I felt I needed to write this story of my beautiful baby girl and her coming into this world.
Sorry this is so long but I had a lot of feelings and thoughts
First a few thoughts
My first birth was a great but typical first birth. It was 22 hours of labor and 2 hours of pushing. I did do a natural birth with a midwife with the support of a husband who dealt with many negative comments from his family. It was long and difficult but we had a great midwife so things felt good. When it was over we all felt like it was the way we had wanted it.
Our second birth was completely different except that it was also long 16 hours of labor and 30 min of pushing. We arrived too early at the hospital. Our midwife showed up just in time to catch the baby. The whole experience felt negative except for the fact we had a beautiful little girl. We did this natural also.
As we went into this birth I knew I wanted it very different from the last experience. I started to analyze the two births and how they differed from each other. I started to realize what I wanted and needed to have a wonderful birthing experience. We looked into home birth. And for the first time in my life it didn’t feel right. I had always wanted a home birth and waited for the support from my husband. This time he had said that whatever I wanted to do he would support me and deal with his family. I decided that I didn’t want a home birth and as many times as I revisited where to have our baby, it just never felt right to have her at home.
We found three very wonderful capable midwives after we found an amazing hospital. We had gone to check it out and we felt good right from the start. Everything fell into place after that. I talked to my two best friends who were both looking into hypnobirthing though neither of them had talked to each other and I had never mentioned anything. I found a book at Barnes and noble about hypnobirthing and fell in love with the philosophies about birthing and life in it.
I bought my mother the book who loved that I was looking into it. (She had three homebirths and seven natural births. She was the radical in her family.) My husband though very supportive and loving did not understand the difference in this labor and the last two. And really does great when I go into labor and after I have the baby but struggles with me pregnant. So I was on my own with studying.
I rarely found time to get in practice with the cd. I read the book all the time and talked about it a lot with my mom. I listed what I wanted and tried to implement the changes in my life that would help with this birth. The most important thing I did was to learn to stay calm and positive. Especially with things you can’t change or are unforeseen. I think as I look at my beautiful baby girl that is so calm, that I have bonded faster and easier with her than I did with my last two because I felt more calm during this pregnancy. The pregnancies had the exact same fears and stresses but I handled them so differently that I know it was how I handled them that made this difference.
Ok to get to the birth our guess date was May 26th 2006. Our other two babies were “late” so we were much more patient with this one knowing we would probably go “over”. I went in on my due date and was as big as a house. I felt good that only once I had been asked if we were having twins. But had been asked from about 6months on when we were due because I looked so big.
My midwife checked me and said I was maybe two centimeters if that but I was thin, other than that nothing. She talked about having a stress test done on Tuesday (it was Friday) and let me know they only let women go over 10 days before inducing. I felt good though as we left. I knew my baby was happy and healthy so no worries on the stress test. If I stressed she would. And I scheduled my next appointment further than a week away so I wouldn’t have to worry about them telling me I needed to be induced if I still hadn’t birthed yet.
My mom was in town and was a huge help to me, really to my husband who had started to feel that this pregnancy was going on forever. We all took guesses on when the baby would come, her weight and length, how long labor would be, and what time of day or night she would be born. I didn’t go to church because I hate when every one asks when your due again and I have to tell them last Friday. So Sunday night, May 28th I had been having a few mild pressure waves and thought how I wanted to take a nice relaxing shower and than just go to bed. For some reason I felt very stressed by everything and very overwhelmed by my house my family and my size. My shower ended up cold because of people running water down stairs. I came out even more upset and kind of yelled at my husband, who in turn kind of yelled at my mom. I put on my birthing cd and actually listened to it and relaxed. I got into bed earlier than normal 10pm and fell asleep. About 12:44am I woke up and went to the bathroom. As I came back to bed I realized I was having a pressure wave. I have never been awakened by one so I knew this was something. I tried to calm myself down and go back to sleep. Maybe 20 minutes later I needed to go to the bathroom again. I had a little of an upset stomach and realized this is defiantly it. And then my water broke (perfect timing over the toilet!!). My water has never broke on it’s own before so this was new and exciting. I put on a pad and went back to bed. But I had to focus on relaxing and my deep breathing through each wave, and I would go to the bathroom every 10 -20 min., so not a lot of sleep was happening.
I decided to wait to wake up Dan until 3am if I could. He struggled with lack of sleep through our last one and I needed him to be awake. Around 2:35 am he coughed and woke up because of heartburn. As he came back to bed I told him I was in labor and that my water had broke. He quickly thought we had to run into the hospital. (He’s too cute) I told him no, everything looked good. But my pressure waves were about every 5-7 minutes apart. He ran to get the phone and spoke to my mom who was up now and new something was going on since we were up at 3 am. My midwife said we should plan on going to the hospital since this was our third with contractions that close together and my water breaking. So we quickly threw some things together told my sister (who came to the hospital later after some friends showed up to watch the two others) we were leaving. We went down stairs and got into the car.
It was pouring rain as we left. The hospital is only five minutes away from our house so no real rush. We left around 4am. As we were heading through a four way traffic light that was flashing yellow, my husband sees something coming to his right and in a split second realizes it’s a fire truck heading into the same intersection as we are. They had not turned on the sirens yet so we had not heard them coming. My Amazing husband decided to slam on his brakes and we slid to the left as the fire truck barely misses us as they sped through the intersection. They had not put on their brakes as it wouldn’t have done anything in time. I braced myself and luckily we slid because of the rain so slamming on the brakes didn’t jolt us to badly. I am so grateful nothing happened. And I am grateful my husband is a great driver and a quick thinker.
Any way, back to the birth, they were expecting us at the hospital so they had a wheel chair at the door for us. I quickly sat down. The pressure waves were about every 4-5 minutes apart and the pressure when I stood up were quite intense. Dan commented how calm I was and how I was handling them so well. They put me into a room right away and I changed into a gown and then laid on the bed for monitoring. I normally would have minded but it felt good still to lie down and I was a little cold so they brought heated blankets and my hubby put my socks on. We went through some questions and every time a pressure wave came on the nurse would quickly stop talking and wait for the wave to finish. She was really so sweet. They never checked me they just said that when Kathy my midwife arrived she could check me.
I asked if I could get into the Jacuzzi tub and they said that was alright. So around 4:45 am I got into the tub and totally relaxed. My hubby sat in there with me and sprayed me with the shower head because I was so big my stomach wasn’t covered by the water. He also plugged the drain with a washcloth to fill it up with more water. I was relaxing to the point of sleeping in between each wave. When one would come I would relax my body and breath deep until I felt it release. My mom and the nurse would come and ask Dan what was going on and he told them I was sleeping. They just assumed my labor was slowing down or stopping. (No that was hypnobirthing!) It made the nurse a little worried so she came in with a Doppler to make sure the baby was ok, which she was.
After an hour and a half 6:25am the water was cold and so I decided to get out. The midwife was there. So I stayed naked. They wrapped heated blankets around me. I got back on the bed and they did some more monitoring. Kathy asked if I wanted to be checked and I wanted to know where I was at. So she checked me and I was at 7cm and fully effaced. I was still able to carry on a normal conversation with Kathy as if I was in early labor, but I was in the middle of transition. The pressure waves were more intense and coming closer together. When one would come I would quietly moan that helped so much. My mom would remind me to relax my face and than Kathy would chime in to relax my hands to and not to squeeze my hands because it was the same as my face. I was amazed at how supportive she was to just let me do what I wanted and yet she would encourage when needed. She apologizes for being a little later than she planned. She was worried she would beat us to the hospital and took a shower so she looked nicer. We all laughed. My sister walked in around 7am.
Kathy said I should try lying on my side. To deliver and to help my pressure waves pick up. They had really calmed down. That worked! I quickly grabbed Dan tightly and held his arms and hands with mine. Around this time they started to bring in the heating lamp for the baby. The nurse also came in and asked if we would mind, but there is a doctor who is starting his rotations and would like to come in to witness this birth. He had seen un-medicated but they had all been moms who had given birth many times. Kathy asked us and said it is always good to show someone the right way to have a baby. To all of you who have OB’s and like them I am sorry for my next comments. He was a total ass. He came in and was my age (young). He shook my foot. (Never touch a woman you don’t know in labor!!!!!!) And when our midwife introduce him by his first name to us he quickly corrected her and said “Dr. *****”. My husband got annoyed at this also. After that he turned to the midwife and said, “Well let me know when she starts to push.” and walks out. After one intense side pressure wave she said whenever I felt the need or urge to push go ahead. I thought to breathe through two of them and then I just needed to push. And I did. It did feel really good to bear down and direct my body. My thought at this point is that I really don’t want to do this for two hours, like my first.
Dan was now at my feet with my mom at my side. And after the second push Kathy told me to push a little harder and the head came out. The cord was wrapped around her neck twice so she quickly told me I had to push a little harder and Dan helped (with help from Kathy) the rest of her come out at 8:110am. Kathy kept telling him to rub her to get her to breathe because she was really blue and wasn’t breathing yet. And after a few seconds our baby girl Aliya Rose took a big beautiful first breath!!!
I didn’t tear, which is always good! I think my first thoughts were how nice it was to be over that stage and on to the next so soon. She was perfect. Well perfect with a little scowl on her face. She nursed instantly. It was the perfect birth for us!! She was born May 29th 2006 she weighed 8lbs10oz and was 20in. And for us that was a wonderfully short labor and birth
The Doctor was there for it, a nurse ran and got him, and later said he had never seen a natural birth that was so calm. My midwife agreed, When she arrived the nurse had told her I had been sleeping; she thought we would be there a lot longer. She said she thought it was great. I was so calm and in control and relaxed. My Mom can’t stop saying the praises of hypno birthing! She has been to all three of my births and said this one doesn’t compare to the others. I have to agree this was amazing!!!
Sara mom of Dallin, Emma, and our first but not last hypno birth baby Aliya