"I kept listening to my tracks, had all the lights low and still tried to breathe baby down".
Sophie was due on Thursday 9/7/2020.
Monday 6th at around 4:30pm I started to get tightenings only at the front and 10mins apart for 20- 30seconds. I tried to relax had a bath and then went to bed to see if I could sleep. Around 10pm the tightenings had basically gone and nothing all day. I tried to keep moving and now was keen for baby to come out.
That night (Tuesday night/Wednesday morning 8th) at 1:30am started getting more tightenings 6-7mins apart and lasting 30 sec and monitored them until they fizzled out again at 5:30am.... Come on baby.
Finally after a walk with the dogs some lunch on Thursday 9th and a nap I felt tightenings a little more intensely and starting to pull from my back at about 2pm. I monitored for a bit and they were 2-3mins apart and lasting over 35sec.
I called my partner to let him know to come home and I think this might be it. Called my midwife that something's happening and then waited for the surges to be lasting closer to a minute.
By 5:30 I stuck on ten TENs machine which worked a treat, and by 8pm I called my midwife to say they are strong and lasting 55+ every 2-3 minutes some sorter but closer together. We made a plan to head in to hospital as I was wanting to be settled in case my waters broke (like they did with my first) and I had most of my "show". We got to the hospital by 9pm and met my midwife there. I requested not to know how dialated I was but had a feeling it would be under 4cm anyway.
I popped my hypnobirthing affirmation tracks on tried to relax (I never thought I would of used them) and take them one at a time. By 12am (10th) I asked for gas. After that I was moved to the birthing suite around 2am and started to fill what felt like the slowest, biggest bath in the world. My partner set up all my fairy lighting and kept all other lights off.
The surges were all consistently 2-3mins apart and at the point where I couldn't really feel TENs machine and gas wasn't doing too much.
I was starting to feel lots of pressure on my coccyx and was told it's my waters. We decided to get in the bath and see if that received the discomfort and if to break the waters.
My surges were so strong I wanted to drown myself so I was worried if the waters were filled with meconium (which was the case with my first) I would have to get out of the bath (potentially). As I wanted to be put out of my misery I said keep the waters intact, get the anesthetist and give me an epidural.My midwife wanted me to push on as that was my plan but I was done, really done. She set everything and everyone up for me to get the epidural. They had to monitor baby for 20 of the longest minutes before they would give me the epidural. Finally got the green light at 5:30am and relief was only a few more moments away.
I then got checked and wanted to be told how far along I was, I was 8.5cm with half my cervix gone. I was in 2 minds and thought maybe I could of pushed through broken the waters and had baby sooner than I thought. But God the epidural was a nice rest. I then did just that. Rest. Kept listening to my tracks had all the lights low and still tried to breathe baby down.
At 7:30am my waters popped. I was pretty mobile and could move around no issues (they wouldn't let me walk) but I was hugging the back of the hospital bed and wasn't feeling much at all and asked for the epidural to be turned off for a while til I be started to feel too much.
At 10ish the doctor came to check on baby and me and said I'm fully dilated but baby is still up there. So we waited til I felt I needed to push. Around 11:30 they said baby has come down I turned the epidural back on and after 5-6 pushes head was out, 2 more and she was delivered, all 3.56kg. We had skin to skin but she needed a little help to breathe and be checked but came back very quickly after. Latched on so well and it was my turn to be taken care of.
This was such a different experience to my first birth and felt so much more in control and more relaxed about everything. The breathing techniques really work and affirmation kept me focused. I really can't rave about how much the hypnobirthing helped empower me and know what choices I had and how to control my body. It also helped with how my partner supported me and he knew what to do to help me -massage.
With my first I had a "just go with it" attitude which led to an episiotomy and forceps delivery with what I will call trauma on me and bubs. This time I only had a small 2 degree tear.
I was blessed with a single room to just recover so much better. I feel I don't need to keep myself drugged up like I did with first birth and still feel like I have my head screwed on. I was ready to get out of the hospital next morning after monitoring me and checking baby.
I feel amazing and Sophie seems so settled. Thank you hypnobirthing 🥰
Kasia
