Hypnobabies Birth Story: The worst part was: I didn’t have time to make brownies.

Caden’s Birth

Here is the day of his birth.. sorry it is so long!

May 19th, Monday morning at 5am on the dot, I was waken up by some real strong pressure waves. I had been waking up at this time for the last few weeks, even though the alarm is always set for 7:00am so I didn’t think too much of it. I tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep but they were too strong. I decided to quietly jump in my huge tub and soak to try to get on top of them. I did some deep visualization and meditation for an hour. I didn’t take a watch with me but counted 12 during that hour with them only lasting about 30 seconds each. I decided to get out, head to the computer and use an on line timer. For some odd reason, none of them would work for me! I grabbed Dh’s PDA and started timing my pressure waves, I was so thankful he downloaded it and I knew how to use it. I was replying to a few emails and reading on my cloth diaper site when I happened to come across someone asking about hypnobabies home study course. I read a lil success story (sorry I can’t remember the name of the mama that wrote it) and remember  breaking down into tears! It was so emotional and just gave me so much hope! I remember replying and thanking her. This was at about 6:30am.

I just had this weird “today is the day” feeling so I called my mom and told her I think we will have a baby today.. I thought she was getting tired of my  false alarms as she told me to call her back at 8:00am. LOL. I got my hunny up a few minutes before the alarm went off just to talk to him. Got my boys  up and told them that I think their brother would be born today. I went and jumped in the shower to try to relax a lil more as I was so nervous and overly  excited, or more like just to kill time. Pressure waves were getting stronger and were about 3-5 minutes apart but were lasting 1-2 minutes.  I found myself stopping what I was doing at the time and just closing my eyes and telling my body to open, open, open. That was when I guess I knew we  had better head to the hospital. Dh took the boys to school as usual while I got dressed. It was then when I noticed a lil bloody show. I called my sister  at 7:30am and told her that I wasn’t waiting until 8am to call mom and asked if she would make sure the boys were taken care of after school. Dh got  back and was taking his time.. I think too many false alarms for him to take me seriously as well. I asked if he was was ready and he said, well.. no,  I have an appointment at 10am. I told him I think we had better head in. I told him we were having this baby today, I can remember saying that there  was no way I could go weeks of these type of pressure waves so something HAD to happen today!

I had no clue how far along I was or if these pressure  waves were even doing anything so I was in the mind set of we are having this baby, even if she has to induce me today! I can laugh at all this now.  Pressure waves were coming closer and I think Dh finally saw they were way different than all the other times. I called my Dr. to see if I should go to  her office to see if I was even doing anything or head to labor and delivery. Her nurse told me to head to the hospital. I remember thinking.. yeah,  just to be sent home again.. lol.. I am not too sure what happened next but I know it was a lil after 8am before we finally got everything loaded in  the car and got on the road. I listened to my hypnobabies “Easy First Stage” cd during the car ride. I don’t remember much as I spent the whole ride  with my switch in the off position.

We arrived at the hospital about 8:30am, we walked down to labor and delivery to be told that we needed to go to admit first.. by this time, my pressure waves were pretty strong and I can remember thinking to myself there is no way I am walking all the way back  there.. I think I gave her a ‘are you kidding me’? look! Daddy reminded them that we had already done our pre-admit and luckily one of the nurses saved us and took us into the birthing room.  The rest happened so fast it is kind of a blur to me so daddy will have to fill in where I can’t remember. I am sure I told them that I was GBS+ although I don’t think they thought I was as far dilated as I was.. of course how could they, I had no clue if this was even real! The first nurse,  Dana, hooked me up to the monitors and then tried to check me. She said, alright then.

I asked how far I was and she said all she could feel were membranes. Then she called Terri in to check. She said the same thing and that they weren’t going to try any more because they weren’t ready to  have the baby. I was in DUH mode and asked what that meant. I was thinking I was MAYBE 3-4cm! They said they couldn’t feel my cervix and  they weren’t sure if my membranes were in front of it or if I was fully dilated..they made it sound like they thought my membranes were just infront and that we had plenty of time. I think that is why they didn’t get me hooked up to the IV.. they just sat there talking and watching the monitors.  I reminded them again about being GBS+. About that time they actually heard me! Dana was trying to hook me up to the IV when my Dr got there.

She checked me and this is where I let my fear take hold of me. I heard her tell the other nurses to call surgery and have them on stand by. About that  time, Daddy walked in and heard that, I was focusing and don’t remember were he went. I guess there was a TON of water below the baby’s head.  Enough that the cord could slip down and come first. They sat me up so that gravity would do it’s thing and we crossed our fingers that his head  would beat the cord first. I fought through the urge to push for what felt like forever..thinking back, I think I had the urge when I first got there and  all it did was grow stronger. I think if I would have just relaxed and pushed, my fear wouldn’t have taken over me as much as it did. I started asking, no begging for something to take the edge off, although I didn’t need anything for pain, I was having trouble relaxing. I was scared to see which would  come first.. the cord or my baby’s head.

About that time, my water broke. I guess my body was pushing and I didn’t even know as I was hugging my  birthing ball and trying to stay focused. They rushed me to lay down to see what happened and I can remember my Dr saying there is a bunch of hair! Dh actually looked which he said he didn’t want to. My focus was on him at this time although he had no clue I was even listening! I remember the
nurses were so loud, not that we even had time to get our birthing plan out, let alone have them read over it. I guess I asked them to “PLEASE be quite”! As much as I was trying to not push my body started anyway. Daddy kept giving me progress reports during my pushing. After three pushes, at 9:38am  we were both looking at our baby Caden! Both Daddy and I just looked at each other and talked about how tiny he looked! He looked soo purple!  The Dr. had to explain it to us that when my water broke, his head was slammed hard down the canal causing his face to be bruised.

My Dr. let the cord  stop pulsing and Daddy cut the cord. I was so happy she stuck with my birthing plan even after giving me a hard time about having a 20 page plan as I was in such a daze I wouldn’t have remembered anything at that moment! We spent time all bonding and just staring at what we thought was our tiny lil joy.  When he was finally weighed and measured, he was perfect! 7 pound 11.8 ounce 19 inches long.. 10 fingers and 10 toes. Black wavy hair just like Daddy’s!  The worst part about everything was I wouldn’t let Dh leave my side.. therefore, the camera was still in the car! That and I didn’t get time to make brownies!

Thank you for reading,

Lisa