I lost my mucous plug on Saturday (December. 1st…my due date was the
5th) and had some waves that night, but they stopped around three in
the morning. The next day we walked around the mall and about a
million other places but the waves weren’t coming back. Finally I
decided to go to be around seven at night and they started up
again. I took a bath around nine, watched a movie, and got my
birthing pool ready. Around three in the morning on Monday, December.
3rd, I decided to call my midwife. I was already at 6cm with a
ripened cervix and fully effaced. Two hours later I was at 10 cm.
Up to this point, I hadn’t felt any pain whatsoever.
That’s when things got a little rough…my midwife’s partner decided
to check me to see what was going on because I still didn’t feel the
need to push. I felt INCREDIBLY uncomfortable having her up there
and told her to get her hand away from me and she wouldn’t!!
Anyway, after what seemed like forever, she finally listened to me.
(thanks to my wonderful midwife and friend, Rachel Talley). Anyway,
I felt so uncomfortable that I think I consciously decided to wait a
little longer before having my baby…I didn’t feel ready for it
anymore, and it took me quite a while to get over that feeling.
We got out of the pool for a while and I tried sitting backwards on
the toilet or laying in bed, but it wasn’t helping. The midwives
decided to leave Jason and me alone in the bedroom for a while…it
was actually an amazing experience…my husband started praying for
us and showed an extremely vulnerable side that I’d never seen
before. He told me that Ammon was there with us and that he was on
our way and would be here soon. That gave me some encouragement.
As a side note, I hadn’t invited my mom to the birth because she was
really uncomfortable with the idea of a home birth, so I decided
that I didn’t want negative vibes there. Well, around eleven in the
morning (after about six hours of being fully dilated), she randomly
showed up! It was an amazing experience, though, because I had all
of a sudden really felt the need to have her there, but didn’t want
to call her because I’d felt bad about not inviting her in the first
place. It seems as though as soon as my mom showed up, things
started moving again.
I had to get out of the pool for a while and push on a makeshift
birthing pool (it was so uncomfortable that my butt hurt for a few
days). After several more hours of pushing (you can imagine how
tired I was…I hadn’t slept since Friday night…I was even falling
asleep in between waves!!), my little boys’ head came into sight and
he started crowning. I got back into the pool for my water birth
and had the opportunity to deliver him completely on my own. (This
was at 2:34 after about nine and a half hours of being fully dilated)
He latched on immediately and has been great with BFing ever since.
He weighed exactly 8 lbs and measured 21.5 inches. He’s absolutely
beautiful with blue eyes (must have come from several generations
back because he and I and all our parents have dark brown eyes),
olive skin, and a full head of dark hair.
As for the Hypnobabies…I had my Hypnobabies CD’s going in the
background, but that’s all I did. I’m not sure if it was the
hypnosis, but I can honestly say that the only discomfort I felt was
with the midwife. All the waves were strong and empowering, but no
pain at all. Even the actual birth felt no worse than an Indian
burn.
Well, guess that wasn’t exactly short, was it? Anyway, I’d like to
thank all three of you, especially Laura I absolutely loved my
homebirth/Hypnobabies experience and can’t wait for the next one!!
