A Hypnobabies Birth Story

mdarmetko · July 2014

This is a bit long winded, but I added in more details than usual for my fellow Hypnomoms as I really felt those birth stories helped me. Thanks in advance for reading and enjoy!

One of my dogs woke me up around 1:30am crying and whimpering, so I assumed he had to go outside and I let him out. I thought it was a little strange since my husband had taken the dogs out before he came to bed a couple of hours before. Regardless, I let him out and he did his business, but was still acting strange. At this point I was feeling nothing out of the ordinary. An hour later, at 2:30am, I woke up with menstrual like cramping. I went to the restroom and thought “Is this what a contraction feels like? Is this the real thing or am I having practice wave?.” (Side note: contractions are called “pressure waves” in Hypnobabies).

I crawled back into bed and tried to listen to some of my Hypnobabies tracks, but nothing put me to sleep like they usual do. At 3:30 I went to the restroom and TADA! Bloody show. Now I feel more confident this is the real deal. I texted my doula so she would see a message when she woke up and tried to relax while listening to Hypnobabies tracks. However, I was frequently going to the restroom to “empty” my system (another indication Baby wanted to make her entrance that day) and it was easier having waves on the toilet, so I hung out there for a bit as well. At 6am my husband woke up to me stirring around the room. I let him know I was cramping, had bloody show, and this was probably it. He was so stoked. I was feeling trickle of water or discharge when I hung out on the toilet, but I wasn’t sure if my water had broken yet or not. Through all of this the waves were very manageable, but they didn’t feel “pressure”. They really just felt like decent menstrual cramps. My waves were anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes apart already, but only lasting about 30 seconds.

At 7am I spoke to my doula and she said it could be practice, but it sounds more like the real deal. I had an appointment with the doctor at 1:15pm that day for an NST and she suggested if I could wait until then I should. I asked if my husband should go into work and she thought it was fine. She said I could probably even drive myself to the appointment at that time, thinking as a FTM it would take some time to move things along. At that point, I thought I guess I technically COULD drive myself in to my appointment, but I would sort of suck having the responsibility to drive at this point. So my husband ended up going into work, but just for a few hours to tie up some loose ends and was home by 10:45.

From the time he left to the time he came back home, I KNEW I wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere. In fear of trying to birth a posterior baby, I spent much of that time crawling on my floor on my hands and knees. During pressure waves I was on my knees leaned over the couch and swaying back and forth. At this point, my waves were now about 1:30-2:30 minutes apart and lasting 40-50 seconds. Since they were not lasting a full minute or longer, I thought I was still in the very early stages. I was listening to a few Hypnobabies tracks and trying to rest, but lying did not feel right to me. The tracks were very useful for helping me relax my body and visualizing my body cooperating though. My husband finished packing the bags and the car, took care of some things at the house, arranged for my sister-in-law to take care of the dogs, and basically prepared for a long night. I was making “Ahhh-ing “sounds as my pressure waves came, still on my hands and knees rocking back and forth. The “menstrual cramping” was much more intense, but still manageable. However, I could only walk between waves at this point, not during. My thought was “less than a minute of discomfort and a couple of minutes of rest”. I was confused and annoyed about how little rest I was getting in between waves though, as I know in early labor you can have 10-15 minutes in between. If I was still in early labor, I’d be dealing with continuous waves for a long time.

By the time we left the house at 12:45, I was glad we were heading to the appointment in a building attached to the hospital we were delivering at. I had my snoogle for the car ride and laid on my side, but I really missed the hands and knees position and laying just felt awful. I felt like my body couldn’t work the way it wanted to. We got the office and my husband checked me in, asking if we could go straight to the room because I was in labor and didn’t want to be in the waiting room. Now remember, they thought I was coming in for an NST, so they were pretty surprised. I got in; the midwife came into the office and checked me. At first I didn’t listen to her tell me how far I was dilated because I didn’t want to be disappointed or sent back home. Then I heard my husband say “Oh wow!” So I asked: 7cm. Woot! Off to labor and delivery.

We got to the room (about 1:45), I was given a dose of antibiotics for a positive GBS and they took my vitals. Our doula arrived (10 minutes after my husband called her with the 7cm dilated news) and I hopped into the tub, which felt great. About 20 minutes in the tub I had a wave that made me want to push, which I did. My doula said I could stay in the tub a little longer as I was at +1 station when I was checked and needed to work her down a bit. 20 minutes later I was out of the tub and on the bed (hands and knees again) getting some monitoring. My doula asked the midwife if we could go back in the tub and the midwife said she wanted to hear 2 more contractions (because I was obviously pushing). I asked our midwife, who was AWESOME, if she needed to check my progress and she said no, she could tell from my sounds. The next two came and our midwife said I’m staying out of the tub, Baby coming soon. These waves were a different kind of pushing and I could tell she was ready to make an entrance. The nurse and midwife were really impressed by how calm and cool I was between waves, being able to talk and have conversation. (Afterwards the nurse said to me “wow Hypnobabies really works!”) For me, pushing felt awesome and satisfying. It was the best part of the birth. I could feel her progress and when he little face was passing I could make out her little facial features. In total, I pushed for about 25 minutes. The midwife caught our little baby girl and handed her off to me right away. Then we were staring at this perfect little creature, 5lbs 14oz, 18.5 inches long, born 3:25pm.

We are all doing great, released from the hospital 24 hours later. Baby girl was born at 38 weeks on the dot, and while that is considered “full-term”, she is still a little immature. Her suck wasn’t strong enough to latch sufficiently and she is a very sleepy newborn, so we are working on breastfeeding while I pump and we use alternative ways of getting my milk in her. But with just 3 days of practice so far, she is making great progress and I’m confident we are going to have an awesome breastfeeding relationship within a week or two.

You guys, having a baby IS SO COOL!