MamaBlogga

After the concerns throughout my pregnancy, I did finally concede and agree to be induced the morning of June 7th—but I still held out hope that my baby would decide to come more than two days early, and save us from having to be hooked up to an IV, stuck in the hospital (and possibly even a hospital bed) for the whole labor.

Contractions woke me up at 4:45 on the morning of June 5. My mother had flown in the night before and thanks to flight delays and road construction, we didn’t get back from the airport until 12:30 AM. But Rachel decided to give me the first night of not-nearly-enough sleep that day. I tried to relax using some of the techniques from my Hypnobabies course.

Finally, I was tired of laying in bed, not sleeping. I woke Ryan up at 6:45 to tell him, “It’s baby’s birthday.” Because my contractions (“pressure waves,” as we say in Hypnobabies) intensified if I moved around a whole lot, Ryan helped to gather the last toiletries for my hospital bag and brought my birthing ball from the other room. I spent the morning in our room, sitting or laying on the birthing ball and reading or listening to HypnoBabies scripts—I even dozed off for a couple naps.

They say that for non-first-time-moms, you should head to the hospital when the contractions are 5-6 minutes apart and about 1 minute long. I hit that benchmark around 10, but didn’t feel like it was time to go to the hospital yet. Plus, I would have a set of 3-4 contractions, then stop for a little while. I worried they’d put me on drugs to try to regulate my contractions at the hospital, the same concern I had with Rebecca’s birth—and the reason why I waited until I was an 8 (90 minutes before delivery) before I was admitted.

In the early afternoon, things started to pick up. I still didn’t have a clockwork “schedule” of contractions, but I started to have clusters of contractions—several in a row, with peaks and valleys, but without letting up, for up to five to ten minutes. Again, just like with Rebecca’s birth.

I started to panic and knew I had to get to the hospital, sure I wouldn’t be able to make it without pain meds this time. Ryan tried to help me calm down, but it was hard not to panic in minute eight of a contraction! The car ride and walking about two million miles to the L&D admitting desk was not fun. As we slowly made our way down the hall, the nurse that met us asked if this was my first.

Thanks a lot. I thought I was doing well here.

They got me into a room and had me change into a gown. And then I proceeded to FREAK. OUT. I insisted that I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t have this baby naturally, I couldn’t keep it up. Ryan got me to lay down and calm down—and I instantly felt much better. I wasn’t comfortable by any stretch, but I wasn’t in the intense pain of just seconds before. It’s what Hypnobabies calls the fear-tension-pain cycle to a T. I was afraid, I tensed up, and it just made the pain worse.

So I laid down and the nurse came to check me: 9cm and my water broke (so there, nurse in the hallway). And I was ready to turn down an epidural, too. We started a script on my MP3 player and I was pretty set.

Good thing—my OB arrived in about 15 minutes and I was at 10cm. He pulled on a gown over his street clothes and said we’d push when I was ready. Which took maybe five minutes. A nurse and my OB commented at different points on how “controlled” I was (what they didn’t know…). About three minutes of pushing later, Rachel was born!

Rachel is one month old today! And tomorrow is our first day three-on-one. I mean all on our own, without any Nanas around for help.

Oh boy.

Blogging will probably continue to be spotty for a while, but one day we’ll find our new normal.

Jordan is coaching me (Ryan) through how to do a post here on MamaBlogga, so hopefully I won’t mess anything up too badly. She is currently in a hospital bed holding our new baby girl Rebecca who was born this morning at 4:58 am. Jordan’s contractions started almost 36 hours before, but only got really strong about midnight. About two thirty in the morning Jordan decided that it was time to head to the hospital.

By the time we got all ready and actually got to the hospital it was 3:30. The nurse checked her out and told us she was at an eight and asked if Jordan had wanted an epidural. The moment of truth.

Bit of background: Jordan had a very bad spinal headache caused by a botched epidural during Hayden’s birth. She was basically flat on her back for a whole week afterwards. So when she found out she was pregnant again, she decided she wanted to go natural. She has been practicing self-hypnosis with some good results for several months now. During several of her stronger contractions before we came to the hospital she had doubts that she could go through with it.

Jordan replied to the nurse, “Well, I wasn’t planning on it?” The nurse, sensing Jordan’s hesitancy, told her that she had come this far and Jordan could do it without. So it was—no epidural, au naturel. I believed she could do it, but then again, I’ve never had to go through anything like what she was.

The doctor got there about 4:30 and she started pushing. She had to “learn” how to push all over again since her first birth was with an epidural and she couldn’t feel anything. Only a (what it seemed to me) a short thirty minutes later, Rebecca was born.

A small personal note—I was very proud of Jordan for going through with her desire to go all natural. At times she questioned if she could do it, but she was a champ and did amazing. (With the help of a great nurse.)

All Rebecca’s vitals were strong, which was a relief since Hayden had a few issues after he was born. She weighed in at 5 lbs 13 oz and came in at 18.5 inches long. She almost immediately got to nurse and did so for almost an hour before she was taken away to get some shots and get her first bath. So both mom and baby are doing great other than a bit tired. So hopefully Jordan will be able to get online tomorrow and fill in any gaps that I might have left out.