We both
agreed that I should take advantage and rest, especially since I
wanted to wait until Sunday morning to have the baby. My doula finally
arrived back home around 7:00 and promptly called me. I was so happy
to know she was here and I think she was very glad that baby waited as
well. I told her that I would want to go to the hospital in the
morning to see my doctor and evaluate the situation. Meanwhile, I
would take a long bath and shower and then rest.

ACTIVE LABOR AT HOME:
That night my surges came and went but I was able to sleep and rest
between them until about 4:30 when I got up and my husband and I hit
the road at 5:00 for a nice long walk. We have a Starbucks very close
by so we headed out and walked back and forth until they opened –
hubby wanted caffeine. I remember going up and down the stairs at the
coffee shop while he got me some zucchini bread (yum). While we
walked, I noticed little gushes – nothing big but definite gushes and
thought that maybe it was my water. I had been having a good amount of
bloody show and had noticed a slicker discharge Saturday afternoon but
didn't think anything of it. After talking to my doula, we called the
hospital and told them that my surges were still 5 to 7 minutes apart
but that my water might have broken. That got me a ticket to the
hospital without passing go. We stopped by our favorite taco place on
the way to the hospital as well as the yoga studio to get some music I
wanted to use during birthing (we lost the cd in the hospital during
the birth of our other daughter three years ago). We arrived to a very
busy hospital around 9 with our doula waiting for us in the waiting
area. I was so excited and revved up because my doula was there and I
caught a glimpse of my doctor so I knew she was indeed there that day.

ACTIVE LABOR IN HOSPITAL:
There were two other couples wanting to be admitted and I started to
get nervous that they would send me home. I felt so sorry for the
other two women. They looked so sad and actually kind of sick. I was
standing with my hubby and doula chatting it up on a Sunday morning.
Every time I felt a surge coming on, I would turn to the wall, put my
hands on the wall and go inside myself and hum until it was over. They
seemed really mild and that made me more nervous about being sent home
due to being too early in labor. When the nurse checked my fluid she
confirmed that my water had broken and asked about when it happened.
I actually didn't know so I just told her that the gushes started
Sunday morning. She then told me she would check my cervix. When she
did, I saw that she looked a little confused and she actually said
"This can't be right, let me check again".  I asked what the matter
was and said, "I can't be less than 2 cm because that's what I was two
weeks ago". My doula reminded her that I had been laboring since
Friday night. The nurse then said, "Well, you are 7 cm and 100 %
effaced". I was so happy that I pumped my fist and said "YES!".

My doula and I went walking around the L&D to get things going, we talked
and laughed, I'm sure we were quite a sight to others. I saw one of
the couples from the waiting area being sent home and again I felt so
said that there are women out there that think labor has to be a
negative experience.

Again, time seemed to be moments here and there but not a continuous stream. Then they decided to have me on continuous monitoring because my baby's heart rate dropped below 100 during a surge.  I would look at the clock and would be amazed that so
much time had gone by. Meanwhile, my surges never got closer than
about 5 minutes apart. I was checked at 8 (almost 9) and asked my
doctor what I could do to get this show on the road, she suggested I
lay on my left side if I could tolerate it. I remembered that (weird
as it seems) this worked really well during my older daughter's
birthing and decided to lay on my left and then right side for about
45 minutes each. The surges felt much stronger when I did this, but I
listed to my birthing affirmations and imagined (as I did during my
first labor) that I was going up in a rollercoaster as the surge began
and then down as it ended. I wish I could imagine something more
natural (like ocean waves) but the rollercoaster always gets me
through even the most powerful surge.

My doctor checked me at some point that afternoon and told me that I was a stretchy 9 and barely had a lip on the right side to get to a full 10. I continued to lay on
my right side when all of a sudden I felt very, very ill. I tossed my
gum and went to the bathroom when I started vomiting over and over in
the sink. Things became very intense around 4 PM and I was shaky and
very uncomfortable for about 15 minutes and then it passed. I did
continue to have a strange pain on my left side for another half hour
or so as I rested. I knew the real work was about to begin.

At 5 we started pushing, I was starting to get tired and I knew that I had
real mental blocks with pushing a baby out. I had had a difficult time
with my first (2 hrs 45 minutes and a 9 ½ pound baby) and I was
actually scared of what laid ahead. We tried several positions,
including squatting with the help of a squat bar (which is how my
first was born, hands and knees and on my side, but the best position
this time actually ended up being me on my back with my legs on the
squat bar and pulling myself up with a knotted sheet.

After an hour of pushing through very mild surges, I asked the nurse "does this
hospital routinely give pitocin after birth to contract the uterus".
She said, "yes, but we know from your birth plan that you don't want
that so it will be up to the Dr.". I then surprised myself and asked
the nurse to call my doctor, who was catching a baby down the hall, to
allow a minimal dose of pitocin now to start my surges again. I just
didn't see me being able to push with such mild surges. I also knew
that I could handle pitocin pretty well since I had been induced with
Paulina Belen and had done it without an epidural. The pitocin got the
surges going around 6:30 or so and I could tell that my baby was now
making progress. Unfortunately, her heart rate dropped really low a
few times and I became scared that they were going to want to have
some sort of medical intervention to get her out quicker. However, I
have a wonderful doctor who was not too concerned because baby's heart
rate was going back up quickly.

My pushing was effective but not without p***. This was mainly because my doctor was stretching me as I pushed, I remember pushing and then yelling "THAT REALLY H****". My
legs started shaking – and I made my husband and a nurse hold them for
me. I laid back and exclaimed that I just couldn't do this anymore. My
wonderful doula was right there holding my hand, telling me how good I
was doing and that I was made to birth this baby. My husband was also
great, he kept telling me to look in the mirror for inspiration (this
had been very useful with my first birth) but I didn't want to, I was
scared that this baby would stay crowning for a long time and I didn't
think I could do that again.

My husband insisted that I touch the baby's head and much to my surprise, her head was halfway out. I asked my doctor if I should push and she told me to do whatever felt right,
push or just let Mother Nature do her thing. I lay there through the
next surge and actually felt the baby's head easing out. Then I just
had to push and my doctor asked me then to stop for a second but I
couldn't and Sofia Leonora was born. I had a minor first degree tear
along the episiotomy scar from my first birth and that's it. My baby
lay on my tummy for the longest time and it was so wonderful to
finally meet her (March 18 at 7:18 PM). We were both very surprised it
was a girl. She's our second hypnobaby and surprise baby and having
another girl is so much fun (especially when everyone told me it was a
boy). Sofia is a very calm and patient baby and a very good eater. I
think her slow and gentle birth have attributed to her being so
peaceful this last week.

Happy birthing everyone! : )

Jessica