DISCLAIMER:
This will be long and detailed....if you are not a cheerleader of labor and delivery stories you have been warned :)
Once again, like with Tenely, my "due date" came and went with no real signs of baby being in any hurry to meet us. Our due date was April 22, 2013, but had been changed a few times so it was anyone's guess, and we came to call it a "Guess Date" through our Hypnobabies classes.
It all really started on Wednesday, April 24th after we got home from Tenely's tumbling class about 7:00 pm. We got her to bed, and then just spent the evening hanging out. I did notice that baby was much more active than normal at that particular hour, usually it was about 10:30ish that the wiggles and kicks really started. In hopes of it being the beginning stages of labor I went to the Internet to look up if increased movement was an indicator of labor...everything I read was saying yes! Still trying to not get my hopes up to much, I went along with my nightly routine and headed for shower and bed about 10:00. By 10:30 I was having contractions, but they were nothing major so I just laid in bed and relaxed while Tim got some sleep. That only lasted until about 11:00 pm when I decided that we should start timing them. I woke Tim up and he timed some with me, and for the next hour they were about 5-7 minutes apart lasting about 30 seconds. Now we were beginning to think we would really be meeting baby soon! We were hoping and planning for an all natural-drug free birth and had hired a Doula to help us with that goal. So about midnight, we texted Brandi, our doula, to give her a heads up. We told here where we were at and that I didn't need her to come over yet (she was about a 45 minute drive away), but that we thought it would hopefully be soon. By 3:30 am and no sleep, I was getting uncomfortable in bed, so I moved out to the couch and we decided to call Brandi and have her head our way. It seemed like she got here really fast, and I think it was about 4:30. I was still fairly comfortable and was listening to my Hypnobabies track, which was the method we had chosen to bring baby into the world.
Before Brandi had arrived, we decided that we would be ready to go to the hospital about 5:00am. This way we would be out of the house before Tenely woke up and the transition would be easier. Our neighbor, Sharon, would come sit with her until she woke up then Jennifer would take her for the day. Well, 5:00 am came and went and my contractions came to a stop. Tim, Brandi and I all ended up falling back asleep until about 7:00 am. We did text Jen about 6:00 to let her know where we were and that we wanted her to spend the day with Tenely even if labor didn't kick back in so that we could sleep. After Tenely woke up, Jen arrived, and Tenely was SO excited to go with her to play. She pulled on her lady bug "pack pack" as she calls it and was off. It was much more emotional than I ever thought it would be seeing her go, knowing/hoping the next time we saw her, it would be to introduce her to her new sibling.
Once she was off, it was time to try and get things rolling again. I spent some time on the exercise ball and then we took advantage of the brisk morning and went out "curb walking" around our circle. After a while of that, Brandi recommended I take a hot shower and relax. I did and ended up falling asleep again with only very light and sporadic contractions. It was about 11:00 am when Brandi came in to check on me again and I was somewhat awake. Since things hadslowed stopped Brandi went ahead and went back to Independence for a while. She said to keep her posted and rest, because in her experience when a lapse like this happened, when it kicked back in, it went pretty fast.
Tim and I just took the late morning/early afternoon to relax and sleep. We had a light lunch and watched Royals baseball, which lead to me waking up about 2:30pm At this point I was stir crazy and wanted out of the house. We decided to go to Sonic for happy hour then took a drive. We needed to go pick up meat from the nearby locker that we had ordered. We figured now was better than later, because we were about to become busy with a new one. I was starting to have contractions again so I brought my headphones so I could again listen to my hypnobabies tracks. By the time we got to Thayer, I was having pretty good contractions and really needed to focus. Once we got home, I tried laying on the couch again, but that was very uncomfortable!! So to the exercise ball, to lean over that it was. That was my favorite position through it all. It was now about 4:00pm and my Mom was also on her way. We had told our parents, but also warned it maybe a false alarm (this was earlier in the morning when we had called), about noon we gave my mom the go-ahead to come down.
I continued to labor and was still having good constant contractions lasting about 45 seconds and 3ish minutes apart. I was really focused and concentrating on my tracks as each one hit. Tim had warmed up the "rice socks" we had made, and those helped immensely on my lower back. Mom got to our house about 6:00, and I was not moving from my ball and mountain of pillows. Once she got settled, she ran to the store for us to grab a few things...coffee! By 7:00 I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart lasting about 60-90 seconds. Tim called Brandi to update her, and she said she was on her way. Tim asked me then if I wanted to stay at home or go to the hospital. It was then that I had 1 of my 2 stand-out contractions. That made my decision that I wanted to go to the hospital so I could use the spa tub. We loaded up and headed the few blocks to the hospital. I kept my headphones on to stay focused on my hypnobabies the whole time, we got there, and checked in. I wanted to walk back to labor and delivery, though it was a slow process and I had to stop to get though a few contractions we finally got there. That short walk seemed like miles that day!
Once we got to OB, I got changed (into my new, cute labor gown, not the hospital one) and they got me set up to monitor. They wanted to do this for about 20 minutes. We gave our nurse a copy of our birth plan, and she was so awesome about it. We had discussed everything with our Dr., but wanted to make sure the nurses knew as well. I also let her know I would like to do the tub as soon as possible! They got me all hooked up to monitor baby, and I was able to lay through one contraction and about went through the roof. Needless to say, laying down was not an option. Fortunately, they let me sit on the ball while they "tried" to monitor baby. Somewhere in this time, Brandi arrived. THANK GOODNESS, because the most massive of contractions hit, and without her I would have screamed for drugs! They were still trying to monitor me, but with my movement and the babies movement, it wasn't working out to well. Our nurse decided to go ahead and check me and then we would try to monitor again. I just prayed she said I was at least at a 4...her words were "you are at least an 8!!" Relief immediately swept over me and I had renewed energy that I could have the labor and delivery we prayed for. Only problem is the tub isn't allowed at that point, oh well, we were about to meet baby!
At this point my water was still intact and we had the choice to have them break it or wait. As we discussed it, the nurse went to call Dr. Taylor and let her know where we were. I then (prepare for details....) needed to use the bathroom, with the help of Tim and Brandi I made it the few feet to the bathroom, and sat to feel major pressure and a rush...my water had just broken. At that point I had the overwhelming urge to push and push NOW! I remember the nurses saying, try to get in here first! Dr. Taylor had arrived (from getting her nails done) as she hustled in knowing baby would be here quick! She didn't even take time to scrub up, until after the 1st few contractions and feeling like she had time to turn her back for a second. I don't really even remember feeling contractions at this point, just that I knew I need to push and exactly when I needed too. Between contractions, I felt totally relaxed. Tim and Brandi were right there by me for support and I had them and my hypnobabies track still playing. After the 1st push, and the encouragement that baby was almost here, I then felt the next urge and the "ring of fire" I felt myself get tense (and maybe scream) and Brandi coached me through it, just that and her hand on my shoulder brought back focused relaxation. Yay, hypnobabies!! A few more "pushes" and a baby girl was in our arms. The moment baby arrived I was pain free and euphoric. We did it. Tim leaned up to me and said "It's a GIRL!" Tears overcame me as they placed our sweet Brecken on my chest, where she would be for the next 2 hours. At 8:33 (only an hour after pulling into the hospital parking lot) our sweet girl was here. At 7 lbs 4 ozs and 20 3/4 inches long, she was and is perfect.
We had achieved our perfect, drug free birth. I couldn't have asked for anything more magical, and I remember every second. We had chosen to do the Hypnobabies home study class, and after Brecken's arrival, we both fessed up that we had our doubts as to whether or not it would work at all. It did, and it was amazing.
This will be long and detailed....if you are not a cheerleader of labor and delivery stories you have been warned :)
Once again, like with Tenely, my "due date" came and went with no real signs of baby being in any hurry to meet us. Our due date was April 22, 2013, but had been changed a few times so it was anyone's guess, and we came to call it a "Guess Date" through our Hypnobabies classes.
It all really started on Wednesday, April 24th after we got home from Tenely's tumbling class about 7:00 pm. We got her to bed, and then just spent the evening hanging out. I did notice that baby was much more active than normal at that particular hour, usually it was about 10:30ish that the wiggles and kicks really started. In hopes of it being the beginning stages of labor I went to the Internet to look up if increased movement was an indicator of labor...everything I read was saying yes! Still trying to not get my hopes up to much, I went along with my nightly routine and headed for shower and bed about 10:00. By 10:30 I was having contractions, but they were nothing major so I just laid in bed and relaxed while Tim got some sleep. That only lasted until about 11:00 pm when I decided that we should start timing them. I woke Tim up and he timed some with me, and for the next hour they were about 5-7 minutes apart lasting about 30 seconds. Now we were beginning to think we would really be meeting baby soon! We were hoping and planning for an all natural-drug free birth and had hired a Doula to help us with that goal. So about midnight, we texted Brandi, our doula, to give her a heads up. We told here where we were at and that I didn't need her to come over yet (she was about a 45 minute drive away), but that we thought it would hopefully be soon. By 3:30 am and no sleep, I was getting uncomfortable in bed, so I moved out to the couch and we decided to call Brandi and have her head our way. It seemed like she got here really fast, and I think it was about 4:30. I was still fairly comfortable and was listening to my Hypnobabies track, which was the method we had chosen to bring baby into the world.
Before Brandi had arrived, we decided that we would be ready to go to the hospital about 5:00am. This way we would be out of the house before Tenely woke up and the transition would be easier. Our neighbor, Sharon, would come sit with her until she woke up then Jennifer would take her for the day. Well, 5:00 am came and went and my contractions came to a stop. Tim, Brandi and I all ended up falling back asleep until about 7:00 am. We did text Jen about 6:00 to let her know where we were and that we wanted her to spend the day with Tenely even if labor didn't kick back in so that we could sleep. After Tenely woke up, Jen arrived, and Tenely was SO excited to go with her to play. She pulled on her lady bug "pack pack" as she calls it and was off. It was much more emotional than I ever thought it would be seeing her go, knowing/hoping the next time we saw her, it would be to introduce her to her new sibling.
Once she was off, it was time to try and get things rolling again. I spent some time on the exercise ball and then we took advantage of the brisk morning and went out "curb walking" around our circle. After a while of that, Brandi recommended I take a hot shower and relax. I did and ended up falling asleep again with only very light and sporadic contractions. It was about 11:00 am when Brandi came in to check on me again and I was somewhat awake. Since things had
Tim and I just took the late morning/early afternoon to relax and sleep. We had a light lunch and watched Royals baseball, which lead to me waking up about 2:30pm At this point I was stir crazy and wanted out of the house. We decided to go to Sonic for happy hour then took a drive. We needed to go pick up meat from the nearby locker that we had ordered. We figured now was better than later, because we were about to become busy with a new one. I was starting to have contractions again so I brought my headphones so I could again listen to my hypnobabies tracks. By the time we got to Thayer, I was having pretty good contractions and really needed to focus. Once we got home, I tried laying on the couch again, but that was very uncomfortable!! So to the exercise ball, to lean over that it was. That was my favorite position through it all. It was now about 4:00pm and my Mom was also on her way. We had told our parents, but also warned it maybe a false alarm (this was earlier in the morning when we had called), about noon we gave my mom the go-ahead to come down.
I continued to labor and was still having good constant contractions lasting about 45 seconds and 3ish minutes apart. I was really focused and concentrating on my tracks as each one hit. Tim had warmed up the "rice socks" we had made, and those helped immensely on my lower back. Mom got to our house about 6:00, and I was not moving from my ball and mountain of pillows. Once she got settled, she ran to the store for us to grab a few things...coffee! By 7:00 I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart lasting about 60-90 seconds. Tim called Brandi to update her, and she said she was on her way. Tim asked me then if I wanted to stay at home or go to the hospital. It was then that I had 1 of my 2 stand-out contractions. That made my decision that I wanted to go to the hospital so I could use the spa tub. We loaded up and headed the few blocks to the hospital. I kept my headphones on to stay focused on my hypnobabies the whole time, we got there, and checked in. I wanted to walk back to labor and delivery, though it was a slow process and I had to stop to get though a few contractions we finally got there. That short walk seemed like miles that day!
Once we got to OB, I got changed (into my new, cute labor gown, not the hospital one) and they got me set up to monitor. They wanted to do this for about 20 minutes. We gave our nurse a copy of our birth plan, and she was so awesome about it. We had discussed everything with our Dr., but wanted to make sure the nurses knew as well. I also let her know I would like to do the tub as soon as possible! They got me all hooked up to monitor baby, and I was able to lay through one contraction and about went through the roof. Needless to say, laying down was not an option. Fortunately, they let me sit on the ball while they "tried" to monitor baby. Somewhere in this time, Brandi arrived. THANK GOODNESS, because the most massive of contractions hit, and without her I would have screamed for drugs! They were still trying to monitor me, but with my movement and the babies movement, it wasn't working out to well. Our nurse decided to go ahead and check me and then we would try to monitor again. I just prayed she said I was at least at a 4...her words were "you are at least an 8!!" Relief immediately swept over me and I had renewed energy that I could have the labor and delivery we prayed for. Only problem is the tub isn't allowed at that point, oh well, we were about to meet baby!
At this point my water was still intact and we had the choice to have them break it or wait. As we discussed it, the nurse went to call Dr. Taylor and let her know where we were. I then (prepare for details....) needed to use the bathroom, with the help of Tim and Brandi I made it the few feet to the bathroom, and sat to feel major pressure and a rush...my water had just broken. At that point I had the overwhelming urge to push and push NOW! I remember the nurses saying, try to get in here first! Dr. Taylor had arrived (from getting her nails done) as she hustled in knowing baby would be here quick! She didn't even take time to scrub up, until after the 1st few contractions and feeling like she had time to turn her back for a second. I don't really even remember feeling contractions at this point, just that I knew I need to push and exactly when I needed too. Between contractions, I felt totally relaxed. Tim and Brandi were right there by me for support and I had them and my hypnobabies track still playing. After the 1st push, and the encouragement that baby was almost here, I then felt the next urge and the "ring of fire" I felt myself get tense (and maybe scream) and Brandi coached me through it, just that and her hand on my shoulder brought back focused relaxation. Yay, hypnobabies!! A few more "pushes" and a baby girl was in our arms. The moment baby arrived I was pain free and euphoric. We did it. Tim leaned up to me and said "It's a GIRL!" Tears overcame me as they placed our sweet Brecken on my chest, where she would be for the next 2 hours. At 8:33 (only an hour after pulling into the hospital parking lot) our sweet girl was here. At 7 lbs 4 ozs and 20 3/4 inches long, she was and is perfect.
We had achieved our perfect, drug free birth. I couldn't have asked for anything more magical, and I remember every second. We had chosen to do the Hypnobabies home study class, and after Brecken's arrival, we both fessed up that we had our doubts as to whether or not it would work at all. It did, and it was amazing.
Your birth sounds very similar to mine. Great job, mama!
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