This is Part 2 of the birth story, Read Part 1 here.
After figuring that my water probably did break, I called Neil at work to tell him. He said he'd wrap up things at work and be home soon. I started feeling light contractions around 3. I got in the shower to wash my hair so I could dry and straighten it. I'm not sure when Neil got home, but by the time he was home I was having waves around 10 mins apart. We were putting last minute things in a bag and I was just pacing around having contractions. Neil and my mom were trying to time my contractions and they started to get more painful.
With each wave, I leaned over to breathe through them and Neil gave counter-pressure on my back. Neil started talking about maybe leaving for the hospital soon. I resisted saying it was too early (I wanted to get to the hospital and already be 6-7 centimeters to avoid interventions). Mom and Neil eventually convinced me to go in after showing me on the contraction app that my last 3 contractions were about 4 minutes apart.
I put on my flip flops (I was hot and did not want to wear real shoes) and headed out to the car. I had 3 or 4 pretty painful contractions in the car. Side note - one of the Hypnobabies techniques is to say the word "peace" and direct pain relief to where you need it. You are supposed to relax your body and quietly say the word "peace". I was definitely screaming PEACE! in the car. Not quite what Hypnobabies taught me!
We got to the hospital around 5:15pm. In triage, they checked me and I was 3 to 4 cm and completely effaced. I was disappointed I wasn't more dilated but my contractions were so painful at that point I couldn't really think about it. They admitted me and after 20 minutes or so I went to the delivery room. My contractions were getting bad. They asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, yeah, why not. This hurts pretty bad. I told the nurse I'd rather wait until I was at least 5 cm dilated.
When I got to the delivery room all I wanted to do was lay on my side and listen to my "Deepening" track. They brought in an exercise ball but the baby was so low I couldn't sit. I laid there through quite a few contractions and listened to my track. Neil would help me breathe through the waves and would give counter pressure on my back. Eventually the anesthesiologist came in and was asking me all these questions while I was having harder and harder contractions. As she was wrapping up the questions my was feeling so much pressure and actually feeling "pushy". I remember saying something like, "Should I push?!" and one of the nurses said, "Why would you do that?" I was only supposed to be 4 centimeters!
As my epidural was being prepped, I had one last unbelievably strong contraction and Neil stepped in and pushed on my back and helped me through it. With that contraction I felt like I was basically pushing (with the grunting to accompany it) and Neil asked if they would check me before getting the epidural. I am SO glad he did! I was an 8! It was too late for an epidural. I had gone from a 3-4 to an 8 in less than 45 minutes. I really think this is due to the 10 mins or so I laid on my side listening to my Hypnobabies track. I think my body relaxed enough to dilate me that much. They actually gave me the option to go ahead and get the epi, but after they assured me that this was going very fast, I said I would go for it drug free!
Read Part 3.
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