My Birth Story

On Monday, May 5^th, I went to my appointment with the midwife. My due date was on May 3^rd, so she started talking about the possibility of inducing labor since they can not continue my care if I am over due too long. I did not want to be induced so I let her strip my membranes. That was not a comfortable experience. She said that the baby was not straight in the birth canal. She could feel an ear while she was doing it. !!

After my appointment we went bike shopping for Brian with my mom. I was cramping and bleeding but nothing much was happening. Brian bought his bike and my mom and I went shopping. When Brian got back we went on a walk. When we were starting back I started cramping. It started getting so I did not want to walk through them. When we got back home we decided to go out on what may have been our last date before the baby. We went to “Color Me Mine” and painted some pottery for the baby. It was really fun.

We got back around 10:30 and I went to bed around 11:30. Around 1:00 I woke up feeling contractions but went back to sleep. By 2:00 I could no longer sleep and woke up my mom and we started timing contractions. Around 5:30 they were 45-1:00 minute long and only about 3-4 minutes apart and we decided to go to the hospital. I was trying to stay very relaxed and using my hypnobabies suggestions. We got to the hospital at 6:00 and they admitted me to the triage. When they checked me I was 3 centimeters dilated. The midwife on call started me on antibiotics and after an hour I was at a 4. They decided to admit me and we called the doula. Our doula was out of town and the backup was already at a birth so we got the backup to the backup (Megan) and she was AMAZING. When she got there she started me walking up and down the hall over and over again. Anytime a contraction came on I would put my arms around Brian and Megan would put counter pressure on my hips. We also tried sitting on the toilet. Not fun.. The midwife on call (Sue) came and checked me at noon. She asked if I wanted to know where I was and I said only if it was good news such as a 7 or 8. Ha. She didn’t say anything and in my mind I told myself that I was at least a 6. J After I asked what I had been. My mom told me that I had only been at a 5. I am glad I didn’t know that because I would have been very disappointed. At that point I started losing control a little and I kept saying that I did not think I could do it anymore. Megan told me to just get through one at a time and that my endorphins would kick it up a notch if I could just last 20 more minutes. It actually was 40 minutes but I put on my birthing day affirmations and completely zoned out. Sometimes the doula or the midwife would try to talk to me and I would be in the middle of a contraction but they could not tell because they were watching me and not the computer. I asked to be checked again so I got into bed and I was at an 8. I just staid in bed. I was so tired that I was falling asleep in between contractions and completely zoning out during them. I asked to be checked again and she said 9 ½!! I started to get my sense of humor back and it wasn’t very long before I looked up and told Sue that I needed to poop. That got everyone hustling to get everything ready for baby. I wanted a squatting bar and they hunted one out of storage. I pushed for a while that way but my legs started to get really tired. Megan got on the bed behind me and I put my feet on the bar to push. They also brought out a mirror so I could see her crowning. That made me push harder! I only pushed for maybe 30 min and she came out! They hustled her to the respiratory therapist and I just bawled. I couldn’t believe I had my baby! She was just beautiful. Didn’t have a cone head at all. They finally finished with her and I was so glad to hold her.

My support people were totally awesome. Brian was amazing. He was with me every minute. I love him tons!! I could not have done it without them. I was so glad that I was able to have my baby naturally. Hypnobabies rocked! It totally works.