Caterina’s Birth Story
Let me start by saying thank you to this group. I feel like I learned so much from you. I read the posts faithfully right up until my daughter’s birth. I didn’t post at all, but still feel like I ‘know’ most of you.
I also have to admit that I was a horrible student. I rarely practiced my finger drop technique and I hated being ‘off’ ever. I intentionally only ever listened to the CD’s in my sleep after the first time. I was not comfortable in off, so I would program my iPod to play the pregnancy affirmations and then whatever script I was supposed to listen to. Then I would fall asleep during the affirmations and stay asleep through the script. Well guess what. It totally worked. I had such a peaceful, easy birthing time. I am so grateful to hypnobabies for making me believe this was possible. 🙂
I am not sure when her birthing time actually began. I had been having contractions for about two months, lol. But seriously, over the past few weeks, almost every night I would have some pressure waves. I think that over time I just began to anticipate them and know that they were not the real thing.
Friday night was no different; I had regular pressure waves all night long, probably about 10 minutes apart. Of course in the morning, they went away. We went about our day as usual. They started again during the boys’ nap on Saturday, maybe around 2 pm (we have two sons, both age 2 – Antonio & Ignacio). They were also about 9-10 minutes apart. Then after the boys woke up (3 ish), I still had some pressure waves, but I thought they would eventually dwindle as they had always done.
They continued, but I was not convinced that this was it. I thought – maybe we will have our daughter by tomorrow night, how exciting! But at the same time, I didn’t let myself think that too much because I had the feeling the pressure waves would go away like they always had. I told Carlos (my husband) that I wanted to go to the Vigil Mass – just in case we would be in early birthing time tomorrow morning.
So I bathed the boys & got them ready for Mass. I meant to time the pressure waves before Mass, but things got busy with bath time and we I also wanted to stop at the store on the way to Mass because we were out of a few essentials at home.
We attended the 5 pm Vigil Mass at our Parish. I definitely felt pressure waves during Mass, but I wasn’t able to time them during Mass obviously. We left Mass around 6:15 and got home around 6:30. I told Carlos that I felt that we should give our Midwife the heads up that we may be calling her much later that night or early tomorrow morning. She had asked that we give her ample time, even before we wanted her there. So I prepared dinner for the boys and started feeding them while Carlos called the MW. He told her that we thought the pressure waves were about 6-7 minutes apart, but that things were slow going and that we would not need her any time soon.
Within minutes of Carlos hanging up the phone with the MW, I started feeling the pressure waves more frequently. So I timed a few of them and found that they were about 2-3 minutes apart. I thought that was good, but let’s just see if they stay this way or if they go back to being less frequent.
So I decided that I would time some again after we put the boys down to bed (bedtime is 7, we were a little late – so this was about 7:15). During their bedtime routine, I felt the pressure waves get more intense. I am not sure if this was because Ignacio was nursing the whole time or not. But as soon as we closed the door to their bedroom, I told Carlos – please fill up the tub & call the MW. So he started with that. He called the MW by 7:30 ish & asked her to come. I spoke with her on the phone & told her that I was not sure if this was it, but that I felt like she should come just in case. We told her to take her time.
We also called Jackie, who was our designated person to watch the boys during the birth. Since they were in bed already, we told her to take her time coming over & to bring a book to read.
Jackie & the MW both arrived around 8:15. The MW started setting up her things and asked if she could check me around 8:30. I was 100% and an 8! I was so worried that I would not be dilated at all or just a 2 or something. The MW later told me that she thought I was going to be about a 3 or a 4 based on how COMFORTABLE I was. Note that my MW is a HypnoBirthing instructor & she thought that I looked very comfortable!
I asked her if that was good enough to get into the pool. She said that I could but that if things slowed down, I would have to get out. So I changed into my bathing suit, waited a few more minutes for some hot water to be added & got into the pool around 8:45.
I was chatting with Carlos, Jackie, and the MW in between pressure waves. When I felt a wave, I just put my head down on the side of the pool and closed my eyes & relaxed. Eventually the birth assistant arrived & the MW went upstairs to talk to her. I felt that the waves were starting to come very frequently, almost one on top of the other. Then I felt my water break around 9:15. I asked Carlos to go up and tell the MW. I felt the waves change immediately & felt like she was moving down. So I made Carlos run up and tell her that.
The MW and Birth Assistant came down to our room. I stared breathing the baby down (without pushing at all). I dod do the “ahhhhing” thing & it worked so well! Within a few minutes, her head was out and in Carlos’s hands. The cord was around her neck once. The MW removed it. Her shoulders were not turning like they are supposed to. The MW told me that I was going to have to push her out NOW. I was worried by her voice and I tried to push really hard, but she did not turn. So the MW told me to stand up & turn around & squat. I did that & she slid right out into Carlos’ hands (no pushing). I thought she went back underwater after that, but Carlos said that was just a bunch of other `stuff’ that went under, lol.
I was soon holding her in the pool. Her official time is 9:26 pm, although it was actually a few minutes before that. I can honestly say that her birth was so PEACEFUL and EASY that I would do it all over again right now. I feel so good.
She is nursing well; the only thing she doesn’t know how to do is latch off, haha. The boys love her. They keep asking to `hold it’. When she squeaks, Antonio says, “she’s sad” and Ignacio says, “Feed it”. Um, boys – it’s a girl, not an it
