Everyone told me to be prepared to “be late”! So I wasn't expecting it when I started my birthing time, two days before my guess date, and I didn't actually believe it was happening until we called my midwife telling her we thought I had food poisoning and needed to go to the hospital.
But let me rewind a little... I really enjoyed my Hypnobabies classes and the home-play, and I know that listening to the CD’s and practicing my self-hypnosis kept me relaxed through the last few months of my pregnancy. I had confidence in my body and myself, and I wasn’t scared about giving birth. However I was nervous about finding the right doula. Our Hypnobabies instructor wasn’t a doula herself, so I had to look else where to find a Hypno-doula. We had a couple interviews with potential doulas that never felt right, until we met Carrie. After 10 minutes I knew that Carrie was the one! Fast forward to June 7th… My Mother-In-Law and some of her friends were in town visiting for a few days and we all decided to go out to dinner. At dinner everyone said that I didn’t have that so-called ‘look’ and that they thought it would probably be at least another week or so, and I really did too. I ate some heavy and decadent food, like lobster mac n’ cheese and crème brûlée but I was really just looking forward to getting home so I could relax and not talk about when I when I was going to “go into labor” anymore! After dinner my husband, Daniel, went out for a nightcap with his Mom and I went home and listened to a couple Hypnobabies tracks and went to sleep. I woke up at 11:00pm with what I thought were horrible stomach cramps, which lead me straight to the bathroom thinking I had food poisoning. In the back of my head I thought that it was possibly my birthing time, so I downloaded an app to track the cramps, which were every 4 – 5 minutes or so. But I still thought I was just sick! Around 1:00 am I decided that I needed to wake Daniel up because I thought I would need to go to the hospital if I was really having food poisoning. 30 minutes after waking him up I told him to call our midwife to find out what we should do. Of course she asked if the cramps were rhythmic and if we were timing them, and then she informed us that it wasn’t food poisoning but my birthing time! She told us to call Carrie and to keep in touch as things progressed. We had this expectation that my birthing time would start out slowly, giving us ample time to get everything set up. Which lead to this romantic idea of baking muffins together and putting together charcuterie platters for our birthing team. The reality was that my pressure waves were pretty intense from the get-go and I wasn’t able to talk or even think clearly during them. I ended up shouting out to Daniel in between to “get this” and “do that”, as I sat in the bathroom thinking about all the things I needed to do but couldn’t make myself move. I spent some time in the shower, which felt amazing and then around 2:30 am I told him to call Carrie and get her down here. While we waited for Carrie to arrive I tired to play my Hypnobabies tracks and get myself into hypnosis. Although I don’t remember much between 3:00 am – 4:30 am, I clearly remember the feeling of relief once she arrived! Carrie helped me deepen my hypnosis so I could relax in between and during my pressure waves, and just allow my body and baby to do what they knew to do. At some point I really started to feel pressure in my low back, so we moved from the toilet to my birthing ball, where I was able to sway a little while she massaged by back and read me scripts, all the while keeping in touch with our midwife. Then boom, around 4:45 am my bag of waters broke, and I was pushing and I couldn’t stop myself! Carrie asked me if I was pushing and then quickly messaged my midwife to hurry because the baby would be here soon. She told Daniel to get the birthing tub inflated and filled and helped me get unto our bed in case our baby girl came before our midwife arrived. My midwife said when she and her assistant ran through the door that Daniel looked like a deer caught in headlights! They quickly checked the baby’s heart beat and let me reach down to feel her head, and then helped me into the filing tub. Getting into the tub was the BEST feeling ever! Within 2 or 3 pushes our baby girl was born and I sat back against the tub as they placed her in my arms. I remember looking back at Daniel and feeling this love for him that I’ve never felt and then looking down at our daughter knowing that our love for her was more powerful than anything we’ve ever felt and that we would move mountains, if we had to, to give her an amazing life. I will be forever grateful for all the support and love that Carrie gave to us before, during and after Everly’s birth. We can’t wait to get pregnant again and will without a doubt have Carrie as our Hypno-doula!!
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