The night before my labor officially started I began losing my mucus plug and had a terrible rash call PUPP which is a result of pregnancy hormones coursing through your body. I was up most the night trying to find relief from this incredibly itchy and relentless rash! I remember thinking, there is no way I can deal with this until the baby arrives, because in many cases, PUPP does not go away until you give birth.
The next morning I started to have contractions or surges at 7:00 am. I worked as a cast member for Disneyland and had agreed to get a family friend into the park months before. I had texted them the days following up to the sign in, not to bring a selfie stick with them since they had recently been banned from the park.
We meet up, go through the parking lot and finally make it to the main entrance security to get searched and what does the security cast member find, but a selfie stick. They say they will not allow this into the park and they can either toss it, or bring it back to their car. Well she decided to go back to her car because she did not want to part with her $50 selfie stick. While she is going back to the car, her friend and I wait by some benches for her return. Meanwhile I am continuingly having contractions, this guy was so nice and wanted to chat.I just stood there in labor trying to breathe and be in the zone while trying to engage in small talk. She finally gets back, I sign them in, and walk back to our car where my husband was waiting for me and immediately burst into tears. I think I was just holding on to so much at that point that once I finally made it to the car I just couldn’t carry it anymore!
We go and get some breakfast burritos and bring them home. My contractions or surges continued. We turned on a movie. I would go back and forth to the toilet, that was the most painful part of my labor was when I was sitting down and using the restroom, but for some reason I seemed to have to pee a lot. If I wasn’t on the toilet I was in front of the fan swaying, back and forth, it felt so good! I didn’t sit or lay down too much because I felt at my best when I was standing or swaying.
I began to have more intense surges and thought maybe I’d need to get to the hospital soon when my husband Austin said, “we don't even know how close your contractions are let's start timing them.” We begin to time them, and I finally give the hospital a call to see if they would admit me. The lady on the phone asked me about my contractions and told her I was having one right now. She seemed unimpressed, she didn’t believe that I was close to having my baby since I was a first time mom and could speak while having a contraction, but that’s one of the benefits of hypnobirthing! We continued to contemplate whether or not we should make our way to the hospital or not. Eventually I felt like I needed to POO, which means it's time! I told Austin, “Load up the car, let's go now!” We stopped at a stop sign and I remember not feeling any more surges, and I asked him, “Am I being a baby?” He replied, “ I don’t know, maybe?”
We sit there for a minute and then I say “Just go!”
I put on my hypnobirthing tracks and got fully into the zone. Little did I know, I must have been fully dilated at that point on the way there!
We pulled up to the drop off zone in front of the hospital and walked up to the labor and delivery floor. THAT WAS THE LONGEST WALK OF MY LIFE! When we got to the L&D floor, Austin picked up the phone and said, “ Hi, my wife just called, we are here to have a baby.” They hung up and we waited for them to let us in. I stood there and I started grunting when a lady sitting in the waiting room said to Austin, “You might want to call them again, your wife is having some major contractions.”
Austin picked the phone up again, “Hi, I think we really need to get there now.”
We were calm because we were practicing hypnobirthing.
They finally let us in, I handed them my ID and at this point I have no words. All of a sudden I feel this warm gush, and I exclaim “She is coming right now!”
My water broke ALL OVER THE HALLWAY. They help me into the room across the hall, which is triage (intake), they strip away my dress and begin asking if they can check me to see how much I am dilated. I muster the word “yes” out and they check me.. Fully dilated. The staff asked me to get on the bed but I am barely able to get up. Austin said, “ She doesn’t want to give birth like this, can you get her a squatting bar?” They replied, “ This is a gurney, we can not attach a squatting bar to this!” They accommodated me by putting the back of the gurney up and I am using that as a resting post. The doctor says “I can not catch your baby like this, so right when she is about to come out I need to turn for me.” So they had me on my side. I was just grateful to not have birth on my back! When I was crowning, I remember thinking, “Is this it?” It felt what I would call a ‘sensation’. I felt NO pain while giving birth! Thank you Hypnobirthing!
Thirty minutes later at about 2:30 pm I gave birth to my baby. The only thing I wished I would have done more of was breathing practice, since they had to put an oxygen mask on me while I was pushing. They placed her on my chest and my baby, Riley, peed right on me! My doula had been in the waiting room, but they would not allow her to go in because they only allowed guests into the birthing suite - which we never made it to! Our car was in the loading-and-unloading zone this whole time. Once my doula, Ashley, got into the room, she asked how everything went and if I wanted to try to breastfeed. She helped to get Riley positioned and we began to nurse right away! She also put her jacket on me because I was shaking after birth, which is actually a common occurrence. We transferred to our room for the immediate postpartum and Ashley took my placenta to process for placenta encapsulation! We only stayed 24 hours at the hospital! Our delivery doctor was amazing! I later found out that he was a father to 7 children! When he came to check on us, he said “You did it just how my wife would, showed up just in time to have your baby!”
I had an amazing labor and birth! I did not tear, either! I did a ton of prep for my labor and delivery. From doing yoga through my entire pregnancy, staying hydrated, eating foods to nourish my body; to my third trimester prep that included: eating dates, drinking raspberry leaf tea, hypnobirthing, prepping my perineum, not slouching, and really trusting and believing that myself and my baby are the perfect team! And we were!
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