For those of you interested in Calem's birth story (it is long and may
have TMI):
I was starting to worry I'd need to be induced once I hit 40 weeks
with no clear sign of upcoming labor. I had at least a week of
menstrual-type cramping and had two episodes of pretty uncomfortable
contractions which happened regularly every 2-3 minutes and lasted
over a minute for over an hour, but since I could talk through these,
I figured, it wasn't real labor and they went away when I put myself
back on bedrest.
As the work week drew to a close and I began to get more desperate to
avoid induction, I gave several different things a trying hoping to
start up labor. First, I finally let myself drink some Coke
(caffeinated) with dinner. I took two capsules of Evening Primrose
oil (EPO) and one calcium supplement (I figured, calcium is a good
thing--but then I researched more on-line that EPO can cause longer
active stages of labor and figured, that was not for me!!). Then I
decided to spend the 15 dollars to buy an MP3 file from the hynobabies
site called "Come OUT, Baby!" I figured if these things didn't work I
would start walking around outside a lot Friday because it was suppose
to be much warmer outside than usual.
After listening to "Come OUT, Baby" four times in a row, I finally
went to bed by midnight. No signs of labor, I figured, guess it'll be
another work day tomorrow! Shortly before 4 AM, I woke up feeling
like I had to go to the bathroom (#2) but nothing came out. I crawled
back in bed only to have the phone ring. I wasn't on call that night
but the nurse accidentally called me. I hung up and realized the
feeling to go the bathroom had returned so I headed downstairs. Turns
out this feeling was coming on a regular basis, with increasing
intensity. I wasn't timing it, but figured, maybe this is the real
thing? So I tried to take a shower but had a hard time even getting
dressed because of the strong sensation to try to push something out.
By 5:30 AM I figured I should at least notify the OB to see if we
should go to the hospital but I didn't want to be on the phone so I
woke up Jason and told him "I think we need to go to the hospital."
He replied, "Why?" I stared in disbelief before replying, "because I
might be in labor!" I told Jason if the OB called back to ask if they
had one of these at the hospital! He called the on-call OB for me and
was told to expect a call back within 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I sat on
the birthing ball (an exercise ball) and it was wonderful, just
rocking side to side. Thirty minutes passed without any reply and by
then (around 6 AM) I had the uncontrollable urge to scream. It wasn't
that I was in such severe pain, it seriously just came out of my
mouth. I felt like something was coming out, and I was afraid I
wouldn't make it to the hospital and told Jason we needed to leave
immediately (He said he'd prefer to call an ambulance but I refused, I
did not want to risk a home delivery!)
My pain was actually quite well controlled using my hynobabies
techniques I had learned over the past several weeks. We arrived to
the hospital and walked to L+D, arriving around 6:30 AM. It was
almost change of shift (7 AM). The nurses took their time at the desk
asking me my name, birthdate, etc and I just replied, "I need to push
right now!" Jason says that seemed to turn on a switch because right
then and there they mobilized and got me into a room, got me undressed
and checked to see how dilated I was. I was so relieved when they
said I was "complete" and was given their blessing to start pushing.
The doctor rushed in and got ready to catch. Jason says you could
already see the head when I started. I was starting to lose my
concentration and begged Jason to hand me my Ipod which had the
hynobabies tracks on it. I listened to "Pushing baby out" and tuned
out everyone else. I pushed whenever I felt like it and felt
increasing pressure, I knew the only thing that would make it feel
better was having baby out! I had tuned out the doctor too but did
hear her say "vacuum" and then I knew I had to push a little harder
because I did not want to go through that again! Jason says the
heartrate was going down a bit so she was worried the baby may need to
be vacuumed out. At 6:51 Baby Calem was born!! I felt like I still
in a trance and they let me hold him for a brief minute until they
took him away to do a quick bedside check. It wasn't until about an
hour later that I felt more with it and ready to explore my little
guy! He was perfect in every way. I had a second degree laceration
which they applied topical meds before stitching up. I am lucky the
laceration was not as long as before, and I have been able to be more
mobile this time around with less discomfort than last time (good
since Jason isn't around to help me as much since he has to watch
after Clara).
The doctor and nurses commented on how "calm" I seemed while pushing,
I would definitely recommend Hynobabies to any interested. I do not
have a high tolerance for pain (I think the cramping after delivery
was worse than labor, maybe since I had the hypnosis turned off by
then!) but was happy to have "an easy, fast and completely comfortable
birthing." (quoted from my Hynobabies Pregnancy Affirmation CD)
