I have details below, but just in case you wanted a short version:
I had my baby at home, and she was born a little mer-baby in a birthing tub. I used hypnobirthing technique and listened to hypnobirth tracks on repeat to stay relaxed during contractions. My labor was 8 hours long (one hour longer than my first born two years ago) and I had one very small tear.
My midwife (God bless her) tried every natural way to try to get my placenta out, but the thing wouldn't budge so we went to the hospital. We let them know we were coming for a retained placenta and not long after we got there (only a five minute drive) I went back, OB tried to manually remove (OH MAN THAT PAIN. AGAIN,) but I ended up needing a D&C. I went home after resting a couple hours at the hospital, girls were doing great, and although tired I felt pretty darn good. I slept SO well in my own bed that night!
DEETS
The last month of my pregnancy my baby was head down and very low into my pelvis. She never felt in my lungs like Marilyn.
One week & one day before my due date I lost my mucus plug. I'm having more contractions, but nothing worth timing.
The following week, I began having a lot more pressure down there, more discomfort just walking, and this feeling near my pelvis like it was being split apart. I spend more time on the birth ball because it is the most comfortable place to be.
The next day, at 40 weeks exactly, along with above symptoms, I start having bloody show. My cervix feels like its opening.
Friday (40.1) my contractions increase in intensity and frequency, but are still irregular all day. We go out to dinner with friends and we joke about the full moon and I eat spicy Mexican food. We have a few errands to run, and in that 30 minutes of driving around, my contractions are increasing and I call my mom and my midwife, Dawn, to warn them I think this is it.
When we get home, we have sex (seriously thinking last time for at least a month!) Steve goes to bed, I draw a bath and time contractions. By 9pm they are averaging every 5 and a half minutes and about 70 seconds long. I let my midwife know- she asks if I want her to head my way and I tell her not yet.
There's no way I can sleep through these contractions and I'm annoyed I won't be getting another night's sleep before this is over. I try to get some things done around the house in between contractions.
I call my mom at 11:30 and tell her to head our way because she has a four hour drive - she suggests I call Dawn and so I do. She's already headed towards Woodward and is only 40 minutes away. I wake Steve and tell him all this, and he's glad Dawn didn't listen to me and wait to longer to come. Dawn's assistant, Brandy, is also on her way from OKC (a 2 1/2 hour drive.)
I'm laboring mostly on my birth ball as people arrive one by one- first Dawn, then the birth photographer, Brandy, and last my mom (who arrived about an hour before Moriah was born.) They compliment how great I look and how calm I am during contractions. Steve put on some hypnobirthing relaxation tracks on repeat on his computer in our bedroom and I'm focusing on relaxing my body (especially face, jaw, and shoulders) while also counting breaths: inhale-2-3-4 exhale-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. At no point in my labor did I feel like the pain was more than I could handle. I took surges one at a time and over all felt pretty fantastic.
My one and only cervical check during my entire pregnancy was done around 1230 or 0130.. hard to remember :) so after being in labor 4 or 5 hours, I was 7cm and about 70-80% effaced. I stayed in bed and labored on my side with pillows in between my knees after this check for around an hour. Even lying down (my least favorable position for contractions) the contractions we bearable, unlike during Marilyn's labor. I was starting to feel a lot more burning in my hips and I started thinking how AMAZING a warm bath would be, so I asked would be too early to get in the birth tub? Dawn said I was well into labor so not too early, Steve started to fill up the tub with warm water that he aired up a few hours earlier. It felt amazing! It was just the thing I needed to stay relaxed for the rest of my labor. Brandy reminded me as needed to relax my shoulders and it also helped me when she or Steve would run the tips of their fingers on my upper back during contractions. I soon started feeling like occasionally pushing during the peak of my contractions and I asked Dawn about this, she said I was nearing the end of transition. What! I was shocked. Transition was so hard for me before, I still am shocked it wasn't harder. I feel so dumb now for blowing off hypnobirthing before! Anyway, I did have a hard time getting comfortable while pushing and had to be reminded that baby must be born completely underwater or out of water because I kept raising out of the water during surges. Kneeling position was recommended, and that was perfect for birth. These last ten (give or take) contractions were the only ones I made any noise during. I could feel her coming down during them, then ease back up a little bit as surges eased off. I started sweating a lot- my body was working hard! Pushing the head out was the hardest part- which is dumb on my part, I wish I had relaxed more. I did not need to push, but I sure wanted to. The rest of her body slipped out easily during the next contraction and I picked her right up out of the water at 405 in the morning! :) She was bigger than I expected, and I was surprised by her chubby cheeks. So cute!! And another baby with dark hair, ha!
The third stage of labor was full of surprises.
We stayed in the tub for I think 30 minutes.. I wasn't having many contractions and the placenta hadn't come out so I got out to see if maybe sitting on the toilet would help. Steve held the baby while we tried to get the placenta to come out. There was nipple stimulation, pushing on my stomach, some oil on my feet to get contractions going again, and none of this did the trick. I'm not sure when I was given pitocin, either before or after my midwife tried to remove the placenta manually. I don't think I'll ever forget her face as she apologized for having to do that! That pain was intense, I cursed like a sailor. I felt something come out, that ended up just being a big clot and blood. Shoot, I was hoping that was it! I'm not sure how many time's she tried before saying we would just have to go to the hospital and probably have to have it surgically removed. This moment could have been very scary for me, but it honestly wasn't at all. My midwife stayed calm, so I stayed calm. Steve wanted me to nurse the baby before I went, but Dawn suggested, stronger this time, that we get going immediately and that the baby would be okay, she could always be brought to meet us later. I immediately left with Dawn. I asked her on the drive there if the OB would want to try to remove the placenta manually before doing surgery and she said yes... and I was dreading that. Steve had called the OB to give him a heads up and Dawn called the ER before we had left so hopefully that helped speed things up a little bit. We got back to the room, I apologized for calling him out of bed (I think I said sorry to pretty much everyone there and to my midwife for this happening.) He tried a couple times to remove the placenta (SO MUCH BLOOD) and he said he would try to get it out one more time but we would probably have to do a d&c (although he worded it different.. something about having me take something to help me relax, i don't know.) I asked if I could avoid the hand up the hoo-ha thing (no, I didn't actually say that) and could we just skip to the d&c part and he said yes. I had been losing a lot of blood during all this stuff at the hospital and I passed out I think twice on my way into surgery. I did not end up needing a blood transfusion (thank God!) and just stayed in the room recovering for a couple hours before heading home.
My cord site to the placenta was velamentous, and I had placenta accreta (the placenta was embedded into my uterus - it HAD to be surgically removed.) I also learned that I have an odd shaped uterus, more specifically a bicornuate uterus. CRAZY.
After reading more about all this weird, random stuff I ended up having, I'm even more thankful (and surprised!) I've been able to have two children in the last two years. I am so thankful to God for my rainbow girls.
So labor and the birth of the baby was pretty boring and uneventful and beautiful and perfect. And while not as planned, the trip to the hospital went smooth and I had great care there. I'm thankful for how everything turned out and God seemed to have His hand over us the whole time.
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| what hypnobirth looked like for me. this was what I typically looked like during contractions. totally different than my previous labor! |
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| baby sounds good! :) |
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| ...waiting... |
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| and more waiting.. |
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| so much easier than having a baby on my back! |
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| LOVE |
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| i looooooove me a fresh baby covered in vernix |
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| praying over our princess |
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| so in love! |
