Samaras Birth Story
On Thursday night May 14th 2009 I noticed a little bit of bleeding when I wiped but I assumed it was because I had had my internal exam at the midwifes office that afternoon. I went to bed but had a hard time sleeping because of mild contractions that I realized were coming every 10 minutes and only lasting 20 seconds. But they were so mild and so similar to the contractions I had been getting for weeks that I didn’t think anything of it. I finally fell asleep around 2 am and had weird dreams that involved stomach pain and was pretty restless.
I woke up around 6 45 am on Friday May 15th 2009 and realized I was uncomfortable and still having contractions around 10 minutes apart. But they were SO mild, almost barely noticeable. I took a shower to see if it would stop them like it usually did but this time, the shower almost seemed to intensify them.
My 6 year old daughter was home sick with a fever from school that day and I was trying to hang out with her but around 10 30 the contractions started to pick up a little in intensity and a little in duration. But still only about 30 seconds long.
I emailed my husband at work who was in a meeting just to let him know but I didn’t want him to be alarmed or come home early.
I decided even if this was early labor, I had plenty of time to go get the grocery shopping done. So I sat down to make my grocery list and was having a really hard time focusing on food or what we needed. I called my husband and we talked and I assured him that everything was ok and I was going to the store. So Off my daughter and I went to the store. I was able to at this point walk through contractions but I noticed I was having to breathe and say relax and calm and peace as I did it. I tried to maintain some sort of normalcy for my daughter but I felt very weird and not really present. I guess that was the beginning of laborland but I was in denial.
So I got groceries and I don’t even really know what I got. I got home, managed to drive through a couple of more intense contractions and realized they were getting closer together since we live closer than 10 minutes away from the store. I got home, threw the frozen refrigerated stuff in the freezer/fridge and left the rest of the groceries on the floor.
Right after that contractions started coming in a way where I had to get on my hands and knees and lean over furniture. I called my husband and convinced him that although he should leave work now, he still had plenty of time to go to the store. I started timing contractions and realized they were coming 4 minutes apart and lasting for a minute. I ran a bath to try to help with them and maybe slow them down a little bit.. That actually seemed to speed them up. When my husband came home I was stuck in the bath because there wasn’t enough space between the contractions to get out of the tub. At this point I was getting a little worried.
My daughters step mom came and picked up my daughter, my husband called my midwife and my doula and said we were coming into the hospital. I finally got out of the bath and started crawling around on the floor trying to finish packing my hospital bag in between contractions. I had my hypnobirthing on my ipod and we made it into the car. I think my cd helped me deal with contractions in the car as the car ride is pretty fuzzy in my mind. I was having to vocalize through contractions at this point.
We got to the hospital and I had to lean on my husband for a few contractions as we staggered in. I could feel the baby moving lower with my contractions and it was hard to walk with the INTENSE pressure.
I got in the hospital and they didn’t even put me in triage to check me, they just got me into the back in a labor and delivery room. I was vocalizing through all contractions at this point, trying to keep low and open and I didn’t even care how I sounded.
I got in my room and had to have the obligatory strip of monitoring. They checked me and I was only at a 4 which was the point where I felt like I couldn’t really do this. The contractions were SO intense and the feeling of pressure was unbelievable. My doula held my hand and whispered things to me like “ breathe it down and relax and only three more like that. I started saying “relax” on every exhale and it seemed to help a lot. I lay in the bed and dealt with every contraction like that. They were SO INTENSE with SO much pressure! During this time I was being asked questions between every contraction, and they were trying to get my heplock in between contractions. But that didn’t even hurt compared to the contractions so despite the 3 different times they tried before they were successful it didn’t really bother me. I remember saying I didn’t ‘think I could do it, and my husband telling me he loved me. Then my midwife came in and said she would check me and then I could be off the monitors and move around like we had talked about. She checked me and I was at a 9! At that point she started to get her stuff together and things got active. I got off the bed and went in the bathroom where I had some amazingly good contractions on the toilet. I stayed in there for a few minutes and then held onto my husband on the side of my bed for some more. Those were also WAY better than the ones laying in the bed. Eventually sitting got to be too much pressure and my doula put my birth ball on the hospital bed and I was able to be on all fours draped around the birth ball. After only a few more contractions like that, I was told that I could push if I felt like it.
My doula was amazing because although I had the nurse telling me to push and my midwife telling me to push my doula was whispering in my ear about how my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing and to just breathe and let the baby move down and push if I felt like it. And then that it was ok to grunt and push if I needed to. For some reason this really helped.
So pretty soon I started pushing and grunting and being all primal and my waters popped which oddly felt really good. The nurse tried to get me to turn over on my back aghh and my husband said no and that my midwife had said I could push in any position I wanted to. Then my midwife came in and confirmed. Then a few minutes later I started to feel burning which freaked me out because I cannot remember feeling that with my other daughter. So I pushed and pushed and rested and eventually came to the point where I HAD to push or it didn’t’ feel right. My midwife did perinneal massage and support and I could FEEL the baby’s head slowly stretching me open. It was an incredible feeling. Finally when I thought I couldn’t push anymore I felt her head slide through all the way. Another push and her shoulders were out and then she was completely out and the RELIEF! I immediately turned around in bed and she was laying on the bed behind me. I sat down and spread my legs to straddle her so I could look at her and touch her. Her cord was cut and the nurses were going to take her to weigh her and everything and my midwife said “no, give her to her mom, let her hold her as long as she likes”. So They brought a towel and a blanket and I held my baby girl for 2 hours while she nursed. She is an amazing nurser and figured it out almost right away and then kept on nursing. No one bothered us during that whole time. I didn’t even get cleaned up. I pushed the placenta out in one relieving push, they did the fundal massage, and then it was just me, Samara, my husband and my doula. It was amazing and wonderful!
I checked in to the hospital at 3 05 and Samara was out and into this world at 5 35. Pretty much exactly the kind of birth that I always wanted.
I was so terrified of giving birth before because last time it hurt SO BAD with a posterior baby and not being prepared and being scared and not as good of a support team. This time was incredible. Everyone kept saying how amazing I was and one nurse just kept saying I had such amazing control. A lot of the staff seemed really surprised. I owe it all to being able to relax as much as possible during intense contractions. I never once lost control of a contraction and was always able to breathe through it. I think the hypnobirthing helped, practicing my breathing helped, and having my incredible loving support of my doula and my husband who really helped me focus even during the worst of the contractions. And my midwife was awesome in making sure my birth plan was followed and that I could basically birth how I wanted to.
On Thursday night May 14th 2009 I noticed a little bit of bleeding when I wiped but I assumed it was because I had had my internal exam at the midwifes office that afternoon. I went to bed but had a hard time sleeping because of mild contractions that I realized were coming every 10 minutes and only lasting 20 seconds. But they were so mild and so similar to the contractions I had been getting for weeks that I didn’t think anything of it. I finally fell asleep around 2 am and had weird dreams that involved stomach pain and was pretty restless.
I woke up around 6 45 am on Friday May 15th 2009 and realized I was uncomfortable and still having contractions around 10 minutes apart. But they were SO mild, almost barely noticeable. I took a shower to see if it would stop them like it usually did but this time, the shower almost seemed to intensify them.
My 6 year old daughter was home sick with a fever from school that day and I was trying to hang out with her but around 10 30 the contractions started to pick up a little in intensity and a little in duration. But still only about 30 seconds long.
I emailed my husband at work who was in a meeting just to let him know but I didn’t want him to be alarmed or come home early.
I decided even if this was early labor, I had plenty of time to go get the grocery shopping done. So I sat down to make my grocery list and was having a really hard time focusing on food or what we needed. I called my husband and we talked and I assured him that everything was ok and I was going to the store. So Off my daughter and I went to the store. I was able to at this point walk through contractions but I noticed I was having to breathe and say relax and calm and peace as I did it. I tried to maintain some sort of normalcy for my daughter but I felt very weird and not really present. I guess that was the beginning of laborland but I was in denial.
So I got groceries and I don’t even really know what I got. I got home, managed to drive through a couple of more intense contractions and realized they were getting closer together since we live closer than 10 minutes away from the store. I got home, threw the frozen refrigerated stuff in the freezer/fridge and left the rest of the groceries on the floor.
Right after that contractions started coming in a way where I had to get on my hands and knees and lean over furniture. I called my husband and convinced him that although he should leave work now, he still had plenty of time to go to the store. I started timing contractions and realized they were coming 4 minutes apart and lasting for a minute. I ran a bath to try to help with them and maybe slow them down a little bit.. That actually seemed to speed them up. When my husband came home I was stuck in the bath because there wasn’t enough space between the contractions to get out of the tub. At this point I was getting a little worried.
My daughters step mom came and picked up my daughter, my husband called my midwife and my doula and said we were coming into the hospital. I finally got out of the bath and started crawling around on the floor trying to finish packing my hospital bag in between contractions. I had my hypnobirthing on my ipod and we made it into the car. I think my cd helped me deal with contractions in the car as the car ride is pretty fuzzy in my mind. I was having to vocalize through contractions at this point.
We got to the hospital and I had to lean on my husband for a few contractions as we staggered in. I could feel the baby moving lower with my contractions and it was hard to walk with the INTENSE pressure.
I got in the hospital and they didn’t even put me in triage to check me, they just got me into the back in a labor and delivery room. I was vocalizing through all contractions at this point, trying to keep low and open and I didn’t even care how I sounded.
I got in my room and had to have the obligatory strip of monitoring. They checked me and I was only at a 4 which was the point where I felt like I couldn’t really do this. The contractions were SO intense and the feeling of pressure was unbelievable. My doula held my hand and whispered things to me like “ breathe it down and relax and only three more like that. I started saying “relax” on every exhale and it seemed to help a lot. I lay in the bed and dealt with every contraction like that. They were SO INTENSE with SO much pressure! During this time I was being asked questions between every contraction, and they were trying to get my heplock in between contractions. But that didn’t even hurt compared to the contractions so despite the 3 different times they tried before they were successful it didn’t really bother me. I remember saying I didn’t ‘think I could do it, and my husband telling me he loved me. Then my midwife came in and said she would check me and then I could be off the monitors and move around like we had talked about. She checked me and I was at a 9! At that point she started to get her stuff together and things got active. I got off the bed and went in the bathroom where I had some amazingly good contractions on the toilet. I stayed in there for a few minutes and then held onto my husband on the side of my bed for some more. Those were also WAY better than the ones laying in the bed. Eventually sitting got to be too much pressure and my doula put my birth ball on the hospital bed and I was able to be on all fours draped around the birth ball. After only a few more contractions like that, I was told that I could push if I felt like it.
My doula was amazing because although I had the nurse telling me to push and my midwife telling me to push my doula was whispering in my ear about how my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing and to just breathe and let the baby move down and push if I felt like it. And then that it was ok to grunt and push if I needed to. For some reason this really helped.
So pretty soon I started pushing and grunting and being all primal and my waters popped which oddly felt really good. The nurse tried to get me to turn over on my back aghh and my husband said no and that my midwife had said I could push in any position I wanted to. Then my midwife came in and confirmed. Then a few minutes later I started to feel burning which freaked me out because I cannot remember feeling that with my other daughter. So I pushed and pushed and rested and eventually came to the point where I HAD to push or it didn’t’ feel right. My midwife did perinneal massage and support and I could FEEL the baby’s head slowly stretching me open. It was an incredible feeling. Finally when I thought I couldn’t push anymore I felt her head slide through all the way. Another push and her shoulders were out and then she was completely out and the RELIEF! I immediately turned around in bed and she was laying on the bed behind me. I sat down and spread my legs to straddle her so I could look at her and touch her. Her cord was cut and the nurses were going to take her to weigh her and everything and my midwife said “no, give her to her mom, let her hold her as long as she likes”. So They brought a towel and a blanket and I held my baby girl for 2 hours while she nursed. She is an amazing nurser and figured it out almost right away and then kept on nursing. No one bothered us during that whole time. I didn’t even get cleaned up. I pushed the placenta out in one relieving push, they did the fundal massage, and then it was just me, Samara, my husband and my doula. It was amazing and wonderful!
I checked in to the hospital at 3 05 and Samara was out and into this world at 5 35. Pretty much exactly the kind of birth that I always wanted.
I was so terrified of giving birth before because last time it hurt SO BAD with a posterior baby and not being prepared and being scared and not as good of a support team. This time was incredible. Everyone kept saying how amazing I was and one nurse just kept saying I had such amazing control. A lot of the staff seemed really surprised. I owe it all to being able to relax as much as possible during intense contractions. I never once lost control of a contraction and was always able to breathe through it. I think the hypnobirthing helped, practicing my breathing helped, and having my incredible loving support of my doula and my husband who really helped me focus even during the worst of the contractions. And my midwife was awesome in making sure my birth plan was followed and that I could basically birth how I wanted to.
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