Around 5:00 pm the waves were five minutes apart so we called Methodist to let them know we would be coming. I was totally thrown off when they told me they were full and we would need to go to another hospital. After weighing our options, we decided to go to St. Francis because they are a part of the same midwife group as Methodist. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't do a water birth. I was really upset about the situation but Brian helped me stay focused. He reminded me that we would be meeting our daughter soon.
Around 4:00 am I started getting pressure waves. They weren't close together so Brian and I hung around the house and I listened to my Hypnobabies CD's while sitting on my birthing ball or laying in bed.
Around 5:00 pm the waves were five minutes apart so we called Methodist to let them know we would be coming. I was totally thrown off when they told me they were full and we would need to go to another hospital. After weighing our options, we decided to go to St. Francis because they are a part of the same midwife group as Methodist. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't do a water birth. I was really upset about the situation but Brian helped me stay focused. He reminded me that we would be meeting our daughter soon.
0 Comments
My son’s birth story starts weeks before he joined us earth side. When I was 33.5 weeks pregnant I went into preterm labor and was put on modified bed rest. Then at 35.5 weeks pregnant I once again went into preterm labor and was put on strict bed rest until I was 37 weeks. There were multiple occasions during this 3 ½ weeks that the OBGYNs (I was transferred to their care at one point because I was so early), midwives, and nurses were convinced our son was coming. One nurse said to me, “you better tell your uterus to calm down” -- I did, so it did.
I’m not sure how, maybe it was the impending weigh-in at my 38 week appointment the next day, but I actually got up the motivation to get to the gym on a Monday morning. I woke up at 6am and was on the elliptical machine mid-workout when my water broke a little before 7. I literally froze mid-stride, completely in shock as I realized what had just happened. I waddle-ran to gather my things and head home and tell Kyle. As I texted him “My water broke” I remember briefly wondering if I was wrong and had actually just peed myself instead. In that case, I thought, I’m about to be really embarrassed.. Luckily for me, it was, in fact, my water and the start of August’s birth day! Evelyn Ann was born Sunday, January 26th at 10:34am (note: her due date was the 25th!). My pre birth waves started on Saturday am. They were very mild and only every 15 min or so. Since it was too cold to walk outside, we went to the Mall of America and walked around and had a nice dinner. I went to bed around 9 pm and then the waves became more intense, but still seemed like I could "sleep through them". So I called my midwife, let her know I'd call if something changed and attempted to go to bed. I've put off writing about the birth of my daughter Harriet for some time now, even though it's been on my mind a great deal, but not for the reason you might expect. Birth is hard to capture in words because when you're going through it, you're in such a different state of awareness. Especially because I used Hypnobabies, I was able to experience the birth process moment by moment, to really be present in it. But, if for no other reason than that I benefited from stories like these in the months leading up to Harriet's birth, I will do my best to sum it up.
Hello Hypnobabies Community (moms, dads, doulas etc) I am writing this for the hypno-curious as I once was….but delivering my first baby convinced me that IT WORKS!!
First, I am a nerd. I am also a skeptical nerd. One that never out-grew the “why?” stage. The kind of person who can’t take even an “expert's” word for something. I HAVE to obsessively research and go back to the raw data and theory before making a decision. Pregnancy only made this worse. See Dr Google. http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/do-you-love-dr-google/ A little background about my pregnancy is that I had intended on taking my Hypnobabies course in Minneapolis and had already signed up for a class when we learned that my husband got a new job in Upstate New York. I had fallen in love with Hypnobabies but there were no instructors or classes anywhere near me in NY. I was 7 months pregnant and really determined to use this method so I decided I would do the Homestudy Course. The other things about moving to NY is that I had to change midwife practices late in my pregnancy and we do not know anyone in the area, no family or friends so I decided I would look into hiring a doula for a little bit of extra support. Turns out there are no hypno-doulas in the area either, but I was lucky enough to find a doula who is also a HypnoBirthing Instructor, who was willing to work with me and use my Hypnobabies tools. My pregnancy with Owen went smoothly overall, especially with the excellent prenatal care at Morning Star. When we heard that Karla taught Hypnobabies classes, Nathan and I agreed that we wanted to go that route. The class required a large investment of time and effort but we felt very informed and prepared by the end of the class. We also felt such wonderful support from Karla as well as the two other couples in the class. I had been having pressure waves for two weeks as we approached Owen's guess date. I knew they weren't the “real thing” yet and I felt impatient for his arrival, though prepared and fearless. We had given the midwives our birth plan which asked for lots of privacy and quiet. I felt respected and supported by everyone potentially involved in the upcoming birth. Toward the end of my pregnancy, Hypnobabies helped me have a sense of peace about when my daughter would be born. I was significantly dilated and effaced and experiencing waves before the birth, and my midwife said that my baby would likely be coming early. But my doula, Lindsay McCoy, reminded me that we do not give birth by numbers. Lindsay was right!
On the day after our guess date, I noticed some discharge around 11 AM and thought that perhaps my water had broken. (It turned out that it had not.) I called my midwives, but I did not want to go to the hospital yet because I was not having waves. I took a nap that day (luckily!). I then started having waves around 3 PM but still wasn’t sure if this was the “real thing.” I felt relaxed and had a big dinner (again, luckily!). When I was 34 weeks pregnant, my blood pressure was becoming more and more problematic. I was already on “take it as easy as possible” bedrest for two weeks at that point, so I was kind of annoyed. At my weekly appointment that Wednesday my blood pressure was 170/95, and my doctor was like hmm, that’s not good. So we ran some tests, and when I got a call back directly from my doctor (instead of his nurse), I knew that was a bad sign. |
Archives
July 2023
Categories
All
|