ColeyJ88's hypnobabies birth story (XP from A14)

ColeyJ88 · August 2014

Shane Ryan was born on Monday 8/25 (the day before my EDD). I woke up around 7am and started noticing some intense menstrual-like cramping. I had been having periodic timeable braxton-hicks for about 2 weeks, with ongoing loss of my mucus plug and even bloody show at times. I was convinced that I would go 41+ weeks. By 8am I had been timing them and they were between 5-7 mins apart, so I decided to call. The midwife told me to wait about 60-90 mins or call back when they were more consistent. I got in the shower and tried to eat something (I was feeling pretty nauseous from the intensity of the cramping though) and called back around 9:40 letting them know that they were now about 3 minutes apart. The midwife told us that we could take our time and head over to the birth center. My MIL came over to take care of DS while we packed up last minute things, and I did my makeup in-between pressure waves. I listened to the birthing day affirmations track during the car ride, since we live about 30 mins from the birth center. The ride was pretty intense. At one point we had to pull over and I vomited on the side of the road. We got there at 10:50 and she checked me. All she told me was that she wouldn't be sending us home, but that baby was still pretty high so she wanted me to do some squats during contractions. My doula suggested that we start in the shower, which had bars on the walls. I sat on the birth ball and when I had a contraction I would grab the bar and get all the way down into a deep squat. This helped incredibly with the intensity, and the hot water really helped me relax into it. I had planned on listening to the hypnobabies track during labor, but since I was in the shower I didn't think to grab my headphones. I finally asked my husband what my "status" was when she had checked me, and was surprised to find out that I was 5cm dilated & 75% effaced upon arrival! Baby was at -3 station though so I had some work to do to. I was so happy to hear how far along I was, and how easy it was going compared to my first birth, which was 50 hours of back labor. I found myself talking and laughing in-between contractions. After a while I got out of the shower and labored on the birth ball, leaning over the bed. I was playing the hypnobabies track out loud in the room. My husband asked me if I was sleeping at one point, lol. I think around 1pm I got into the tub and very quickly felt pushy. My water broke on it's own around 1:15 and I immediately felt the baby drop down. I actually liked feeling how strong the contractions were, they felt like intense pressure on top of my belly, pushing the baby down, so I knew they were doing good work. Around 1:45 the baby's heart tones dropped to below 100 so they had me get out of the tub and onto the bed. That's where I began pushing on my hands and knees. The hypnobabies pushing track was playing in the background but I was not really able to focus on it, as I felt everything way more being out of the water. I was pretty loud during pushing, but I surrendered to it because it was helping me through. At one point I could literally feel my pelvic bones spreading apart and the baby's head coming out. It was very intense. The head came out at 2:03 and I rested in-between the contractions (which to my DH it felt like forever!), and then at 2:05 I pushed once more and the body came out. I was so surprised to find out that it was a boy!! And he looks EXACTLY like DS1 did when he was born. I'm still trying to find differences. It's a little freaky how much they look alike. Twinning! haha:)

He weighed 6lb 9.5oz, 19.5in long. A full pound bigger than DS1, and I didn't even tear! After the delivery it seemed like they were shoving food into my face almost immediately, and I didn't feel hungry at all. I couldn't keep any food or liquids down, maybe because I was in shock from the intensity of the birth, or from the after pains, so we didn't get to go home right away like we had hoped, but instead were transferred to a nearby hospital for some IV pain meds and anti-nausea medicine. After we got that under control we were released and home by about 9:30 that night. It has been so great to be recovering at home in my own bed!!