Ammon’s Amazing Hypnobabies Home Water Birth!
I lost my mucous plug on Saturday (December. 1st…my due date was the 5th) and had some waves that night, but they stopped around three in the morning. The next day we walked around the mall and about a million other places but the waves weren’t coming back. Finally I decided to go to be around seven at night and they started up again. I took a bath around nine, watched a movie, and got my birthing pool ready. Around three in the morning on Monday, December 3rd, I decided to call my midwife. I was already at 6cm with a ripened cervix and fully effaced. Two hours later I was at 10 cm.
Up to this point, I hadn’t felt any pain whatsoever.
That’s when things got a little rough…my midwife’s partner decided to check me to see what was going on because I still didn’t feel the need to push. I felt INCREDIBLY uncomfortable having her up there and told her to get her hand away from me and she wouldn’t!! Anyway, after what seemed like forever, she finally listened to me (thanks to my wonderful midwife and friend, Rachel Talley). Anyway, I felt so uncomfortable that I think I consciously decided to wait a little longer before having my baby…I didn’t feel ready for it anymore, and it took me quite a while to get over that feeling.
We got out of the pool for a while and I tried sitting backwards on the toilet or laying in bed, but it wasn’t helping. The midwives decided to leave Jason and me alone in the bedroom for a while…it was actually an amazing experience…my husband started praying for us and showed an extremely vulnerable side that I’d never seen before. He told me that Ammon was there with us and that he was on his way and would be here soon. That gave me some encouragement.
As a side note, I hadn’t invited my mom to the birth because she was really uncomfortable with the idea of a home birth, so I decided that I didn’t want negative vibes there. Well, around eleven in the morning (after about six hours of being fully dilated), she randomly showed up! It was an amazing experience, though, because I had all of a sudden really felt the need to have her there, but didn’t want to call her because I’d felt bad about not inviting her in the first place. It seems as though as soon as my mom showed up, things started moving again.
I had to get out of the pool for a while and push on a makeshift birthing pool (it was so uncomfortable that my butt hurt for a few days). After several more hours of pushing (you can imagine how tired I was…I hadn’t slept since Friday night…I was even falling asleep in between waves!!), my little boys’ head came into sight and he started crowning. I got back into the pool for my water birth and had the opportunity to deliver him completely on my own. (This was at 2:34 after about nine and a half hours of being fully dilated)
He latched on immediately and has been great with BFing ever since. He weighed exactly 8 lbs and measured 21.5 inches. He’s absolutely beautiful with blue eyes (must have come from several generations back because he and I and all our parents have dark brown eyes), olive skin, and a full head of dark hair.
As for the Hypnobabies…I had my Hypnobabies CD’s going in the background, but that’s all I did. I’m not sure if it was the hypnosis, but I can honestly say that the only discomfort I felt was with the midwife. All the waves were strong and empowering, but no pain at all. Even the actual birth felt no worse than an Indian burn.
Well, guess that wasn’t exactly short, was it? Anyway, I’d like to thank all three of you, especially Laura Lund (my Hypnobabies instructor!). I absolutely loved my homebirth/Hypnobabies experience and can’t wait for the next one!!
Originally posted on June 19, 2008
