Hypnobabies Birth Center Birth of Lumen Rose
“I felt so protected and safe. I started my first pressure wave in the beautiful birthing suite and Tommy was gone getting all of my bags that I had packed because I’m crazy and was so worried we needed everything (we used 5% of what we brought) but Gina jumped to my side and touched my arm so gently reminding me to use my orange hypno-anesthesia and send it where I needed it to go.”
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I woke up at 5:30am on March 11th and started my day as I had started my last 11 days … “How am I still pregnant?” …” I waddled out of bed and to the bathroom to pee for the 4th time that night and decided when I got back I would play my “Come Out Baby” hypnosis track to try and convince my baby to COME OUT!! As soon as I laid down I felt two pops down low in my belly and it was immediately followed by an intense pressure wave. I told myself it was probably just another false alarm but just in case I should probably get up and make sure the house is all clean because if this was my birthing time I didn’t wanna have to come home to any kinda mess.
While I was cleaning my waves got more intense and I decided I would tell Tommy what was going on and jump in the shower. The shower felt amazing but I eventually got out and wanted to start listening to my beginning birthing tracks! I was so excited… this HAD to be the day we’d been waiting for! Tommy made me some oatmeal for breakfast but I had no interest in eating anything. At this point I texted my doula and called the midwife office. No one answered the midwife line so I had to call 3 times… about every 20 minutes (later found out they had 6 births that weekend so I’m sure everyone was super tired and busy) and then I got a call back from Ashley the midwife on call. This was at around 8:00am. I told her my waves were about 5 minutes apart and about a minute each. She said to call back at 11 and we would go from there.
I continued to try everything to cope with the waves. I was getting a bit frustrated because I felt like they were more intense then I was anticipating and it made me nervous that I couldn’t deal with the rest of my journey. But once I put on my Hypnobabies tracks in the background and finally found a rhythm that I liked (weirdly cuddling with an old towel and standing against the wall alternating my knees back and forth) I was in the zone. Tommy was amazing and timed all my waves. I really needed to be touched during my waves which wasn’t something I was expecting because I’m not a super touchy person in general.
He did amazing at sensing what I needed. It was perfect. It was about 9:15 and we realized things were moving pretty fast. My waves were 3 minutes apart and were about 1 minute each. I called Ashley back and told her. I was also not able to sit down because of all the pressure (I was feeling like I had to bear down and push). She said we should meet at the birth center at 11 instead of just a phone call. We told Gina to meet us there at 11 too. Everything went so fast! I really expected to stay at home for hours on end but this was it. This is what I was waiting for!! I decided to ride the rest of my waves in the shower with the shower head gently massaging my belly.
When Tommy told me it was 10:20 and I should get out and dry off I told him “Baby… I’m gonna be so pooped after this” I guess I hadn’t realized how physically demanding this whole process was going to be on my body. We loaded the car and we were off. I had my Hypnobabies tracks playing … turning my light switch off and trying to stay off with my light switch but the car ride was awful. So many bumps and I had to be sitting obviously which made me so uncomfortable. But after the 20 minutes we were there. This was where I realized two things… today was my daughter’s birthday… and since my waves were consistently 3 minutes apart still there was no chance that I could make it all the way up to the birth center (it’s on the 5th floor of a large office complex) without having a wave.
Well… oh well… you’re welcome to the few business men who had to watch me leaning against the wall with my raggedy towel alternating pumping my legs and doing my breathing and Peace cue. 🤷🏻♀️ we made it up to Willow and Ashley let us in and Gina (my doula) was there waiting for us. We got in and they took me to an exam room. Now I had decided that I didn’t want to know how dilated I was because I didn’t want to be discouraged in my progress if I wasn’t progressing as I felt I should be. But… I also knew Willow wouldn’t keep me there if I was under 6cm.. so I told them I didn’t wanna know but they could tell Tommy where I was at. (Found out later I was about 7cm!!)
They brought him in the hallway and then came back in and told me we were gonna get set up in the birthing room and we were there to stay! Yes! I was so excited! The night before I went into my birthing time I had a breakdown and cried for hours because I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to have the beautiful birth I envisioned in the birth center because I was 11 days “late” and after 42 weeks they don’t allow you to do the birth center birth anymore. I was so happy that this was it. This was the day. But then I realized oh wow… this is it… this is the day… but with my waves progressing quickly it gave me little time to worry. We got in the birthing room and that’s when I realized what a beautiful gift I had given to myself and my baby.
My birth team was absolutely amazing. As I’m writing this I’m in tears thinking about how absolutely wonderful and supportive everyone was. Ashley and Nina (the nurse) were running around preparing the room and Gina was so loving and attentive to me… I felt so protected and safe. I started my first pressure wave in the beautiful birthing suite and Tommy was gone getting all of my bags that I had packed because I’m crazy and was so worried we needed everything (we used 5% of what we brought) but Gina jumped to my side and touched my arm so gently reminding me to use my orange hypno-anesthesia and send it where I needed it to go. I was laying on the bed and as that wave ended I felt my water break.
I got up then and they had the tub ready for me. So I got in and it felt amazing. (Also at this point I had completely lost my sense of time so all I know is it was somewhere after 11…) I had lots of waves in the tub and Tommy stayed by my side and poured warm water over my back and I had my Birthing Day tracks playing in the background. Ashley told me she was going to leave and Candace was coming in because they were switching shifts and all of a sudden I felt a huge need to bear down and push. When I said that the energy in the room instantly changed. Everyone was hurrying and getting everything ready for my birthing time. I was really in my zone during my waves and with help from my team remembered to listen to my body and that my body knew exactly what to do.
In between waves it was so nice to still be able to talk and joke and feel like myself for a while. After a while of pushing and having waves in the tub… Candace suggested we maybe move into the bathroom so I could try to bear down in a different position on the toilet with my feet up on a little squatty potty to try to move baby further down. The lights were off and I had 3 wonderful women and Tommy sitting on the floor staring up at my vagina with a flashlight telling me how exciting it was because they could see my babies head. I realized that this was probably the only time that would ever happen in my lifetime. 😂Things got really intense in the bathroom after that. Every wave brought more progress and I felt so much pressure but it was amazing because I knew that every wave I had meant I was one push closer to finally meeting my beautiful daughter I had been desperately longing to see.
I hit a point in there where I was so physically exhausted that I said “I can’t do this anymore” and Gina told me “You already are doing this…” and I remembered that my body knew what to do. This is what I was meant to do that day. After a while of progressing in the bathroom Candace said that we could move back into the tub so I could birth my baby. Things were so intense there. I could feel her head stretching through my birth canal and then felt her body make her way through and before I knew what was going on Candace handed me my beautiful baby Lumen. She was perfect. She made the most perfect crying noises I’d ever heard. The noises I had been waiting for for so many months.
Here she was at 3:22pm… healthy and beautiful and safe. I cried tears I didn’t really understand and felt a way I had never felt before. I was so proud to be her mom. So excited for our life to start together. So proud that my birth had happened exactly as I imagined. She let out a bunch of meconium on the way out and was born with the cord around her neck but Candace didn’t even blink an eye at it. Lumen was perfect. She had a huge hearty umbilical cord that my birth team was in awe of! It made me feel so proud of myself that I did that. I built that for her. So she could stay safe and healthy for the long 41 weeks she was a part of me. After the cord was done pulsing, they clamped it off and Tommy cut it leaving my beautiful baby free to be in her new world. I handed her off to Tommy so I could birth my placenta and get cleaned up and out of the tub. My bleeding was a little heavier then they wanted so they set me up on the bed to monitor me and we started to breast feed.
She knew right away where to go and what to do. She was amazing. After that Tommy put on the special play list we made for her and we listened to our favorite music with our new favorite person. As a new family. We were in awe of how beautiful she was. How perfect she was. How unbelievably lucky we were to be her parents. The rest of the day was also kind of a blur. I was bleeding more then they’d like to see and as a consequence I was too dizzy to walk or stand. My mom came to see us and brought me a #2 from Jimmy Johns which was amazing!!! I scarfed that down realizing I hadn’t eaten anything except an apple sauce Gina lovingly forced down my throat (thank god she did) during my birthing time. I thought this may be another reason I was so light headed other than the excessive bleeding.
They realized I had a slight tear and had to get a repair but needed to make sure that everything in my belly was not bleeding too much before they could do that. It was a long day of laying on a bed and bleeding… I even had to get a catheter to drain my bladder (because I couldn’t pee on my own at that point there was a lot happening down there…) so that they could make sure my bleeding wasn’t being caused by that pressure from my bladder. At one point I had all four midwifes there on a Sunday… when they aren’t open. It just showed how wonderful all these women were. They took such great care of me to make sure I was okay and I was safe. After everything was said and done I was finally able to walk on my own at 11ish. After doing the discharge stuff it was about midnight… so we packed the car and took our first car ride as a family of 3. My birth was amazing and exactly what I wanted and I’m so happy. ❤️
