My Secret to Successful Hypnobirthing, Part 3

This is Part 3 of 3. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2. 

We drove to my midwife appointment. The surges seemed to slow down while we were in the car. That made me worry a little, but they were still pretty strong, and they picked up again when we got out of the car. I just decided to be grateful that my body gave me a little break, since being confined to a car seat during surges isn't very comfortable.

We checked in and I had a surge while the nurse was asking me questions. I quietly gave a couple of answers while trying to relax and breathe. She looked questioningly at Stephen and he said I was having a contraction. The nurse looked a little surprised, but typed for a minute on her computer and told us the midwife would be right in.

The midwife came in and said, "So you had a contraction while the nurse was talking to you? You think you're in labor?" We said yes. She checked me, and I was dilated to a 5, 90% effaced. She looked at me and said, "Well, you should probably head to the hospital soon. I'll let Kathryn [the midwife on call that day] know you're coming in soon." When I told her I wanted to wait a little bit longer before heading to the hospital, she looked at me like I was crazy. On the way out, we asked the receptionist to cancel the appointment I'd scheduled for the following week. When she asked if I wanted to reschedule, I told her I was in labor and wouldn't need to come back for a while. She smiled excitedly and wished me luck.

We decided to head to the grocery store to get some snacks (labor wears a girl out!) and walk around a bit. I wanted to be dilated more than 5 cm before going to the hospital. I stopped every couple of minutes to relax through a surge and we went on our merry way. 

We got to the hospital just before 11 a.m. In triage, they told me I was dilated almost to a 6, still 90% effaced. They got me a lovely hospital gown, assigned us a delivery room and we got settled.

I was hoping to labor mostly upright this time, to allow gravity to help Baby Girl descend. I was able to for a little while and then I got really exhausted. Shortly before I lay down, I told Stephen I thought I was in "transition" - the surges had gotten a little stronger and I just felt different. I lay down on the bed, this time making sure to lie on my side so that my pelvis didn't flatten and make it harder for Baby Girl to pass through. I ended up mostly on my back with Sweet Boy and I think that contributed to a longer labor.

Around 11:45, Kathryn, the midwife, came in and checked me. I was dilated to an 8.5 and 100% effaced. I was right, I was in transition! She told me she was pretty sure I'd be having the baby within the next couple of hours, and then she left to check on another patient. With Sweet Boy, I'd looked at the clock and picked a deadline for myself. This time, I looked at the clock and decided I would be done by 2:00.

A little after 12:00, I started to feel like I wanted to push a little. Not really strong pushes, like I'd felt the need to do with Sweet Boy, but gentle pushing to go along with my breathing. Hypnobirthing calls this "breathing the baby down." I told Stephen I had the urge to push a little and asked him to get the midwife. He talked to the nurses and they went and got her for me. (After Baby Girl was born, the nurses laughed a little and said, "Well, usually when people tell us to get the doctor because they have the urge to push, we tell them to hold on a while, but we could tell you were ready. You were just so calm about it!").

So Kathryn came back and checked me. She said I was dilated to "just about" a 10, so she got everything ready and sat at the end of the bed. For a few surges, I worked on "breathing the baby down" and felt like things were going slowly, but really well. The midwife started to encourage me to push, saying the baby needed some help getting out. Looking back, I think she was in a hurry to get somewhere and so she was trying to hurry me along. I wish I'd insisted on doing it the way I wanted to, since that was so much more comfortable than the "purple pushing" I ended up doing.

So I pushed with each surge for about 45 minutes. My water broke while I was pushing and shot across the room, narrowly missing the midwife. Everyone was quiet for a second, stunned. Then we all laughed. I kept pushing. 

When Baby Girl crowned, it was a LOT more painful than it had been with Sweet Boy. It hurt to push but it hurt more to relax. That was the worst part of labor this time (which was totally opposite of how Sweet Boy's labor went). The surges were intense and exhausting this time, but completely manageable and not very painful. Pushing sucked. If you're in the middle of labor and feel like you want to push a particular way, don't let the doctor/midwife talk you out of it. Listen to your body!

At one point during the pushing, I began to feel extremely light-headed. I knew I was going to pass out. In a bit of a panic, I tried to convince Stephen and the midwife that I was about to pass out, and they sort of brushed me off. When they could see that I wasn't calming down, they told me to take some deep breaths and talked me through it. The feeling passed, and I could focus on pushing again. 

At 12:56 p.m., Baby Girl was finally born, after about 6 total hours of labor. The relief from the pain of crowning was SO wonderful. And then they placed my sweet baby girl on my chest and I finally got to snuggle my little princess. I'll never forget the feel of her warm, soft, sticky skin as I rubbed her back and told her how much I loved her. She cried angrily as I kissed her and tried to stop shaking. For some reason, I was really shaky and lightheaded after labor this time. 

After we'd both cleaned up a little

They took her away to measure her, and when I heard she was 9 lb., 5 oz., I was shocked. I knew she'd be bigger than Sweet Boy, but that was almost a full pound and a half heavier! She was the same length as Sweet Boy - 20 inches - definitely making her a lot chunkier than he was as a newborn. 

She looked like a little old man, but I loved her to pieces

Over the next couple of days, Baby Girl was SO hungry. She was really fussy because she kept trying to breastfeed but the colostrum wasn't enough for her. I ended up caving and giving her a little formula because it was really stressful for all of us to have her be so hungry. Thankfully, the hospital had a special tube and syringe contraption that I could use to feed her a little formula as she nursed so she wouldn't get too attached to the bottle.

Baby Girl's birth was an amazing experience for me and I'm so grateful I was able to make Hypnobirthing work better for me this time. If you have any questions about Hypnobirthing, I'd be happy to answer what I can or direct you to my dear friend Launi. 

Family of four. Plus Hyrum's favorite library card.