Lukas' Hypnobirth-from December [:$]
FtrMrsC
member
DH and I were visiting with family and watching the movie ?Predators? over at SIL's house. I had been having what I believed were ?practice surges? on and off for a few days. During the movie, I noticed that I was having surges pretty consistently so I decided to time them. I used an application on my cell phone to time them while I watched the movie. I began timing them around 10:30pm on December 30, 2010. The movie was almost over when I decided to fill in DH about what I was doing. I showed him the phone and explained that my surges were 3 minutes apart and lasting about 30-45 seconds. He jumped up and we told BIL and everyone that we were leaving.
We went home and I got in the shower while DH made sure we had everything ready in hospital bag. I sat in the rocking chair while he timed them for me, still about 3 minutes apart. We decided I should call my mom around midnight. I explained to her what was going on, and she said to call her back when each surge lasted about a minute to a minute and a half. I ended up calling her back around 2am and she told me she was on her way.
The entire time, I was using my Hypnobirthing techniques. I listened to the CD that our instructor made for us, and I practiced my visualizations and breathing. Because of this, I had major time distortion and didn?t even realize how long I?d been in labor. The surges didn?t hurt, they were just intense and I still wasn?t even sure this was the ?real thing?. It felt like I had a full bladder and someone was occasionally pushing on it.
My mom and dad arrived and at some point I asked my mom to check how dilated I was (mom is a retired midwife). She told me I was 4-5cm, officially in active labor. She asked if I felt like I needed to go to the hospital yet, and I told her no. I decided to labor in the tub for a while. I had only been in the tub a little while; when we all noticed that my surges were much closer together. When I had two back to back, my mom announced it was time to leave for the hospital. Luckily it was only a 5-10 minute drive from our house.
We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. A midwife met with us and checked me to find that I was already 7-8cm dilated! I was also dehydrated so they had to connect me to an IV for fluids. The entire time I was there, I was using my Hypnobirthing techniques and returning to my special place during the surges. I closed my eyes during this time so I didn?t get to see the reactions of the nurses. Apparently they watched me and the monitors in disbelief. DH said that they were very surprised at how calm and relaxed I was through long surges.
Time seemed distorted and I hadn?t realized how long we had been there. Several hours went by and my water still hadn?t broken. The bulging bag caused a lot of pressure and discomfort. There was a shift change so we got new nurses and a new midwife. I finally asked to be checked again and I was ?stuck? at 9 ? cm. I asked the midwife to break my bag to ease the pressure and hopefully come to completion. She was able to do this with her finger and the release of pressure felt so much better. However, my cervix still didn?t completely recede so she also had to help that along.
I had been trying to ?breathe down? like I was taught in our Hypnobirthing course. However, it just wasn?t working. Finally a nurse told me to hold me breath and push so I did. They got me a squat bar so I could stand and squat while pushing. I ended up going back and forth between a kneeling squat and laying back. After a while They decided to break down the table and I used the stir-ups to brace myself for the final pushes.
I pushed for what felt like forever, because I lost my focus from my Hypnobirthing. It was really only 50 minutes. The midwife did a perineal massage the entire time but I still had a small tear as well as abrasions to my vaginal wall.
Lukas was born at 12:49pm on December 31, 2010. He had a cone-head from getting semi-stuck but it went down quickly. He must have had a monster headache though because he screamed for a good long time instead of nursing.
All in all, I was very happy with my experience. I felt accomplished and so proud of myself for sticking to my birth plan. I even had the crazy thought, just hours after birth, of having another baby! I think I would like to do a water birth for the next so we?ll see!
Re: Lukas' Hypnobirth-from December [:$]