Fischer's birth story - Part 1

Fischer’s birth story actually starts back a few months when I decided I wanted to use Hypnosis for his birth. After researching Hypnobirthing and Hypnobabies (HB), we went with HB. HB teaches you that your due date is just a “guess date”, babies are born on their birthdays, and there is a hypnosis track called “Visualize Your Birth”. From all the birth stories I read the women said they would visualize the day they wanted labor to begin and their labor started at that time. I remember being 6 months pregnant telling my Mom that when I visualize his birth I see June 11, 2011 as his birthday. Fischer’s birth story starts here . . .

It was just like any other night out with Jimmy on Thursday, June 9; dinner, errands and cuddle time on the sofa. Before we went to bed he said to me “I really don’t want to go to work tomorrow so let’s get this kid out”. He got his wish cause at 4:30 am Friday morning I went to the bathroom for my 100,057,403 potty break that night when as soon as I sat on the toilet I felt a gush! I thought, “wow I really had to pee” but then I began peeing for real. So what was that fluid a second ago? Amniotic fluid? I started thinking that my water had just broken; I cleaned myself up and put a pad in. I knew it had broken when I started walking around and it just kept coming out. Looking back now I should have known at this moment that the birth I had visualized just went out the window except one thing . . . his birthday.

I waited around until 5:00 am to wake Jimmy up. I think I was in a little bit of denial for that half hour. Poor guy, he just came to bed at 1:30, just like every other night. I go into wake him up by saying:

“Honey, I think my water just broke”

He replies “Okaaayyy”  and rolls over to go back to sleep.

“No, my water broke. We are having a baby”

“Okay, what do you want me to do?”

About 30 seconds later it hit him. We both knew that since my pressure waves hadn’t started that this was going to be a long day. We took our time heading to the hospital. I took a shower and got dressed and ate breakfast since I knew I wouldn’t be getting much once I got the hospital. We made a video of the house so we have evidence of what it looked like before kids and how quiet it is at 5:00 am.

At 6:30 am we head out the door to Labor and Delivery. It’s a good think I wasn’t in active labor because he missed the exit to the hospital and had to take a different route that was under construction. It would not have been an easy ride for sure. We are admitted at 7:10 am and they get me situated in the bed so they can monitor him and test my pad for amniotic fluid. The nurse barely touched it with the test strip and it turned bright blue. We are having our baby, finally! The nurses call my midwife to let her know that I am admitted and we won’t be making our 10:40 appointment. My midwife comes into see me and check my progress; I am only 2 cm, 60% effaced. Time to start walking the halls, sucking on my Dum Dums and nipple stimulation. We need to get this thing moving. There is a pressure point on the roof of your mouth that can help jump start labor, hence the Dum Dums.

At this point I am getting waves but they do not feel effective. They are coming every 3-5 minutes but feel more like Braxton Hicks and not true waves. I go on like this until we reach the 12-hour mark. My midwife suggests Pit to jump start things. This is exactly the thing I was trying to avoid. In my head I know Pit means a snowball of interventions can start. She reassures me that she won’t let that happen. She knows I want a natural birth but this is what happens when your water breaks first. Fischer has been doing beautifully; his heart rate is calm and perfect. I couldn’t help but start crying because just like with trying to conceive things are not going according to our plan. Jimmy tells me:

“You are doing great! If this is what we need to meet Fischer then you can do it. I know this wasn’t in the plans but you can get through this.”

He really stepped up and was being am amazing coach. It is now 4:45 pm and my midwife decides to check me before starting the Pit. I am still 2 cm dilated. Here comes the IV. . .

To be continued...