The birth story of Emerson (Emmy)
Home Hypnobabies Waterbirth
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Julie at 9cm
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Waiting for urge
to push
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Right after water
broke, midwife checking heart tones
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Right after Julie
caught her own baby!
Friday 9/28/2007
My home visit had been planned for about three weeks. Diane, my
midwife as well as my doula Terry came at 9AM to look at the house,
get to meet each other and to do the normal baby check-up stuff.
Everyone stayed for about an hour and departed saying they would just
await the call.
Jeremiah and I had taken our oldest daughter Haven to preschool and
our son Liam was staying with his Great Grandma since we had the visit
so we decided to go grocery shopping. Pressure waves had been
occurring for quite a few days and had been intense, but not timeable
nor increasing in length. We arrived back at home, put groceries away
and went to pick up the kid's.
My parents arrived at about 9:00PM. They had planned a visit for the
weekend to help Jeremiah finish his "honey-do list" and to spend some
tie with the kids before the new baby came. Pressure waves had been
occurring and I was feeling quite a bit of pressure with them, but
they were still not timeable and felt just like Braxton Hicks. At
around 10 I asked my mom to feel my belly as one came and she was able
to feel how tight it became. We all joked about the baby coming later
in the night. I never guessed in a million years that our joke would
turn to reality! I decided to watch Numbers and find a Birthing wave
calculator online. At 11:00 I began pushing the spacebar when one
would begin and again when it would end. Jeremiah went to bed and I
brought the computer into our room and told my mom I was going to bed
as well. I continued to use the counter and found that there was
indeed a pattern of 10-15 minutes apart lasting 1 minute each. I
decided to go to bed since something similar had happened the night
before. I just could not fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. I
continued to use the counter and began turning my light switch to the
off position when a birthing wave would begin. The process went
something like this:
1. Pressure starting down low
2. Hit spacebar to begin timer
3. Move light switch to the off position
4. Pressure gains in intensity and goes away
5. Switch to center and hit space bar to stop timer
Haven woke up and came into our room at about 12:00AM. I took her back
to her room and covered her up, knowing that another pressure wave
would begin fairly soon. I prayed that she would just stay and go back
to sleep with no problem and she did. By 12:30 the pressure waves had
gone from 10-15 minutes to 4-7 minutes. I tried to wake up Jeremiah,
but he wouldn't budge. I decided to go and get a drink of water and
then get in the tub to see if they would stop. Since I was only
feeling pressure I was very unclear as to if this was really "it". I
got in the tub and continued with my process from above. The water
felt so nice and I relaxed well into the off position. By 1:00AM I
decided to get out to go to the bathroom. It was very true about your
body emptying out before birth, yet another sign I neglected in
realizing that this was indeed the real deal! The timer was also
showing birthing waves being between 1-3 minutes apart, some had even
double peaked, yet all felt as pressure. I went back into our bedroom
and woke Jeremiah up. I ended up in tears trying to get him to listen
to me! It was the emotional release I needed. He woke up fairly
quickly at that point and got dressed. I decided to call Diane at
1:41AM. I told her I wasn't sure if it was the real thing, but wanted
to let her know that my pressure waves were coming between 1-3 minutes
apart and lasting 1.5 to 2 minutes long. I ended up having to put the
phone down 4 times during the conversation and sway on the bed
vocalizing a bit with each wave that came. Diane decided that she
would head on over and let me know that if it wasn't "it" that it
wasn't a big deal! I called my doula and told her I thought things
were moving along quite quickly and since she was over an hour away I
wanted to wait for Diane to check me and then I would let her know. I
told Jeremiah to go ahead and begin filling up the birthing tub and I
decided to go in and let my mom know I needed help. I asked them to
take the baby monitor and listen for the kids and the dog and I asked
mom to come and get the bed fixed with plastic and old sheets. At
2:30AM I demanded that Jeremiah call Diane to make sure she was on her
way! Haven had woken up at this point and I was able to switch to
center and smile at her and let her know I was fine. Diane was at the
house at 2:40 and brought in her things and set it up. Birthing waves
were coming 2-3 minutes apart and I began needing Jeremiah to catch me
at the beginning of each wave. He held me from the front and I relaxed
and vocalized through each one. At 3:00AM I asked Diane to check me.
She looked very pleased and let me know I was a 9! She checked heart
tones and they were great. I never waned to get out of a bed so
quickly in my life! I decided to get into the tub even though it
wasn't filled up yet. There was just enough water to cover my belly
and it felt so good. Jeremiah called Terry (my doula) and told her she
wouldn't make it.
Let me stop here and just add something really neat! During this time
I was listening to my early first stage Hypnobabies track. Just as
Diane arrived the track was talking about the caregiver arriving and
just as she was about to check me it began talking about just that! It
was amazing!
Jeremiah added some more water, which covered my low back. I started
feeling a bit pushy at about 3:30. I asked Diane to check me to be
sure a lip of cervix wasn't remaining and Jeremiah to put in my
pushing baby out track over the speakers. Diane checked heart tones
and they sounded good. I began pushing and was able to check myself to
see if I could feel the baby coming down. I couldn't feel anything at
this point. By about 3:50 I was getting discouraged and began to cry a
little bit. I could feel the head and the bulging bag of waters, but I
couldn't push the baby any farther down. I told Diane that I wanted
her to break my waters because I knew it would go fast after that. I
ended up pushing through two more birthing waves. At 4:04AM she broke
my bag. Things became very intense, as I couldn't stop from pushing. I
held my hand down as she crowned and eased her out. Diane was watching
with a flashlight and told me to get my baby. One more push and I
reached down and brought the baby up out of the water! I held and
talked and sat on my knees in amazement. I then decided to look to see
what we had! A baby girl!!! Jeremiah went out and got Haven and
brought her in and then I asked my parents to come on in.
I got out of the tub to birth the placenta, which came within 10
minutes. Emerson Leone nursed at 8 minutes of age and hasn't stopped
since! She weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 19 inches long! She is
our pride and joy!
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Sweet Emmy!