I obviously have a problem with keeping things short and to the point. I've been asked to post my birth story. We used hypnobabies to prepare for childbirth therefore this is written using the hypnobabies lingo. I think it's pretty easy to understand, nonetheless. If you are pregnant I would suggest you don't read this as my birth story is less than ideal, and with more medical interventions than the usual birth. I know when I was pregnant I mostly liked hearing about positive and assuring birth stories so if you are like me, I would stop reading right about now.
On Monday night (6/20) I had a lot of pressure waves, nothing regular enough to make me think I was in my birthing time, but strong enough to make me think I should probably stop working. The following day, Tuesday I finished up a few things at work, and I officially left on maternity leave. My biggest priority at this point was to make sure my baby was in the “right” position for birth. I had a feeling he was occiput posterior (OP) I had talked to both my doctor and a Kaiser mid wife about it during the previous weeks, they both told me that most babies turn and get in the right position by the time they are born. I didn’t feel right about just winging it, so I had also had emailed my birthing instructor and she gave me a bunch a tips including the number of a chiropractor. I had an appointment for Wednesday….
My coworker took this picture of me on my last day at work because she said my belly looked like a beach ball. 
On Tuesday night June 21st, at around 11:00pm my water broke while I was sleeping. We knew this was coming so things were pretty mellow around here, nothing like what you see in the movies. Ben packed a few things in the car while I got ready. I was going to bake some cookies for the nurses but I didn’t have all the ingredients (also on my things to do for Wednesday) so we stopped and got donuts for them on the way to the hospital. When we got there it was 12:30am, I was checked and I was dilated to 4 (I had been at 3 for two weeks prior). The nurses and midwife were very nice about respecting our birthing preferences, in fact they followed our wishes and pretty much left us alone for hours. I think the donuts helped because they were super nice to us. I was deep into my hypnosis and both Ben and I felt pretty good with things. My birthing waves were powerful from the beginning but only about 5 minutes apart, they stayed this way until 7am. At this point the midwife checked me again and I had only progressed to a 5, they also told me the baby was in fact OP. Also, they put in a catheter because I was unable to pee, (TMI). The midwife said that I was progressing very slowly and suggested pitocin. She seemed to genuinely want to do the right thing, I trusted her judgement and agreed but I was determined to still forgo the epidural. They started the pitocin slowly and increased it to higher and higher doses throughout the day. The birthing waves were very powerful but I remained calmed and felt in control, Ben was really good during this part. There were moments were I would lose my focus, but overall my hypnobabies training was very helpful. I felt most of the pressure in my lower back, so Ben would press against my back during my birthing waves and it felt amazing. At 3:00pm I got checked again this time because I was bleeding a lot, and I had only progressed to a 6. By this point the midwife and nurses wanted me to be in certain positions in order to help the baby turn. The midwife tried to be respectful of our wishes to continue without an epidural but she wanted to crank the pitocin even more and I had rejected. She said that due to the position of the baby I wasn’t progressing and that maybe if I got an epidural it would help relax my muscles so the baby would turn also she said they could increase the pitocin very high with hopes that I would avoid a c-section. I was very disappointed, I thought I WAS RELAXED and told her no. She was sweet and tried to make me feel like I had done my part she said “honey, if your baby was in the right position I have no doubt that you would have had this baby already, naturally, you have been doing great.” I decided I would have them increase the pitocin, still without the epidural (I wasn't trying to be tough I simply wanted minimal amount of drugs for my baby) I tried to go deeper into my hypnosis but I think by now I had lost some of my focus, I also had a few more nurses tell me that I could possibly avoid a c-section if I opted for the epidural. So after 16+ hours of trying the natural way, I ended up getting the epidural with hopes that I would avoid a c-section. They turned the pitocin as high as they could. I spent the rest of my birthing time focused on getting the baby to turn, we tried a bunch of different positions, one of the positives of the epidural was that it was easy to bend and move which ever way the nurses wanted me, unfortunately the baby would not move and I wasn’t making very much progress.
At midnight the following day, 24 hours into my birthing time, the midwife said that the baby was “stuck”, it was not only OP but also at an angle and it was causing me to lose a lot of blood. They called the doctor on duty and he tried to talk to me into a c-section because it had been over 24 hours since my water broke, I had a mild fever and they were worried about an infection. I wanted to keep on going, my contractions were 2 minutes apart and I thought it might happen soon, but the Dr. kept saying it wasn’t likely. I think I was, more than anything, a liability for them at this point. Lucas's heart rate was strong, everything still looked good to me, but we decided to follow the advice of the doctor and have the c-section. I tried so hard to avoid it but at this point I didn’t have very much stamina left in me to contradict the doctor, plus Ben was getting scared for us. We figured better do it now that the baby looked healthy and my fever was still mild. Plus the doctor and midwives all said that due to the position of the baby at that point I would most likely end up with a c-section regardless.
So at 12:33am on Thursday morning June 23rd 2011 we welcomed Lucas into our family. He was 8 pounds and totally perfect. Once that little bundle was put on my chest I didn’t care how he got here. He is so precious and was alert and well from the beginning. Even though things didn't turned out like I had hoped for, at least I tried hard to give Lucas a natural birth and I feel good about that. The pictures below were taken with a phone camera so they are not the best. Outside of "labor and delivery". I was soaking wet but still had time to pose in between birthing waves.
"Super Birth-Partner-Ben" ready for action.
10 hours into it...Not looking so hot.
Finally, I waited SO long to hear "it's a boy".
Ben got to hold him first, here he is doing skin to skin.
No doubt the best moment of my life thus far...
