A Baby was Born

Scott Hans Dennis made his entrance into the world. We are so happy to have him, although it didn't take long to realize that having two kids is definitely an adjustment from having one kid. And remember that newborns are really small? Annie always looks like a giant to me now. Having two kids also makes me appreciate different qualities of their different ages. I can say to myself, "Well at least Scott can't whine or talk back to me." And later in the day I'll find myself saying, "I'm so glad I don't have to change Annie's diaper."

So here's a brief version of our birth story. I was trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) because Annie was a C-section for breech presentation. I really wanted to have the baby on a day when midwife Claudia was on call because her VBAC success rate was about 97%. I did end up at the hospital on her call day, so that was pretty great. However, she didn't actually end up catching my baby because he came after the shift had changed. Jen caught our baby, and she was great, too. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I really wanted to "go natural" with this birth, so I'd been doing a Hypnobabies home study course. It basically teaches you how to relax and helps you to think positively about childbirth. They claim the 70% of their moms have painless childbirth. I DID NOT have a painless childbirth, but I'm really glad I used hypnobabies. I don't think I would have succeeded in a natural birth without it. So our labor started on a Monday morning. Around 4:30 I woke up having contractions or "pressure waves" as hypnobabies calls them. They weren't too intense, but they were definitely different from the Braxton Hicks I'd been having for a long time. I had an appointment with the midwife that morning at 9:30 and the pressure waves were going from 4:30 all through my appointment. The midwife let Annie help check the baby's heartbeat. It was really cute. Anyway, we came home and the pressure waves started to die off. That afternoon I took a really long nap and had no pressure waves. After Annie and I woke up,we walked to the park in hopes of getting things going again. It worked, and I had stronger pressure waves all evening. I was using my hypnobabies and even needed Aaron to push on my back with some of them. But by the time we went to bed, everything had stopped again. Tuesday morning the pressure waves started again, this time around 3:30. By 7:00 or 8:00 the pressure waves were hurting in my back a lot. Aaron's mom texted to ask how things were going, and we told her she could come down. I wanted her to be here to entertain Annie so Aaron could be free to help me. So by now the pressure waves were pretty consistent but not really getting closer together. My visiting teacher came over for her visit, and then Aaron, Julie, Annie, and I just hung out and dealt with pressure waves for the rest of the day. Again, they stopped a little in the afternoon, so we took the stairs up to campus to get things going again. On our walk the pressure waves were 3-5 minutes apart and pretty intense, but they slowed down to 10 minutes apart again once we got home. We put Annie to bed and then sent Julie home thinking we'd have another uneventful night. But things really started to pick up as soon as Aaron and I laid down to go to bed. By 1 am we had decided it was time to go to the hospital. We called Julie and told her to meet us at the hospital. In triage, we found out I was dilated to a 4+ and was 100% effaced with the baby at 0 station. I was a little depressed by this because I'd had a mini nervous breakdown before coming to the hospital and had been hoping that meant I was further along. Plus I'd been in labor for two days! But my hypnobabies training reminded me that the 4+ was just a number and it didn't have any meaning for how long the rest of my labor would be. We got settled into the hospital, and I was a lot more comfortable laboring at the hospital than I had been at home. It was really nice to be able to adjust the bed to any position, and Claudia had some great counter pressure things that helped my back out. It was hurting a lot! We were at the hospital laboring from about 3 am to 1 pm before the baby was born, but my whole concept of time was really fuzzy. Time sped up a lot for me. I was extremely grateful for that. At one point (it felt like 20 minutes after we got to the hospital, but I know it must have been longer) Claudia checked me and I was at a 6. That was encouraging. But shortly after that, I started hyperventilating. It made my hands go stiff, and my speech got slurred. For some reason, there was no midwife in the room at this point. I think it was during the shift change. I freaked out because I felt like I had lost control of my body. After this, my pressure waves slowed down, and I was really discouraged. Jen, the new midwife suggested we break my water to get things going again. She didn't pressure us at all, and she left so Aaron and I could decide. Aaron and I had a heart to heart and he really helped me to feel like I could keep going with my goal of natural childbirth. I took some time to just listen to hypnobabies while I went through a more pressure waves in order to get back on track, and then I had Jen break my water. It worked to get things going again. The pressure waves were lasting longer and were more intense. I was working so hard to relax my body, and I was moaning really loudly. That helped me to stay on top of the intense pressure that some people would refer to as PAIN. Aaron would press on my back, and Julie would encourage me and say some phrases from Hypnobabies. This helped immensely. I would definitely have needed an epidural if I hadn't had this physical and emotional support. Jen was also great and very encouraging. I'm so grateful I was surrounded by all these people who believed in me. Before breaking my water, my cervix hadn't really been dilating. I didn't know this because I asked the midwife not to tell me about my cervix. Everyone else was a bit worried about the lack of change, but I didn't know and so I couldn't worry. I'm really grateful for that. And once they broke my water, I was at 9 cm in less than 2 hours. Which just goes to show, once again, that a woman's cervix is not a crystal ball. So after we broke my water, I think I probably was in "transition" but it didn't really feel much different than the rest of my labor except that it was more intense. Finally I was dilated to a 10, and Jen said I could push or bear down if I felt like it. I never felt like it, but when I pushed really hard, then I could feel that it was doing some good towards getting the baby out. So I think I pushed for about 45 minutes. Time didn't slow down during this part. And I just want to say that pushing that baby out was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life...ever. Instead of relaxing with a pressure wave I was adding to the pressure by pushing on it. I was ready to be done, but I knew the only way to "be done" was to get this thing OUT! So I did it, because what else could I do? I was so grateful for everyone's support and encouragement during this stage. Again, that was essential to my success. Jen was a great coach. She really helped me to push in the most effective way. In this case effective=painful, but I really think she helped me to get through it as quickly as possible. Hypnobabies tells you to "breathe your baby down." Jen knew that, but she said that doesn't usually work for first time moms. I agreed that something more was needed. I'm glad she was there to help. So then the baby came out. Can you believe it! The whole concept of childbirth is CRAZY! It was awesome! I was so happy and relieved. Labor was really hard, but really everything happened just like I wanted it to. And recovering from a vaginal delivery is much better than recovering from a C-section. I'm really grateful I was able to experience this. Aren't you glad I gave you the "brief" version. And here's the end result of all our labors.