Landon's Birth Story- THE GOOD PART

After realizing that my body was not defective, I had Austin do the Hypnobirthing balloon trip fear release script- one reserved to use if I was having doubts about my abilities as a woman to birth my baby without fear and without medical intervention. It was a very emotional time for me, and around 12:00-1:00 pm on Thursday, August 23rd, my contractions started to get much stronger and much more regular. I ignored the timing of them for awhile because we had had so many disappointments leading up to this point. By the time I had Austin start timing contractions, I was having them every 2-3 minutes, and they were much more intense, requiring me to go into relaxation in order to not tense up and fight what my body was trying to do. I can't say that I didn't feel pain, but for the most part I was able to relax through them enough to just feel intense pressure/discomfort especially in my low back. Sometimes I felt them in the front as well, but it was the back pressure that was the most intense. One of the stipulations for going into the hospital was that the contractions didn't stop with changes in position. Although the side-lying position was probably the worst possible for me as far as relaxing and feeling comfortable, I got into that position for a little while and the contractions didn't stop. We called the midwives around 3:30 pm and waited for them to call back. By this point, Austin had to call as I was in and out of relaxation/contractions so often. When we finally received the green light to come into the hospital, I was having "labor shakes" and the contractions were so close together (1-2 minutes) I almost doubted my ability to get dressed and get to the car. My mom was so calm throughout this time, but afterwards said that she was fairly worried I was going to have the baby in the car on the way to the hospital!  We picked to have our child at a hospital much further away from our home than we needed to because this hospital had alternative birthing rooms with birthing tubs. Also, the midwives that delivered at this hospital were very supportive of natural childbirth and hypnobirthing. Unfortunately for us, when we left to go to the hospital, it was afternoon traffic time, and the freeways were clogged with commuters. Austin did Navigation on his phone to find another way to the hospital  that would be faster. We ended up on a lot of surface streets, and I continued to have contractions every 1-2 minutes. These were the strongest yet, and it was hard to get through them without Austin available to rub my back. I was alternately too hot and too cold with the A/C in the car on or off, so Austin's new job was to get me to the hospital as fast as possible and manage the temperature of the vehicle. One particularly hard stretch was when Austin got into a center lane on a surface street and there was a manhole every 10 feet or so. Bump. Bump. That didn't make things any easier. I listened to a relaxation script on my I-pod but I was still having some trouble getting deep enough into relaxation to not feel "pain"/discomfort during the contractions. 

As we got closer to the hospital, I decided it would be best to have Austin drop me off at the front door of the hospital and have my mom wheel  me up to labor and delivery while he quickly parked the car. All we took with us up to the floor were my purse and water bottle. I scoffed at the idea of using a wheelchair prior to this moment, but I knew I would probably not make it up there if I didn't use one this time. My mom wheeled me up, and triage was remarkably different from the other day. They could see that I was fairly far along in my labor, but the triage nurse was busy so the pediatric resident that happened to be at the desk let me into a room and told me the nurse would be with me as soon as possible. 5-10 minutes went by, Austin made it up to the triage room incredibly fast, and we waited. The nurse finally came in and hooked me up to the monitors. She asked me when I was having a contraction so they could zero out the contraction monitor, but they were so close together at this point that my uterus was basically constantly contracting.  She checked me and said I was dilated to an 8 1/2-9! I cried. I was so happy that my body was finally opening and letting my baby out.

 I found sitting at the edge of the bed an easier place to labor than reclined sitting with my legs all the way out in front of me on the bed, so Austin sat beside me and I found the most comfortable place to rest my head was in the crook of his arm. It was so comfortable, and he was able to provide counter pressure to my back during contractions from this position. I was also able to go much deeper into relaxation and actually had an easier time making it through contractions than earlier on. As soon as they were able to contact my midwife and she OK'd it, they moved me over to an Alternative Birthing Center room. These rooms are birthing suites, complete with birthing tubs, infant warmers, a queen size bed, and recliners and a whole seating area. They had me sit on the edge of the bed again while they put my wristbands on, drew blood,  and started my IV. Because I was GBS +, I was supposed to get 2 doses of antibiotics, 4 hours apart in order to protect little Landon from getting strep as he emerged. Thankfully, the nurses had already began putting water in the birthing tub, so I only had to wait about 10 minutes from the time we were shown into the room before I could hop in the tub.  

Getting into the birthing tub felt SOOO good. My midwife had not changed into her scrubs yet, so she left to do that. After a few contractions in the tub, I had a really weird contraction in which my stomach kind of heaved and seemed to press down as I was trying to breathe "up", which is what I had been doing throughout my labor in order to relax and let my body open. I knew it was getting close to time to "breathe down" or breathe the baby out, traditionally called the "time to push". Fortunately, my midwife Shirley came back just in time to see my water break as I was trying to keep from breathing down on the next contraction. I told her I thought it was time to "push" or breathe down, and she checked me and gave me the OK to do whatever I felt. From here on out, time seemed to be warped as during contractions I did birth breathing (short inhales with long exhales imagining my breath pushing the baby out). During the first contraction, Shirley said she could already see his head peeking out a little with each breath. After a few more, the crown of his head was out and I was able to reach down and touch his little brown-haired head. Austin even got up the courage to touch his head too. By this point, I was so so happy, and really this phase of labor was much less uncomfortable for me than the earlier contractions. After about 5 contractions total, Landon's whole head came out and the cord was wrapped around his neck. The midwife just calmly unwrapped him and with the next few breaths, his shoulders and rest of his body came out. Shirley scooped him out of the tub and immediately put him on my chest while a nurse put a towel over him to keep him warm. We were able to bond there with skin to skin contact until my placenta delivered, which was only a few minutes later. It was the most incredible moment of my life, holding him in my arms for the first time. We waited for a few minutes for the cord to stop pulsing, and then Austin was able to cut the cord with me holding Landon on my chest. 

Landon's first bath- Thanks Kevin the post-partum nurse for teaching Austin!

First family photo!

Since I didn't get enough antibiotics, we had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours for observation... It was like prison! This is the 2nd day... our room was almost 80 degrees so Landon was burning up.

The best part of this whole labor story is that I was not exhausted following labor. It was intense and physical and draining, but I felt fairly good physically immediately following. Hypnobirthing I think made all the difference. I was informed going into it of the different stages of labor, and went into labor with no fear. I relaxed during contractions to allow my body to open adequately. Instead of bearing down and tensing the muscles that ultimately must relax in order to let the baby out, I breathed the baby down- relaxing those muscles and allowing the baby to emerge. Because I did birth breathing instead of bearing down pushing, I did not require an episiotomy and I just had a few small lacerations but no devastating tears in the perineum.  I was able to do all this without medication- which made it so Landon was VERY alert and VERY strong immediately after being born. I'm so grateful to finally meet our little boy, but equally grateful that I was able to have the birth experience I wanted. 

Going home outfit... 2 days old

First doctor's appointment outfit, 5 days old