Written November 10th 2006, the day he was born.
*In reading this birth story, please keep in mind that I had only 9 DAYS practice with my Hypnobabies techniques. That is not nearly enough time, we suggest at least 6-8 weeks!!, but with 9 days, HALF of my entire labor was completely pain free!!!*
My hubby Nate and I both agree that we will do it at home for every birth *as God allows*. We enjoyed it so immensely. From the moment Nate said the birthing tub was filled, which was around 2:30pm, I was nakey from that point on. The whole upstairs was mine and I walked around as much as I could.
Hypnobabies does wonders I’ll tell you that much. I had braxton hicks start at 11:00pm the previous night. So I started listening to my Hypnobabies cd and fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until around 5am the next morning feeling the contractions again. They seemed rhythmic so I took a looong hot bath and listened to my cds some more. I realized that it was labor when the contractions didn’t go away but instead became more intense, tight and stayed about 5 minutes apart. I decided to get out of the bath and wake up my hubby and call my mom when I looked down and saw my entire belly shrink with a contraction. My thought was… “uhhh YEAH, this is it!” So I get out, call my mom and she immediately started changing her plane ticket and heading for the airport. I called the midwives and woke up Nate *by this time it was 7am* softly and said..”honey… I think I’m in labor.” He opened his eyes, closed them.. then BOLTED up. Almost like doing a double take. I couldn’t help but laugh. I love his first words “what do you need me to do?” I
had tested positive for the group b strep which meant having an iv in me during labor. I had a prescription that needed to be filled, so that was his job.
Little did I know it would take him 2 hours to get it filled. He had to go everywhere to find a place, and the place that actually filled it that moment was the pharmacy in Stop-n-Shop. So while he was gone, *we live in base housing so we have a maintenance team that works on the houses* I called maintenance and asked them to turn up the water heater. I explained that I was having a home birth “TODAY” and that we had to fill a birthing tub and would they please come turn up the water heater for me. They got someone over here relatively quickly compared to the appointment routine that usually happens.
I definitely knew I was in labor. I have never emptied my bowels like that and NOT be sick to my stomach. My body was getting everything out of the way. And while I was feeling up to it, I ate. I figured I wouldn’t want to later on.
Maintenance arrived and I was stuck on the toilet, doing the deed. The man that came didn’t want to leave because I was alone and I think his
thought process was that the baby would just drop out of me at any moment. I assured him that I would be fine and as he closed the door he told me “welp, uh, Good Luck?!”
Now, through all the phone calls, and dealing with maintenance and being stuck on the potty… In between I sat on the birthing ball, and breathed deep…relaxing… breaths… all the way down into my belly, making it expand with each contraction. Focusing on the baby and imagining his head making it’s way down the birthing canal. I have NEVER been so relaxed and so focused in my life. Then the phone would ring. My sister…again. She was quite excited. I would tell her, “Krista, I need to breathe and focus” and I’d get real quiet as a contraction would come. You could practically hear her smiling on the other end.
“Just focus on me michael.”
“No. you don’t understand I want to listen to my cds!”
So finally, Nate comes home with the prescription, apologizes for taking so long and comes to my side and rubs my back. I tell him he has phone duty from now on. I don’t want to talk to anybody unless it’s a midwife. I tell him he needs to start putting up the birthing tub now and that i’m going upstairs to lay down and really focus. By this time it’s 9am. I have called my two friends who were going to be my support team and they’re on their way over. My friend Kelly arrived first at 10am. Kelly immediately started rubbing my back and she commented how I was doing much better than she ever did. The only way she could tell a contraction was coming was because I would tell her it was. At this point I passed out and when I woke up it was an hour later and one of the midwives, Joy, had arrived.. She checked my vitals and the baby’s vitals and started doing stuff off my birth plan. She continued to check us every 5-10 minutes from then on out.
There are a number of herbs they suggest you buy. They boil them and let them steep for 4 hours to make a tea out of it. It promotes
healing and they make wonderful pads for after labor. They take sanitary pads, dribble the tea on it and put them in the freezer. It’s absolute heaven after labor. When I ran out, I made more. hahaha. The extra tea you keep in the fridge and use it in a peri bottle to squirt yourself after each time you use the bathroom.
By this time, I’m on the birthing ball, leaning over on the bed, listening to my cd. I rock back and forth and pass out as often as I can. It’s hard to explain what I’m feeling. I’m not in pain, I can feel contractions, but it’s more of a tightening feeling.
So the midwives check me at 2pm and I’m only 2 cm. I didn’t know this until later because they refused to tell me. They gently said how great I was doing and kept encouraging me instead when I asked what I measured. I had put on my birth plan to keep vaginal exams to a minimum.
The birthing pool was ready 30 minutes later and I walked over to it in the middle of a contraction. I slipped inside and as the water level inched up my belly, the contraction disappeared like a wave with the water. It was an amazing feeling. It came back about 5 minutes later. I wanted to stand up and sink back in with each one just to feel that again.
NOW, up until this point, I was breezing through labor. I couldn’t hardly believe it. Kelly had bought frozen fruit and I was eating smoothies and drinking lots and lots of ice water. *to the point that they ran out of ice and had to buy and borrow more* I shocked everybody by joking around with them, but when a contraction would come I would apparently go silent, get focused, and stay that way till it passed.
A condition of having a home birth was that I had to eat *smoothies of course, because they know that no woman wants to eat* but having smoothies was a blessing. They were so cold and soothing and I was hungry but didn’t want to have to chew anything. If I didn’t eat and didn’t drink water, they would have sent me to the hospital. I had to stay hydrated and I had to eat to keep up my energy, or else I would have just gone down hill. I threw up a couple of times because earlier I had tried eating crackers and cheese. Tasted great, but apparently it didn’t stay down well.
At 4pm is when it hit me. Back labor started and as much as I tried once it got on top of me I couldn’t focus any more. I started becoming a woman in labor. I threw the headphones I had been listening to, because I couldn’t stand to have it on my ears any more. They patiently put it on the side of the birthing tub and turned it up loudly so I could hear it. =) Come to find out later, my son was facing the wrong direction. Head down, but facing my side. They actually SAW his head turn the right direction as he came out. So if you can imagine, his little shoulders were rubbing up against my pubic bone
and THAT’S what hurt. I’d like to think that I would have breezed through the whole thing if it weren’t for that. I talked with other moms on the hypnobabies yahoo group that had the same experience. Being fine up until that point, then it’s like all hell broke loose and they felt disappointed and cheated, but the next birth after that was fine.
There were times that I dug my fingers into my skin, and griped at people to rub my back harder. I had bruises on my back the next day and sore shoulders from people pushing on pressure points. It felt great at the time. So from 4pm till he was born was a difficult time. I couldn’t hardly stand during contractions like I could before. I had wanted to do a squatting birth, but with each contraction I felt like I couldn’t stay still, I had to move and squirm to make myself feel better. Now before this, I had only squeezed Nate’s hand to the point of hurting him once before…when they put the IV in. hahah
At one point around 6pm they put me on the bed. Now getting me to move during this time, they had to be patient and repetitive. They put me on the edge, with a line of people holding me up. My hip twisted over the side, with them supporting my entire weight. Trying to get the baby to move the right direction. If you can picture it, I was doing a bicycle movement with my leg. I had to move to make myself feel better. I think I had been there for 10 minutes, and I open my eyes to see my mommy walking in the room. She had finally arrived. Everyone said that when she walked in and I saw her, they saw my whole body relax as if “she’s here, i can have the baby now”. I didn’t have the baby till 4 hours later though. haha
I finally told them that I couldn’t stand being like that on the edge of the bed any more and I rolled to the other side. They supported the other leg and I did bicycle movements with that one until I wanted back into the birthing tub. The midwife told me later that it was amazing to her to see something like that. How I instinctively knew what to do to get the baby turned, yet I didn’t KNOW what I was doing. I was just…doing it. She also said that she had received a workout by supporting my legs for that long and her shoulders hurt from it. =) So I would go from the ball, to the tub, the tub to the bed. Changing positions and squirming. And in between contractions which were only about 90 seconds apart *this part my friend Kelly told me* I passed out. Passed out to the point that my mom was holding my head out of the water, her shirt soaked from the sleeve up to the collar as proof.
There is a LOT that I don’t remember. I do however remember yelling at my mom. She kept telling me to breathe and the repetitiveness of it pissed me off to the point that I yelled, “I love you but… SHUT… UP! Someone get her the hell out of the room.”
She laughed at me and stayed. =) I also remember yelling at them to “stop friggen making frozen waffles!!”, however no one could smell it upstairs and they were all checking their breath and popping mints. I could smell the fumes of it coming from the kitchen.
At around 9pm they walked me to the toilet and while I was there, they checked to see what I measured. 9cm and I was actively pushing, although I don’t remember that. They thought I was going to birth the baby right there on the toilet. I was leaning back against the seat and they didn’t like that position so they had to repeat to me several times to turn around. I kept saying no. no. no. Then I turned around. They didn’t quite understand at the time that I was timing the contraction. I had to wait till I was ready, even if it meant waiting 3 contractions. So I finally turned around. I wish I had more pictures, because at this point I think it’s pretty funny. I’m facing the back of the toilet. Gripping the lid. Midwife Joy is pushing pressure points in my shoulder, and Kelly is sitting underneath her spread legs rubbing my back and I’m leaning into both of them telling them to do it harder. So I tell them I want back in the tub and they repeat to me and instruct me.. “okay michael, let’s go…” then when my moment comes, I literally run and hop into the tub, almost jumping over the sides. It’s like.. “no.. no.. no… okay NOW. GO GO GO!!! Before my chance passes me by!” My midwife says she has NEVER seen a woman run and jump into a tub like that before. So I’m in the tub, and she instructs me to feel for the baby’s head. Asks me if I ever feel like I need to poop, do I feel any pressure on my butt bone. I say no, and I feel inside me for the baby, but all I feel is a bubble. The bag of water is bulging and won’t pop. There’s another little thing that’s not helping me any. She asks if we want to pop the bag of water and I refuse. She explains that it might help the labor progress, and I refuse. 10 minutes later I say “let’s pop this thing!”
Well for that, I have to get on the bed… “no. no. no.. okay GO!” I run to the bed which has been double made with sheets and hospital pads. they put more pads underneath me and she pops the water. When she had check me before and I was 9 cm. She noticed that my cervix was descending with the baby’s head. She explains that and explains that she has to move my cervix or else it’s going to tear. This, btw…hurts. hehe. It was only allowing a small part of his head out, kind of like the amount of your head that a Yamaka sits on. Only that part was out and she had to push my cervix back to allow the rest of his head through. Once that was done, I remember wanting to squat but I couldn’t bring myself into that position. I felt tired and just wanted to sleep. I started actively pushing, but I would rest and skip contractions by. I just kept thinking how I didn’t want to tear and to take it slow. Which I did. His head turned and came out. The cord was around his neck loosely but twice. He came out and took a little while to cry. I thought something was wrong but as soon as I heard that first sound I reach my hands between my legs and brought him up to my chest. I told him “It’s okay, shh shh, mama’s here. I love you.” and repeated that over and over again. I remember him smelling sweet and being not as slimy as I thought he would be. He was born after 51 minutes of pushing, at 10:26pm on the 10th of November. I pushed out the afterbirth *which was an interesting feeling* and he pooped on me.
I had a huge burst of energy. They cleaned him up. I walked to the bathroom and once I got there had to sit down. I thought my whole stomach was going to fall out. I sat down on the toilet to pee *which took a while. I had to focus* Once it came out I wanted it to stop. It burned so bad. Turns out, that I had little scrapes from pushing him out. One at the top of my vagina and two at the bottom. Kind of like skinning your knee. I finally peed everything out but it took FOREVER. I sat down in the bathtub and showered. A shower has never felt so good before. The rest of the night was a blur. I didn’t go to sleep until 3am. They weighed and measured him. Gave him his vitamin k shot. We started nursing and Nate passed out at 1am. The midwives emptied the birthing tub and put it away. Mom took phone calls and let everyone know he had been born.
I talked with family and cried and snuggled Roan. It’s the most amazing thing ever. But I still don’t feel like he’s actually mine. I
keep thinking that with my niece and nephew and babysitting them constantly, that Roan is just another baby I take care of but don’t
get to keep. haha! I am definitely having another home birth. And I’m definitely using hypnobabies again. I think that that’s the reason that I passed out for 90 seconds at a time. I would be joking around with Nate and Kelly *prior to 4pm* and all of a sudden I’d get incredibly quiet, my eyes closed, and in the squatting position in the tub. Kelly would rub my back and then I’d “come to” again and continue what I was saying.