Please note that the video has some nudity but mostly nice pictures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
2nd Hypnosis and 1st Hypnobabies birth:
The big joke is that our baby was waiting for a name. The whole pregnancy I was convinced baby was a girl, so we had a girl name all picked out along with some great girl clothes. The last week of pregnancy I began to feel an urgency to have a boy’s name picked out just in case, but my husband and I couldn’t agree on one… until two days before he was born! After 40 weeks and 4 days, we welcomed our second beautiful baby into the world on Saturday Feb. 25th, 2012.
Early Friday morning I had a few birthing waves. They were very comfortable and completely random. I had 3 while making my 3 year old eggs. My husband and I both weren’t comfortable with him going to work as it would take him an hour to get home and we were expecting a fast birth. After breakfast I had no sensations so we decided to get the home a bit more ready. I washed sheets and the couch cover, silly but doing this made me feel more relaxed and ready 🙂 Throughout the rest of the day I had maybe a handful more birthing waves, but again they were completely comfortable and randomly clustered together. We put our son to bed and my husband and I snuggled on the couch to watch a movie. We went to bed early as I wasn’t sure if I would be woken up in the middle of the night or not. I had a few birthing waves when I got up to use the bathroom, but nothing that disturbed my sleep.
Saturday morning I had one or two birthing waves while cooking breakfast again. We decided a long walk would be nice for the whole family. I called my Birth Doula and friend and told her to go to her Hypnobabies class (she was expecting her 2nd hypnobaby too!) as this baby wasn’t going to come any time soon. We went for a walk through a park to a cafe. At the cafe we each got a treat, I ate half of a peanut butter chocolate bar- totally NOT on my grain-free sugar-free diet, hehe. While at the cafe a woman came up to me and asked when I was due. When I told her 4 days ago she laughed and said I would have this baby any minute now. On the walk back I started to have more birthing waves. They remained comfortable, but I needed to grab ahold of trees a few times which felt really good. Being in nature felt good too, but I suddenly wanted to rush home. Once we got home I saw that my midwife had phoned so I called her back, this was 1:45 pm. While talking with her I started to have more birthing waves that became more challenging to move through. While we were talking I lost my mucus plug, which was when my midwife decided to come out and told me to have my husband fill the birth tub. I had my husband call our Birth Doula who was 10 minutes into her Hypnobabies class.
The best way for me to describe my birthing experience is that it felt like I was thrown into a hurricane or tornado. When your thrown into a storm the automatic response is to tense up. I spent all my mental energy focusing on the hypnosis as best I could, reminding myself that my body and baby were smart and everything that was happening was right and good. I needed to be on the toilet. I was so grateful to be in my own home and on my own toilet as I spent most of my labor having bm’s, which is totally normal but I just couldn’t imagine doing that on a hospital bed!
The birthing waves were suddenly on top of each other back to back and felt VERY intense. I quickly did my best to use my center switch and birthcues, saying ‘peace’ to myself really helped. I remember asking my husband for water and a thick towel to lay on near our bathroom. I immediately needed all my clothes off. For the first hour and a half I went from the toilet to laying on my side on a towel near the bathroom. I know my husband was filling the tub and taking care of our son. I was super inside myself riding each wave. My Birth Doula arrived and immediately helped relax me with birth cues even further. Her presence helped me let go even more. When I laid down on the towel my legs started to shake and I thought to myself “no way I’m in transformation!” Later my doula commented that she knew I was in transformation when she arrived because I wouldn’t stop cussing. I was very vocal, which surprised me a bit as I was super quiet and calm with my first birthing experience. I made a lot of sounds in addition to my sailor language… it all helped me to keep my mind out of it and let my body do what it is designed to do.
I was back on the toilet when I felt pushy and my water broke, this was 3:11 pm. My midwife arrived at 3:15 pm and calmly informed me that the baby’s head was crowning and now might be a good time to get in the tub. I wanted to but I just couldn’t stand up. I remember thinking if I don’t get my butt in the tub the baby would be born in the bathroom, which was fine but I REALLY wanted a water birth. So I crawled with a towel between my legs from the bathroom to the birth tub, luckily it wasn’t very far!
In the birth tub I was totally tuned out to my husband’s voice, but really needed his physical presence… hanging onto his arm and having him close felt so good and safe. I was on my knees leaning into the tub while holding onto my husbands arm and neck. My midwife’s and doula’s voices were so clear and super helpful to me! Everything they said helped me stay as relaxed as I could. I remember the relax cues, and my midwife quietly telling me that all the stretching was good and that I was doing great. No one coached me, everyone supported me doing what felt right for me! As baby’s head was coming out I put my hands down to feel and was totally excited! I remember in between surges saying “this is so cool!” My husband later said this cracked him and our doula up 🙂 I was super vocal through each wave, and thought that I made some pretty cool sounds (my favourite being a ‘dat dat dat’ sound I never heard before)… I remember saying “this is f*cking INTENSE!” The video was a bit too sailor for me to want to share, but being vocal really helped.
Baby boy Liam was born at 3:40pm after 20 minutes of mother directed pushing. I felt every inch of my baby coming down and out. As he slipped into the water I moved my left knee out and sat back on my right, reached down and pulled him to my chest. It was complete awesomeness x10!!! He was so pink right away, seriously the pinkest newborn I’ve ever seen. I had a bruised urethra from Liam’s big head and some small paper cuts from his long nails, which healed beautifully within 24 hours (and lots of arnica!). After about 15 minutes in the tub I wanted to get out, so we transferred to the couch to wait for the placenta to be birthed. The placenta birthed at 4:20pm, and we didn’t cut the cord for another hour, which again was super great.
We moved to our family bedroom and snuggled down while my doula and midwife cleaned the house, did laundry, and made dinner (fyi the BEST birthing attendants will know how to take care of mom and family AFTER the birth!). Liam latched on his own while we snuggled 🙂 We did the newborn check around 6:40pm. He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces, 19.5 inches long, with a 14 cm head! I felt so much love and gratitude for how great and peaceful Liam’s birth was, even with how intense everything felt. I had NO regrets with this birth, which is truly the most empowering feeling ever.