PART 1: Quick and Sanitized Birth Story
I had contractions from 1:45 AM on Thursday, August 15th until Abigail Elizabeth was born at 2:37 AM on Friday, August 16th. I labored at home until 11:00 PM on the 15th, eating, drinking, walking, talking, and not telling anyone I was in labor except for Jesse, my parents, his parents, and our doulas. I even Skyped with my sister Thursday evening through labor without letting on what was going on! I watched the first quarter of the Chargers/Bears preseason game before calling my doula to come over. How did we do it? Hypnobabies! Look it up. (Or you can peek down below for more information on it.) It was amazing.
Lucky for me, my midwife was on duty Thursday night! (My hospital rotates on-duty midwives so there is usually very little chance of your midwife attending your birth.) Just a few hours after arriving I sang Abigail Elizabeth McD-D into this world. All through the day I'd been singing my contractions out - kind of like voice warm-ups that are done in choir - "ahhhhhhh" - a single note that would move up or down the scale as needed. But always singing. It was a beautiful, perfect, unmedicated birth. My midwife later told me it was in the top 1% of births she's ever witnessed. As soon as she was born she was placed on my chest where she stayed for about 2 hours before weighing and all of that good stuff. She was 8 pounds even and 20 inches long. Perfect.
PART 2: Pictures!
These photos are from birth through Abigail's first few days at home.
Just a few minutes after Abigail Elizabeth was born
In the light of day, meeting her grandparents
Catching up on sleep
Daddy snuggles
Getting ready to go home!
First McDaniels Family portrait
Home sweet home
She loves her swing
Swaddled and ready for a nap
Day 2 in the world and she picked up her head and turned it during tummy time
Getting love from her granddad during tummy time
Grandma perfected Abigail's favorite hold and position
Getting ready for bed
First bath!
Warming up after her first bath
She loved it!
More water, please?
Tummy time with purple puff butt
Popeye
PART 3: Full Birth Story (GRAPHIC)
I woke up at 1:45 AM on Thursday, August 15th with contractions. It was exactly one week after my due date (8/8). I remember feeling incredibly excited but wanted to keep it to myself for a while; I knew we'd be in for a long day and wanted Jesse to get his rest. I downloaded an app for my iPhone to track the contractions. After about an hour I woke him up to let him know what was happening. All through the wee hours of the morning I rolled with the contractions and listened to some of my Hpynobabies tracks. I remember emailing my doulas a little before 5 AM with my contraction history so they'd know what was going on. I should have been sleeping but I was SO EXCITED!
***Side note: What is Hypnobabies?
From the Hypnobabies website
Hypnobabies is a very successful 6 week, 3-hours per week, complete childbirth education course that was adapted with permission from Gerald Kein’s “Painless Childbirth Program” techniques rather than using simple relaxation, breathing or guided imagery. This allows our Hypno-Moms to enjoy “eyes-open childbirth hypnosis”, easily remaining deeply in hypnosis while walking, talking and changing positions; being as mobile as they would like to be during childbirth. Hypnobabies is well-known for helping women to create much shorter, easier and more comfortable labors, making childbirth the joyful experience it was meant to be.
***Side note: What is a doula?
From DONA International Website - A Birth Doula:
- Recognizes birth as a key experience the mother will remember all her life
- Understands the physiology of birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor
- Assists the woman in preparing for and carrying out her plans for birth
- Stays with the woman throughout the labor
- Provides emotional support, physical comfort measures and an objective viewpoint, as well as helping the woman get the information she needs to make informed decisions
- Facilitates communication between the laboring woman, her partner and her clinical care providers
- Perceives her role as nurturing and protecting the woman's memory of the birth experience
- Allows the woman's partner to participate at his/her comfort level
Around 7 AM I heard my parents, who had been in town since Tuesday, stirring. When my dad got up I went to their room and laid down with Liz and asked her if she thought today was a good day to have a granddaughter. It was, after all, my nephew's birthday! How wonderful if they could share it!
At 10 AM I took a break from tracking the contractions so I could rest - by noon I started tracking again because things seemed to be slowing down. We were still in a lull by 2 PM so Liz and I took a great walk around the block.
At 4 PM the contractions were picking up again in intensity. I could no longer push the button to track them on my phone myself. When I felt one coming I would say, "button!" so that someone could push the button on my phone to track it, then I'd sing out the contraction with a gentle "ahhhhhhh" for as long as it took to pass. It was probably like listening to singing warmups all day for Jesse and my parents. It was usually one note but sometimes I'd need to shift around on the scale for maximum comfort :)
The Chargers were playing the Bears in a preseason game that I really wanted to watch the first quarter of - so we decided to hold off calling our doula until then. It was an intense first quarter. I was draped over my birth ball rolling with and singing out the contractions while focused on the game. Once the first quarter was over I got into the shower with my ball and asked Jesse to call our doula to come over.
When she arrived we tracked contractions for a while together in the kitchen. The granite countertops were wonderful! The contractions were, and had been, pretty variable all day - not settling into a pattern. Our doula thought my body might be trying to position the baby with the irregular contractions so we did some body work with her rebozo to get Abigail (at that time still being called "The Baby Daughter") into position. Things were getting intense when I heard my dad commenting about something on the news in the other room. I yelled that the local news could not be on because it was too negative. Around that time I also noticed how beautiful our hardwood floors were - and told Jesse and our doula all about it. Have I mentioned how much I love hypnobabies?!?
Liz wanted to be respectful of what was going on but was still concerned so she would quietly come to the door in the second bedroom, watch for a few moments, then go back to the living room to sit with my dad. It was very sweet. They later remarked that they'd thought the bedroom door was shut because we were so quiet and peaceful - and I was in active labor! Jesse and our doula took turns reading Hypnobabies scripts that I'd prepared for all the different stages of birth - it was great because they reminded me of what we were doing and why we were doing it, which is surprisingly easy to forget in the moment.
Things were still pretty variable by 9:00 PM so our doula thought my body was still trying to work out positioning issues. She suggested a light snack and bed to rest. I ate a bit and she tucked me into bed and put on a Hypnobabies track and left to go rest at her office until she was needed. I made it through the first track but about halfway through the second I pulled out my earbuds and yelled to Jesse that I needed to throw up. He brought me a trash basket and in went my light snack. I told him that I was exhausted and I'd had it and wanted to go to the hospital to get an epidural so I could rest. He called our doula and relayed my message (I believe I said something to the effect of, "I'm throwing Hypnobabies out the window!). She said she'd meet us at the hospital.
After a bit of scurrying around (our hospital bag wasn't completely packed) we made it into the car -- but the iPod with the Hypnobabies tracks accidentally got left at the house! There was no going back at that point, though. We arrived at the hospital and the staff seemed a bit incredulous about my state and whether it really was time for me to be there (which happens a lot with Hypnobabies moms). We got signed in and set up for monitoring. It seemed like FOREVER. Then my midwife (we got so lucky that she was on duty!!!) came in to check my progress. When she declared me 5 cm and fully effaced the nursing staff could hardly believe it. I heard one nurse say, "Wow - I guess she's staying."
They got me into a wheelchair and into a delivery room. I was so comfortable in the wheelchair that I asked the nurse if I could hang out there for a while because it was "really working for me." She said that eventually I'd have to get into bed to get hooked up to the monitors since I'd requested an epidural. I waited a few minutes then obliged. In the bed they attached the heart rate and contraction monitor and I instinctively rolled onto my left side. From that position I could watch the monitor and hold onto the rails on the side of the bed (there was a handle!) Our doula joined us and began reading Hypnobabies scripts. She got me back into my "middle switch" and we rode out active labor for a while. Once the L&D staff saw what was going on they immediately turned down the lights and left us be. I only had to ask one person to please be quiet and not try to talk me through my contractions. I was still singing out my contractions and when one was really intense my right arm would fly up and my hand would shake out the excess energy. It was perfect.
I asked about my epidural - it seemed to be taking a long time. Finally the nurse anesthetist came in with her cart. Everyone got really silent and let me know that she was there. By that point I could feel the transition stage coming. I knew I didn't need the epidural for pain - it was only so I could rest. Our doula and one of the L&D nurses both asked me if I was sure about the epidural because I was handling things so well. I asked Jesse what he thought and he let me know that it was completely up to me. Instead of saying I didn't want it I just shut down and went inside myself and ignored everyone. After a few minutes the nurse anesthetist quietly put everything away and wheeled her cart out the door.
I felt my daughter moving down and I sang a song to her about her progress. Transition phase brought a change to my contraction songs - they were coming from deep inside of me and I no longer had any control over the sound. I've been told that I maintained the song but it just got a bit deeper. Nobody else had any idea that things had progressed, and for some reason I didn't tell them.
My doula had been applying pressure to my knees and sacrum during the contractions. At about this time I asked for the pressure to be constant so Jesse took over the sacral pressure and our doula maintained pressure on my knees. It was about this time that I looked over and saw my midwife silently sitting in the corner smiling ans watching. I felt our daughter moving down even further and asked for the squatting bar. Everyone seemed surprised that I wanted that already - because my contractions were still not regular and they didn't know that I had already gotten through transition. They started to get the bar in place and moved the pillow that I'd had between my knees. It was then that everyone saw her crowning and REALLY started moving. They were all completely surprised. There was no time for the squatting bar...
I used "exhale pushing" - a technique taught in Hypnobabies. Essentially you rest during your contraction and between contractions you breathe your baby out. It works to keep her moving instead of going back and forth, which can happen when you don't have any sensation to know where she is and when your contractions are happening. They offered to have me feel her head but I was too focused and I knew I'd feel her whole body soon anyway. I pushed for between 5 and 10 minutes and there she was! They immediately placed her on my bare chest and lightly wiped her down. She was perfect.
Jesse cut the cord after it stopped pulsing. The delivery of the placenta was super fun and easy! My midwife gave us a placenta demonstration after it was delivered. It was incredible to see the tiny sac that our daughter had spent the previous nine months in. Our doula asked to keep it if we weren't going to use it so that it could be used to teach a class.
My midwife offered me a single stitch but for some reason I really didn't want it. (I wish I'd just gone with it!) She held pressure on the small tear and said if it stopped bleeding she would be okay not stitching it.
We had about two hours of quiet time with just Jesse and our doula before the staff came back to weigh our daughter and give her the Vitamin K injection. She nursed for about 45 minutes during that time. It was perfect.
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The next evening my midwife came by to check on us. She told us that our birth was absolutely beautiful and in the top 1% of births she's ever attended. The L&D nurse also told us how beautiful the birth was and how glad she was to have been there. Our doula said that our birth was how all births should be.
Abigail Elizabeth was brought into the world peacefully and beautifully with song at 2:37 AM on Friday, August 16th. She weighed 8 pounds and was 20 inches long. I'm incredibly proud of her birth. And I couldn't have done it without Jesse, our doula, and our midwife.
