Julian’s Slow & Very Fast Hypnobabies Birth Story
“When I would have a pressure wave I would turn my mental light switch off and go to my Special Safe Place. There I would visualize my baby’s face and we would smile at each other. I can honestly say I did not experience any discomfort. Most of the time I was even smiling at the image of my sweet baby.”
My first two babies were really quick (5 hours and 2 hours), so I was expecting a really fast birthing time. Boy was I wrong.
At 2:30 am on March 25th I started having some mild pressure waves roughly every 20-40 min throughout the morning. They started getting more intense around 6 am, so I got out of bed and started listening to my Hypnobabies tracks and packing my bag. Things progressed pretty slow (for me), but by 9 am I knew I needed to really start focusing on my hypnosis, so I sent my kids to grandma and grandpa’s house. Around 11 my waves were every 4 min and 2 min. long, and then I got a strong wave of nausea. In the past this has signaled transformation, but I could tell something was not quite right.
I called my doctor and let him know what was going on, and because of my history of fast birthing times, he had me go to the hospital. Though my waves were pretty close together and lasting a long time, they weren’t like a normal pressure wave, they felt more like transformation. They would start peaked and then go away quick, instead of a slow build up, peak, back down. By the time we reached the hospital they had slowed down to every 7 min.
When they checked me in I was 6 cm, but I decided to take advantage of the slow down to take a hypno-nap. About two hours later my waves were still only 7 min apart and I had only progressed by about half a cm in dilation. Since I was an experienced mom and had a good relationship with him, my doctor let me go home so I could eat and relax, and told me he would see me in a few hours, once things picked back up. I didn’t see him for another day and a half!
We went home, ate yummy food, cuddled, and relaxed. I listened to my hypnosis tracks most of the time, just taking small breaks to eat, do an exercise, or walk around my neighborhood. When I would have a pressure wave I would turn my mental light switch off and go to my Special Safe Place. There I would visualize my baby’s face and we would smile at each other. I can honestly say I did not experience any discomfort. Most of the time I was even smiling at the image of my sweet baby.
I was pretty shocked to get up the next morning with little change, still having pressure waves every 7 min or so. I was feeling anxious about my big kids being gone a day already, and I hadn’t had any real sleep in two days. Baby had been head down anterior for months, but he was still right facing, so I decided to do some spinning babies exercises, and walk a couple miles, to try to get baby in a better position. I did the lift and tuck, side lying release, and forward leaning inversion on and off for hours.
When walking I would stop and do lunges through my pressure waves. Though my waves would pick in frequency after an exercise or walking, they would eventually subside back down to every 7 min, and the intensity stayed the same. Finally around 6 pm the frequency of my waves picked up and kept getting closer, but then around 11 pm they dropped back down again. I was feeling really discouraged and exhausted, and though my waves stared to get more intense around 1:30 am, I decided to go to bed and resolved to spending another day doing Spinning Babies. In bed my waves got more and more intense, to the point that I needed my husband to put counter pressure on my lower back during a wave, but I was so exhausted, and it had been so long (48 hours) that I didn’t really realize the change.
At 3:45 I woke my husband up and told him I wanted to go to the hospital. I was so tired I had given up and just wanted to go get an epidural and take a nap. I got dressed and started to put on makeup (I don’t really know why, I think I just felt out of control and wanted to control something). While I was putting on makeup I kept having to break to sit, turn my switch to off, and have my husband put counter pressure on my back. It didn’t dawn on me that things had changed and my waves were coming very fast, until my husband said he thought we needed to leave. At that point my waves were about every two minutes.
We got in the car, called the doula, and headed towards the hospital. I had a wave just before getting in the car, and they were so intense at this point that I was feeling worried about what do to get though the drive without my husband being able to give counter pressure. I was trying to get myself into deep hypnosis when my next wave started and I felt the urge to push, and then my water broke. Immediately after it broke baby entered the birth canal and I NEEDED to push. I told my husband to call the hospital and let them know we might not make it. I was about to have him pull over and help me when my wave stopped, so we decided to try to make it. As we were pulling into the ER I had another wave and I had to stop my body from pushing.
Baby was so low that I couldn’t step out of the car and my husband and a nurse had to lift me into the wheel chair. The nurse sprinted me up to labor and delivery, yelling “don’t push, don’t push!” while I chanted “hold on baby, hold on baby!” As we got through the doors of L&D a nursing team waved us into a room, all of them ready. I had one of the nurses pulling my pants off as a leaned on the side of the bed and started pushing. It felt so relieving the finally do what my body wanted and push. I asked for a squat bar, and once my pants were off I crawled into the bed. One of the nurses kept trying to check me ?. I was being so quiet and calm I guess it wasn’t obvious I was pushing a baby out. With the next wave I pushed while squatting and baby started crowning.
My doc ran in just then, the nurses yelling at him to get his booties on. I knew I was going to be birthing baby’s head with the next push and wanted the doc to help guide baby out so I didn’t tear, but he looked at me and said “I’m not delivering you like this.” I said “Doctor help me,” and the nurses pushed me back on my back. I pushed just a little bit through my pressure wave and waited for it to end, then I slowly pushed baby’s head out in between waves. I was so proud of myself for being so aware and birthing baby how I had planned, and I knew I had not torn. With the next wave I birthed baby’s body, and Julian Edward Alexander entered the world at 4:37 am. on March 27th, 10min after getting to the ER, 5 min after getting to L&D and pushing.
We stayed in the hospital for the full 48 hours and with every shift change the outgoing nurse had to tell the incoming nurse our stats. Ruptured for 12 min. pushed for 5 min. baby born 10 min. after getting to the hospital. It was hilarious.
It was such a crazy birthing time, so slow and then so fast at the end, but it was super easy. I felt relaxed and in control the entire time. I never lost focus through the entire 50 hours, despite getting really discouraged the 3rd night of pressure waves. I was even able to stay in control and focused when I thought I was going to give birth in the car, and narrowly made it to L&D. I definitely credit Hypnobabies for such a wonderful birthing experience.
*I confronted my doctor about not letting me birth my baby squatting, and he said it is hard on his back and he doesn’t like to do it. I reminded him it was on my birth plan and that we had discussed it and he said he didn’t realized how advanced I was and that he cannot remember all of his patient’s birth plans and relies on the nurses to let him know. But since I didn’t have time to give the nurses my birth plan, they did not know my wishes. This incident made it clear to me how important it is to make sure your wishes are known, clear, and agreed upon by your doctor, and how much you cannot stop them from making their own decisions in the moment.
