This birth reminds me so much of my own experience birthing Asher in the back of our van in the garage. Whenever I tell people the story, they react as though it is the scariest, worst thing they ever heard, and I love telling them that I had an easy, nearly painless labor. That it was my quickest and least frightening birth out of the three. That my husband was a better midwife than the midwives who had delivered my first two. It also reminds me of another HypnoBirthing mama’s surprise home birth. Ruthie, you had better come tell your story at our next luncheon!
Our Hypnobirthing instructor, Laura Curtis, told us something like “Your baby’s birth should be a reflection of the intimate relationship that created him.” Well, William’s birth had one of us crying, it was over before we even knew it began, and we had to call 911…so make of that what you will, but I won’t confirm or deny anything!
I woke up around 9 New Year’s Day morning to light pressure in my abdomen. Never having really been sure what contractions are supposed to feel like, I thought maybe since they were consistant that these might be them! I did my breathing through them like I’d been taught, sent out some “Happy New Year!” texts, and assumed when I realized the sensations were about 5 ½ minutes apart that Cody and I had a few more hours at the very least before we needed to get ready to go to the hospital. After I got up, I let Cody know that we’d probably be visiting the hospital that day, and would he like to come to bed and snuggle for a bit?
We ended up snuggling for about an hour or so, and then around 11, I felt the sensation of peeing my pants without having any kind of control over it—I assumed it was my water breaking and got a little more excited. “Cody, can you put these sheets in the washer?” He, being the awesome Cody that he is, did so, while I moved over to the guest bedroom’s bed to snuggle down and continue breathing like our classes had taught us to do.
Labor became…different. Very different. INTENSE, even. Don’t laugh, but the sensation was like period cramps, only a bit worse than my normal period cramping. It continued intensifying, and the desire to bear down overcame me—realizing that this meant I was in some serious labor, I kinda panicked and sent Cody on all sorts of errands, trying to get ready to both go to the hospital and have this baby at home. He called our nurse midwife on call, and she wasn’t worried until she could hear me grunting like a sick sow in the background. “She’s in transition—you need to get her to the hospital NOW.”
Uhm, no thank you. My body wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t have much time to do anything between the sensations, and pushing felt so good, although the sounds I made weren’t any indication of that. I really did sound like a sick sow, grunting and moaning. I could only talk for small patches of time and the desire to push would return, intensifying a little each time, to the point that I realized this baby was very much on its way—I could definitely feel his little head pushing, trying to break through and out into the world.
After Cody had rushed to get the car as close as possible to the condo, done laundry, packed up our things, and helped me through 80% of the intense labor as anxiously and worriedly as you can imagine, he decided that despite the midwife telling him to get us to the hospital, that wasn’t going to happen, and called 911. As we heard the siren start up, little William’s head popped out, and a minute later when we heard the knocking on the door (with Cody calling “Come in!”), the rest of William made an entrance, right into his father’s hands! Cody exclaimed in shock and joy, “Little dude!!!”
We were rushed to the hospital with the new daddy right behind us, birthing the placenta on I-15 around American Fork. They measured and weighed and stitched, and declared us to be healthy (and somewhat normal looking! Hah!) despite what we’d just been through.
We’re so glad he chose his birthday with such a vengeance, and we love our little Number One!!
