Birth stories

[moogie]

I thought it would be good to share our birth stories again.

Asha Jaimes birth story

Wednesday night at about 7pm I started getting surges about 15 to 20 minutes apart.  I put dd to sleep and came out to watch HOUSE.  I always thought that the humour in HOUSE would be great to get me into a relaxed hypno mode.  We went to bed once the show had finished because we knew it could be a while yet.  The surges were not strong.  At about 3am I woke with the surges lasting about 10 mins but not strong.  By 5 am the surges were about 6 mins apart so we started making plans to get dd1 to her grandmamas, so that I could truly start to relax.  We decided to head off to the hospital as we knew that with hypnobirthing it could progress quite quickly.

At the Hospital the tub was ready for us but since the surges didn’t feel strong I decided to relax on the couch instead.  Baby’s heart rate was great and I met my midwife who was to be with me for the birth.  Soon after I decided to get in the bath.  The surges were still coming but not strongly and the were slowing.  I was quite annoyed at the midwife who seemed to not believe I was in labour.  The look on her face said it.  My surges continued at approximately 10 minutes apart.  At about 2am Rachel(my midwife from Charlies birth) took aver as my midwife.  It was a great relief to see her and to talk to her.  After much deliberation Tristan and I decided that we would go home. I was big time disappointed. First we stopped off at the shops to get some comfort food. Lol. 

At home the surges continued to be 10 minutes apart.  I decided to look at my hypnobirthing book, at which point I discovered that I had been having a resting labour.  If only I’d known that at the hospital.  It was such a relief to know that my body was not in active labour but was in the final stages of prelabour.  So I went to bed early(and after some icecream).  My surges ceased and gave me a nice 6 hrs of sleep and then kicked into high gear at 3.30am.

Almost from the first surge  they were about 4 minutes apart.  Intense too.  Unfortunately I didn’t get into hypnobirthing straight away.  I really needed Tristan to help me with that, which he did calmly.  He read the prompts to me with my relaxation music on in the background, and while I relaxed in the bath.  Now I began to relax and calmly went about the slow breathing I had learned.  Tristan called the hospital and we headed there.

I had surges about 3 minutes apart till we got to the hospital.  I felt in control, which I certainly did not feel when I was birthing dd1.  At the hospital I used the birthing ball, but soon got in the tub.  Here I stayed for the rest of the birth.  The surges were intensifying but I maintained my calm state and worked with them.  They were still close together.  We continued like this for the next few hours.  I had planned to listen to the relaxation music but decided that the birth affirmations in the background were my best bet.  Tristan would read the prompts during the surges while pouring the bath water over my back.  I had some back ache during surges.  I had to nudge him a few times for him to know I was having a surge, he sometimes couldn’t tell.  I certainly knew it was happening. At the end of each surge I would smile.  You’d think I was enjoying it.  Which in a strange way I was.

At about 7.45am  I felt that I was ready to birth breathe.  It was quite an involuntary need, that was uncontrollable.  So I birth breathed for the next hour.  It was very clear to me that the baby was there but something was stopping it.  The midwife (Susan) suggested that my bladder may need emptying.  But I had difficulty weeing.  Once I had finally weed, a surge came on suddenly and I had a strong birth breath.  I felt like the baby was coming out and then felt the membranes release in a massive explosion (at least that’s what it felt like).  The position I was in on my back in the water was too much so I turned around to face Tristan in a crouch/squat.  I only birth breathed a few more times and then the head came out.  The head was briefly stuck so I did an extra breath/push for her head to emerge completely.  I felt down beneath me and felt her hair.  I felt bub kick me inside and I said “hang on bub” .  Tristan looked at me strangely.It felt like there was a lot.  The next surge came and I breathed the rest of her out.  She came out into the water and I scooped her up after a few seconds and held her on my chest.  Tristan told me that she was a girl and I held her up on my chest.  Her cord was not very long so we had to be careful.  Susan got us a towel to place over her and soon after I got out of the tub to birth the placenta.  I sat on the toilet to birth the placenta and I thought I had so we had the cord clamped and cut.  I hadn’t birthed the placenta so we had to wait a while longer.  I started to breastfeed her while I sat on the toilet to help to birth the placenta.  She stayed latched on for probably 2 hours.  Once she had done feeding (and pooing on me), Tristan bathed her a little and the she was weighed.  She was 8 pound 7 ounces, the same as her big sis.  Her head was 35cm circumference and she was 51cm long..  I was checked for tearing and had none.  My midwife was excellent, she just watched it all happen and just checked bubs heart rate every now and then. My OB was upstairs at a c section. That night she slept for 6 hrs straight.  She is a really good sleeper and rarely cries.   My 19 month old met her lil sis that afternoon.  We named her Asha Jaime the next day.

So no tearing this time around and a much quicker recovery. 

So much different to my first dd’s birth which was 20 hrs long and out of control.

[Lily84]

my parents live out of state, my dad couldnt come, but my mom was here. she was only here for a week so we all really hoped shane would be born while she was here. so on tuesday, my due date, at 10am she went with me to the ob/gyn. i had been 3cm dialated for weeks. she said she would strip my membranes and if that didnt work we could induce labor on thursday. she stripped my membranes which hurt very badly. after all of my internals i always had really bad cramping, and same with this one. when she was finished i was dialated to 4 cm. the cramping was bad. my mom and i went shopping all around for a few hours to get some stuff done. the cramping was persistant and i wanted to go home. so i just laid on the couch for a very long time. i made dinner. it was my favorite, broccoli and cheese stuff, but i ate a few bites and gave the rest to dh, i just didnt feel like eating. my cramps still hurt. they were never coming and going pains so i didnt think they were contractions. my dh has a good frind that is a dr so he contacted him online around 11 pm to ask if he thought i should call my ob. at 11 pm i went to the bathroom and had quite a bit of bloody show. he told me to call my ob. she asked me how far apart the cx were, and i said i didnt think i was having them, just was pretty uncomfortable and bloody. so we went off to the hospital. i didnt think i was in labor at all and was embarrased to go. we stopped at the gas station. i told dh not to rush. when we got to teh hospital the nurse said it wasnt likely i was in labor b/c of how i was acting that i seemed okay. she got me on the monitors and saw my cx were 3 minutes apart. she told me to start walking. we walked around from 1:30 am -2 am. the cx were feeling stronger but not bad at all. we went back to our room and went to sleep. at 5 am they came and asked me if i wanted the epidural or not. i was dialted to 6. i went ahead and had it at 6:30, then they broke my water. we slept till 11:00. they came and checked  me at 11:30 and said i was 10 cm but they would give a half hour for the head to come down. at 11 am my epidural had worn off, but the nurse told me it was okay b/c i was going to be pushing and i wouldnt need it.sometime in the morning i had been on pitocin b/c the cx slowed down. they never turned off my pitocin. i started pushing at 12 exactly. after an hour of pushing the cx were right on top of another, no time in between pushes to breathe and it got bad. i lost  control and couldnt push. finally after trying to push for another 45 minutes they decided to use suction. shane was born at 1:49pm and weighed 7 pounds 10 oz. and was 21 in.  his cord was around his neck that is why he wouldnt come out. dh forgot to start taking pictures! lol. they placed him on my chest and he stopped crying right away. i nursed him for about 20  minutes. a funny part of the labor is that while i was pushing dh was looking down there when he saw the tare he just kind of walked away. i asked him whats wrong are you okay? and the nurses and dr all completely stopped what they were doing and got him a drink and were making sure he was okay! and also, both of our moms and dh's work called him on his cell while i was pushing to ask what was happening. i remember hearing him say to his work, im not coming in my wifes having the baby. they must have asked him when and he said right now, she is pushing RIGHT NOW lol. i tore average the dr said, but i had a LOT of pain with them for over 3 months.

[kristenp5]

Thursday,  June 8th was gorgeous and Jarrod only had to work 1/2 day at work.  We had a consultation appt. with the doctor about his vascectomy.  After that appt. we randomly decided to grocery shop (we ALWAYS shop on Fridays, but it was a Thursday) and then met my friend Carrie and her son Torsten at Twin Lakes.  We ate salmon dip and the kids swam.  It was hot, but I felt good.  We left there around 5:00 and went to another friend's house to drop off vegetables since we share a CSA box with them.  We were all hanging out, but I was feeling a bit tired and just weird so we left at 5:45p.  Jarrod kept asking what was wrong since I NEVER want go home early from places.  So we got home and were putting groceries into the house when I felt something wet in my pants not enough to soak through my shorts, but enough that I wanted to change my panties.  I was like, "crap, I'm sick of pregnancy and peeing my pants all the time."   I didn’t think it was my water because I wasn't due until the 20th plus I wasn’t having any contractions.  I did decide to lay down for a minutes to see if there was any leaking, and there wasn’t.  So I just ignored it and we made dinner and got Ava ready for bed. As I was getting up from reading her stories it happened again around 7:00.  Jarrod decided we should call the midwives, Debbie and Johanna, and let them know.  Johanna said it sounded like my water may have broken and came over at 8:30 with her fancy little test strip, which immediately turned blue.  My water had indeed broken, but I wasn't having any contractions we started preparing the house and filling the AquaDoula.  Jarrod went to his office to shower (we were out of hot water from filling the tub) and Johanna gave me some homeopathic remedies to start contractions and gave me a massage while I listened to my Hypnobirthing tape.  She checked me at 10:30 and I was 3 cm.  Originally, my plan didn't call for checking me, but she thought Willa felt a little high and wanted to make sure the cord hadn't prolapsed--it hadn't.  Jarrod and I laid down to rest around 11:00 and I did that until for a couple hours.  Jarrod fell asleep, but I was growing more uncomfortable, and decided to take a shower. I got into the tub around 1:30a.  I mainly stayed in the tub because I was having awful back labor and the heat from the AquaDoula felt awesome as did Jarrod putting firm pressure on my lower back.  I alternated between the tub and the birthing ball.  Sometime during this time period I had a bowl of yogurt and granola which I immediately threw-up.  We did this until around 3:30a.  Johanna checked me again and I was not quite 5cm.  At this point I was SUPER frustrated because I was hoping for a shorter labor than I had with Ava and it was going so slowly.  I began to do the positive affirmations which I thought were hokey during hypnobirthing classes, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try them.  I kept picturing an opening flower and thinking, "my body won't give me more pain than I can handle”.  Details are a little fuzzy at this point...contractions starting coming fast and furious.  I called my mom around 4:15a and broke the news that I was in labor and figured it’d be several more hours until the baby was born.  I had 3 big contractions during the 15 minute conversation.  Around 4:45 or 5:00a I felt the urge to poop and went to the bathroom.  At this point there was A LOT of pressure and contractions were right on top of each other.  I got back into the AquaDoula.  Around 5:15 Debbie showed up which I thought was odd since Johanna had said she'd call Debbie around 8 or 9am.  Then I had the overwhelming urge to "breathe the baby down."  I didn't consiously push, but allowed my body to push Willa out.  It took 2 minutes and 3 contractions.  On the second real "push" my water popped which totally freaked me out because it was a lot of pressure.  I didn't tear at all (woo hoo!!!!!).  It was intense, though, so I did scream a couple times which woke Ava up.  She came in right after Willa was born and informed everyone that she needed a paci.  The second thing she said was, "I love Willa so much."  How sweet is that?  The funny part was when I was screaming and Jarrod asked Johanna what was happening.  She said, "she's having the baby."  Later Jarrod told me he was thinking, "no shit...that's what we're doing here."  He didn't realize she meant I was having the baby NOW.  So anyway...that's my birth story or at least the condensed version.  Carrie and Torsten came over at 6:00am as was planned the night before and she cooked breakfast for all and then took Ava so we could get some sleep.