After a hiatus, we are back with another birth story! This next story was sent to us from Mercedes, a student in Carol Yeh Garner's HypnoBirthing class. Like many of the other HypnoBirthing stories I've read, the techniques she learned in the class seemed to help move labor along quickly and efficiently, until finally, her sweet baby was out into the world.

Sunday Dec 27th, 2009

8am: Another beautiful day in San Diego is upon us as the sun peeks through our blinds, rousing us from sleep.  Little do I know I have just woken up from my last slumber as a pregnant woman!  We wake up with a lot on our agenda. But first breakfast needs to be made.
Corey makes some green chile egg sandwiches, and we get dressed to go to meditation class downtown.

10am: We make it to meditation class at the Buddhist center in San Diego.  Gabriel is very calm throughout, probably plotting his exit. After the class we head home and eat leftovers from Christmas.

1pm: I go for a prenatal massage.  When I return, I notice Corey’s nesting instinct has kicked in, as he is immersed in a deep cleaning of the kitchen.

2:30pm: We go to look at a house in Poway.  Nice place with a big kitchen and an amazing backyard for Gabriel to explore.  As we are leaving, another couple about our age is waiting to look at the house as well, carrying with them a brand new little baby.   On our way home we stop by the Farmer’s market. Gabriel was hungry again, so we feed him bratwurst from the sausage stand, with lots of spicy relish and a little bit of sauerkraut.

4pm: Headed back home.  Corey is adamant about making his homemade leftover turkey soup.  In between cooking he continues to clean the kitchen.  He does not want me to do anything, so he makes me a warm bubble bath with rose petals for me to relax with my HypnoBirthing music in the background and candles lit.   Ahhhhhhhh……

6-7pm: We are talking on the phone with Corey’s parents and then with my mom and sister.  In the middle of a conversation with my Tia Anita, I start feeling these “menstrual-like” tightness in my abdomen every 10 minutes or so. Not very painful or frequent, so we wonder…… is this labor?  Practice labor?  The sauerkraut?  And why is our dog Winston acting so strange, does he know something we don’t?

9pm:  Definitely not the sauerkraut.  Tightness episodes becoming more frequent, but no pattern is emergent.  I thought there was supposed to be a pattern?! The googling of many labor-related keywords starts, followed finally by a call to our doula, Connie, who reassures us that everything that is happening is normal, that those tightness episodes are definitely surges, and that this baby is definitely coming soon!  She tells us to call when we are heading to the hospital, but we still have no idea when exactly we are supposed to do that. 

The next few hours are a blur.  The surges come and go with no emerging pattern.  Sometimes they last 10 seconds and sometimes they last almost a minute, and there is anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes between.  This is not how Google told me it was supposed to be. Nonetheless, we start to get focused.  We listen to the HypnoBirthing CD, Corey reads scripts, and I take a few hot showers, which really help ease the pain.  We try to nap between surges, but to no avail. Long night ahead of us.

Monday Dec 28th, 2009

12am:  I think I’m getting the hang of this labor business.  When the surges come, Corey coaches me through my breathing techniques while gently doing light-touch massage.  We crank up the volume on the HypnoBirthing CD and I do my best to get through the surges, one at a time.  At one point I have an uncontrollable urge to barf.  Corey sprints to the bathroom and grabs a trash can just in time for 99% containment – it could’ve been a lot worse.  Back into the shower to clean off and ride through a few more surges.  Damn, does that shower make it feel better.

3am: I thought my water broke in the shower, but I'm not sure.  To be on the safe side we head to the hospital.  We grab our hospital bag, a big pillow, and our birthing ball.  Winston wants to come, but unfortunately he has to stay behind.  Luckily, we had previously given our awesome dog sitter and friend Sherry a spare key to the house, and told her to be on the lookout for a text along the lines of “OMG baby on way!!! Pls get W”

3:30am: We arrive at the hospital, and it’s after-hours so we have to check in at the ER.  The triage nurse asks me to come with him but Corey refuses to leave my side, so he comes to the triage station with me, holding a 4-foot diameter ball in one hand and a body pillow in the other.  I’m having surges while the nurse is asking me asinine questions, so I just point to Corey and he answers for me, while nurses and doctors try to squeeze past him.  Finally, we are admitted and another nurse comes with a wheelchair to escort me to the labor and delivery room.  She takes her sweet time, pointing out locations of interest such as the gift shop and the cafeteria.  In the L&D room, they ask me to pee in a cup and change. 

I brought my own birthing clothes so I change into those, and when I try to pee, my water breaks.  Wow, this is really happening.  My water just broke.  I am definitely in labor!  As I return to the bed, they place me on fetal monitor, which is only supposed to last for 20 minutes, but somehow every 20 minutes the nurses have a compelling reason why it has to stay on for another 20 minutes.  When they check my dilation, I am 9.5 cm! They finally let me go off the fetal monitor, so I move into a more comfortable position—on all fours leaning against the head of the bed.  With Corey and my Doula at my bedside, I breathe through the pushing, chanting “Welcome Baby” with my helpers and making the occasional grunt.  Corey later said I sounded like a weightlifter.

5:36am: After 1-2 big pushes, Gabriel plopped out of me into the nurse’s arms...I felt his arms and legs easily exiting, and we welcomed our happy baby into the world.

Thank you for sharing, Mercedes!  That was a wonderful story.

If you'd like to be a contributor to our blog, with your birth story or another idea, email marlo@babiesbythesea.com.