Everett Clarke R’s Birth Story
The morning of Tuesday, December 1, 2009, I woke up after a long restless night feeling very crampy. I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes. I didn’t think much of it because I had been experiencing prodromal labor off and on for the past week. For several hours at a time I would have intense contractions every 2-3 minutes, back pain, and cramps. Then everything would go back to normal. Normal for me meant constant contractions every 5-15 minutes for the whole last three months of my pregnancy. I was expecting this as I contracted through most of my other pregnancies. I just wondered how long it would take before I was really in labor. As I passed my 39 week milestone that Sunday, I started to feel a bit frustrated with what I perceived to be lack of progress. I did not see any other signs that Everett’s birth was imminent. When I was pregnant with DS1, my contractions lead to pre-term labor in my 26th week. When I was pregnant with DD, I started losing mucous plug and was having bloody show four days before I went into labor. This time around I just had contractions, cramps and low back pain which were all becoming tiresome and irritating.
DH was already awake and downstairs when I finally pulled myself out of bed around 6:50 am. He called up to ask me how I was feeling. I complained about the contractions and cramps waking me up most of the night. I looked over at the clock grumbling that as of 6:23 am this was the longest I had ever been pregnant. DH asked if he should stay home again. He had stayed home on Monday because I was feeling miserable and couldn’t handle the kids fighting all day. I told him it was probably nothing. He should go in and I’d call him if anything changes. As I was brushing my teeth, I started to feel downward pressure with my contractions. This is how labor started with my last pregnancy. I figured I might as well get in the birth tub and see what happens. I excitedly called down to DH asking him if he could call our midwife to give her a heads up. This was around 7:19 am. The midwife had just arrived home from a middle of the night birth so she was very tired. She told us to call her back when we wanted her to head over.
We started filling the birth tub. I looked through our closet for my swim dress and made sure all of the birth supplies were in order. For an hour as the birth tub was filling I switched back and forth between bouncing on my birth ball and walking around the room lighting candles and heating up more water. When I went to pee I discovered that I had lost a huge glob of my mucous plug and was beginning to have bloody show. I knew then that Everett would be joining us on the outside soon. We called the midwife back to let her know she should come. DH got the kids ready to stay with a neighbor.
I got into the birth pool around 8:45 am. It was nice and hot. I instantly put on my HypnoBabies birth affirmations CD and completely zoned out. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3709.jpg ) I had been afraid that I did not devote enough time to practicing my hypnobirthing throughout this pregnancy. During my pregnancy with Evie I literally practiced every day. Fortunately, my previous experience paid off. Hypnobirthing turned out to be second nature to me. I handled the contractions so well that no one could even hear me breathing through them. I discovered that when I had a particularly strong contraction all I had to do was take in several deeper breaths and smile until the contraction was over. This really helped me to stay completely relaxed. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3711.jpg )
The midwife arrived around 9:40 am. She set up in the bathroom near the tub. I could barely sense her presence as she did not want to disturb my concentration. Did I mention I LOVE my midwife?!? A couple of times she quietly used the waterproofed doppler to check the baby’s heart rate while continuing to respect my birth trance. At some point I overheard the midwife and DH whispering quietly nearby about the midwife’s apprentice being late. The midwife didn’t want her apprentice to miss my birth. DH whispered that he didn’t think I was that far into my labor yet. The midwife laughed and whispered back that it’s hard to tell with me. She said, “I’m expecting that she will just come out of her trance to tell us that her body is pushing the baby out, and we would never have guessed she was even in transition.” I chuckled on the inside because this was indeed the case. My body was already starting to push. Labor was so ridiculously easy this time around. I didn’t even feel nauseous like when I was in transition during the last birth. The only way I knew I had reached transition was by the way my hands trembled. Hypnosis had trained my muscles to relax and my brain to not perceive contractions as pain, but apparently my body still knew it was doing a lot of work.
Finally the apprentice arrived. My body had been pushing all along, but I couldn’t feel anything descending. I got onto my knees. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3714.jpg ) My body continued with several hard pushes (not conscious or deliberate on my part). Still it didn’t feel like anything was descending despite the intense pressure on my perineum. I finally came out of my trance to tell the midwife my body had been pushing for awhile, but I didn’t feel any progress. She asked if I wanted her to check me. I agreed. She discovered that I was indeed completely dilated, but that my amniotic sac was still intact. When my body was pushing, the sac would just bulge and wouldn’t allow the baby’s head to descend further. She told me that since the baby was so low I could reach up and break the sac with the next contraction if I wanted. I wasn’t sure if I could reach so I asked her to do it. Immediately I had another intense contraction. She reached up and pinched the bag a few times (it was tough). It finally broke and I felt the amniotic fluid gush out into the pool. The intense pressure on my perineum was instantly gone. I felt so much better.
That was until the next contraction had the baby’s head crowning. I flipped back onto my knees and leaned over the pool edge. The pressure was insane. I was completely out of my birth trance and felt I had lost control. When I birthed DD 4 years prior, I was able to remain in hypnosis even during pushing. DH told me afterward my perception was way off as he couldn’t tell I had lost control at all. It took two big contractions before Everett’s head was finally out. I was expecting his body to fly out with the next contraction. That was what always happened in the past. No such luck. It took another two contractions with what felt like an interminable wait between contractions (while I worked on breathing him out) before I could birth his shoulders. I wasn’t even consciously bearing down, but my body’s efforts to push him out were much more forceful than I anticipated. I was not able to relax at all during the pushing phase this time around. I grunted and said, “Oh my god!” a few times. I was more than elated when I felt the rest of his body slide out. Everett was born at 1:02 pm with approximately 5-6 minutes of pushing from the time his head descended (it felt much longer!).
DH caught him behind me as I was still on hands and knees. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3717.jpg ) Before we brought him out of the water, DH passed Everett to me between my legs so I could bring him immediately to my chest. I turned around and rested against the side of the tub with Everett in my arms. The midwife’s apprentice put a towel over us. DH and I looked Everett over and welcomed him to the world. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3724.jpg ) Everett started to make soft little cries. Shortly DS1 and DD arrived to meet their baby brother. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3739.jpg )
I stayed in the tub for another 20 minutes to birth the placenta. During that time we also examined Everett’s umbilical cord. Everyone was amazed at how perfectly spiraled it was. The midwife said it was the most beautiful cord she had ever seen. When the cord stopped pulsing, we decided to have DH cut it so he could hold Everett while I changed positions to finish pushing the placenta out.
Once the placenta was out, Everett and I got into the garden tub for our Celebration Bath with lavender oil and fresh cut flowers. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3751.jpg ) Everett initiated his first breastfeeding session, and we took pictures. Then we dried off and went over to the bed. The midwife’s apprentice checked me over and helped me get dress while the midwife looked Everett over to make sure he was healthy. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3763.jpg ) Everything checked out. He was weighed and measured - 9 lbs 1 oz, 21.5 inches long, and 14 inch head (Big boy!). (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3766.jpg ) The midwife and her apprentice started gathering their stuff and took care of whatever cleaning/laundry they could. DH made me some orange juice with Emergen-C mixed in and reheated some beef stew for me to eat. After eating, Everett and I settled down for a long much needed nap.
Everett and I with birth team
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h_midwives.jpg
Everett at 6 hours old
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r.../everett13.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/everett8.jpg
Everett at 5 days old
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...earssepia1.jpg
The morning of Tuesday, December 1, 2009, I woke up after a long restless night feeling very crampy. I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes. I didn’t think much of it because I had been experiencing prodromal labor off and on for the past week. For several hours at a time I would have intense contractions every 2-3 minutes, back pain, and cramps. Then everything would go back to normal. Normal for me meant constant contractions every 5-15 minutes for the whole last three months of my pregnancy. I was expecting this as I contracted through most of my other pregnancies. I just wondered how long it would take before I was really in labor. As I passed my 39 week milestone that Sunday, I started to feel a bit frustrated with what I perceived to be lack of progress. I did not see any other signs that Everett’s birth was imminent. When I was pregnant with DS1, my contractions lead to pre-term labor in my 26th week. When I was pregnant with DD, I started losing mucous plug and was having bloody show four days before I went into labor. This time around I just had contractions, cramps and low back pain which were all becoming tiresome and irritating.
DH was already awake and downstairs when I finally pulled myself out of bed around 6:50 am. He called up to ask me how I was feeling. I complained about the contractions and cramps waking me up most of the night. I looked over at the clock grumbling that as of 6:23 am this was the longest I had ever been pregnant. DH asked if he should stay home again. He had stayed home on Monday because I was feeling miserable and couldn’t handle the kids fighting all day. I told him it was probably nothing. He should go in and I’d call him if anything changes. As I was brushing my teeth, I started to feel downward pressure with my contractions. This is how labor started with my last pregnancy. I figured I might as well get in the birth tub and see what happens. I excitedly called down to DH asking him if he could call our midwife to give her a heads up. This was around 7:19 am. The midwife had just arrived home from a middle of the night birth so she was very tired. She told us to call her back when we wanted her to head over.
We started filling the birth tub. I looked through our closet for my swim dress and made sure all of the birth supplies were in order. For an hour as the birth tub was filling I switched back and forth between bouncing on my birth ball and walking around the room lighting candles and heating up more water. When I went to pee I discovered that I had lost a huge glob of my mucous plug and was beginning to have bloody show. I knew then that Everett would be joining us on the outside soon. We called the midwife back to let her know she should come. DH got the kids ready to stay with a neighbor.
I got into the birth pool around 8:45 am. It was nice and hot. I instantly put on my HypnoBabies birth affirmations CD and completely zoned out. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3709.jpg ) I had been afraid that I did not devote enough time to practicing my hypnobirthing throughout this pregnancy. During my pregnancy with Evie I literally practiced every day. Fortunately, my previous experience paid off. Hypnobirthing turned out to be second nature to me. I handled the contractions so well that no one could even hear me breathing through them. I discovered that when I had a particularly strong contraction all I had to do was take in several deeper breaths and smile until the contraction was over. This really helped me to stay completely relaxed. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3711.jpg )
The midwife arrived around 9:40 am. She set up in the bathroom near the tub. I could barely sense her presence as she did not want to disturb my concentration. Did I mention I LOVE my midwife?!? A couple of times she quietly used the waterproofed doppler to check the baby’s heart rate while continuing to respect my birth trance. At some point I overheard the midwife and DH whispering quietly nearby about the midwife’s apprentice being late. The midwife didn’t want her apprentice to miss my birth. DH whispered that he didn’t think I was that far into my labor yet. The midwife laughed and whispered back that it’s hard to tell with me. She said, “I’m expecting that she will just come out of her trance to tell us that her body is pushing the baby out, and we would never have guessed she was even in transition.” I chuckled on the inside because this was indeed the case. My body was already starting to push. Labor was so ridiculously easy this time around. I didn’t even feel nauseous like when I was in transition during the last birth. The only way I knew I had reached transition was by the way my hands trembled. Hypnosis had trained my muscles to relax and my brain to not perceive contractions as pain, but apparently my body still knew it was doing a lot of work.
Finally the apprentice arrived. My body had been pushing all along, but I couldn’t feel anything descending. I got onto my knees. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3714.jpg ) My body continued with several hard pushes (not conscious or deliberate on my part). Still it didn’t feel like anything was descending despite the intense pressure on my perineum. I finally came out of my trance to tell the midwife my body had been pushing for awhile, but I didn’t feel any progress. She asked if I wanted her to check me. I agreed. She discovered that I was indeed completely dilated, but that my amniotic sac was still intact. When my body was pushing, the sac would just bulge and wouldn’t allow the baby’s head to descend further. She told me that since the baby was so low I could reach up and break the sac with the next contraction if I wanted. I wasn’t sure if I could reach so I asked her to do it. Immediately I had another intense contraction. She reached up and pinched the bag a few times (it was tough). It finally broke and I felt the amniotic fluid gush out into the pool. The intense pressure on my perineum was instantly gone. I felt so much better.
That was until the next contraction had the baby’s head crowning. I flipped back onto my knees and leaned over the pool edge. The pressure was insane. I was completely out of my birth trance and felt I had lost control. When I birthed DD 4 years prior, I was able to remain in hypnosis even during pushing. DH told me afterward my perception was way off as he couldn’t tell I had lost control at all. It took two big contractions before Everett’s head was finally out. I was expecting his body to fly out with the next contraction. That was what always happened in the past. No such luck. It took another two contractions with what felt like an interminable wait between contractions (while I worked on breathing him out) before I could birth his shoulders. I wasn’t even consciously bearing down, but my body’s efforts to push him out were much more forceful than I anticipated. I was not able to relax at all during the pushing phase this time around. I grunted and said, “Oh my god!” a few times. I was more than elated when I felt the rest of his body slide out. Everett was born at 1:02 pm with approximately 5-6 minutes of pushing from the time his head descended (it felt much longer!).
DH caught him behind me as I was still on hands and knees. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...ofIMG_3717.jpg ) Before we brought him out of the water, DH passed Everett to me between my legs so I could bring him immediately to my chest. I turned around and rested against the side of the tub with Everett in my arms. The midwife’s apprentice put a towel over us. DH and I looked Everett over and welcomed him to the world. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3724.jpg ) Everett started to make soft little cries. Shortly DS1 and DD arrived to meet their baby brother. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3739.jpg )
I stayed in the tub for another 20 minutes to birth the placenta. During that time we also examined Everett’s umbilical cord. Everyone was amazed at how perfectly spiraled it was. The midwife said it was the most beautiful cord she had ever seen. When the cord stopped pulsing, we decided to have DH cut it so he could hold Everett while I changed positions to finish pushing the placenta out.
Once the placenta was out, Everett and I got into the garden tub for our Celebration Bath with lavender oil and fresh cut flowers. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3751.jpg ) Everett initiated his first breastfeeding session, and we took pictures. Then we dried off and went over to the bed. The midwife’s apprentice checked me over and helped me get dress while the midwife looked Everett over to make sure he was healthy. (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3763.jpg ) Everything checked out. He was weighed and measured - 9 lbs 1 oz, 21.5 inches long, and 14 inch head (Big boy!). (photo http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_3766.jpg ) The midwife and her apprentice started gathering their stuff and took care of whatever cleaning/laundry they could. DH made me some orange juice with Emergen-C mixed in and reheated some beef stew for me to eat. After eating, Everett and I settled down for a long much needed nap.
Everett and I with birth team
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h_midwives.jpg
Everett at 6 hours old
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r.../everett13.jpg
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/everett8.jpg
Everett at 5 days old
http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r...earssepia1.jpg
