Amelia Kate's Birth Story

For Millie’s birth, I went with Hypnobabies again. I enjoyed the peace of mind it had given me in Emerson’s birth and since I had no idea how Millie’s birth would go, it made me feel like I had more control over things.

At my last few OB appointments, a couple of the doctors I saw were getting kind of pushy, telling me that they were going to schedule an induction to “get that baby out” before asking me if that’s what I actually wanted. (I didn’t.)

Luckily, at my 39 week appt, I got a nice doctor who wasn’t in a hurry. He told me we could check back at 40 weeks and see how things were going. I was determined to have this baby out naturally before that 40 week appointment so I wouldn’t risk having to schedule an induction.

That Friday, 2 days before my due date, I woke up with a bunch of crampy feelings. They kept me up all night but had no consistency to them, so I figured it was probably just Braxton Hicks. I had been having a lot more of those this pregnancy for some reason. That morning, though, I lost my mucus plug and realized that maybe things were headed in the right direction.

The crampy feelings mostly went away but by 12 or 1 that afternoon, I began to feel small contractions. I was still too afraid to hope that this could actually be labor so I chalked it up to Braxton Hicks and kept going with my day. I didn’t even time them because I just knew I would be disappointed if I did. I hung out with my kids, bounced on my birthing ball, and IMed Isaac at work. By about 2:30, I was pretty sure I was in labor. I messaged Isaac at work and he reminded me that I should probably time them and then call my doctor.

Before I go on, let’s be clear about 1 thing: My brain was not working well. And when I say that, I mean, as far as life preservation or any sense of urgency goes during this labor, it was pretty much non-existence (much to the utter frustration of my husband).  I think that I was so at peace because of my Hypnobabies, I literally didn’t see anything that could possibly go wrong. Luckily, I had a husband who was thinking clearly and could argue enough with me that I would finally do what I needed to do.

I timed my contractions at about 4-5 minutes apart, but they still felt very manageable at this point. For whatever reason, I REALLY didn’t want to call my doctor. I told Isaac that I knew if I called my doctor, they would tell me to go to hospital and I really didn’t want to go to the hospital. Isaac got progressively more and more frustrated with my crazy laboring brain (all while dealing with highly stressful things at work) and eventually convinced me to just call my “stupid doctor!”

I called. They told me to go to the hospital.

Also during this time, Isaac and I were also chatting about who was going to pick my mom up from the airport. We had planned for her to come in just a couple of days before I was due, not knowing exactly when I would actually have the baby. And as luck would have it, my mom was flying in that day!

Her plane landed a 4pm at an airport that is about an hour away from our house. Isaac and I went back and forth debating what to do with my mom, the kids, me, etc… Eventually, we decided that I would text a friend who had volunteered as backup to watch the kids during my labor and have them take my boys. I would drive to the hospital and get checked in. Isaac would drive to the airport, pick up my mom, and have her drop him off at the hospital on the way back. It never crossed either of our minds to have my mom just rent a car from the airport. In hindsight, that would have made so much more sense. But it was a stressful couple of hours, so whatcha gonna do?

By about 3pm, Isaac was on his way to the airport, my boys were playing with friends and I was leisurely driving to the hospital. I seriously took the long way there because I was so anti-hospital in my head. I even contemplated stopping to get something to eat first since I knew once I got to the hospital, they wouldn’t let me eat. I had a few contractions on the way, so I figured it was probably best just to get to the hospital, but I put in some Hypnobabies affirmations and just peacefully kept driving.

When I think back on my labor now, I would use the word “floating” to describe the majority of it. I floated to the hospital, floated to the labor and delivery unit, and floated as I waited for Isaac to come.

When I got to the hospital, I realized I didn’t even know where Labor and Delivery was. (3rd child. Totally didn’t plan this out.)  So I parked in the normal spot I used when going to my OB appointments and walked in. I asked the first person I saw where Labor and Delivery was. He took one look at me and said, “It’s down there a ways… would you like a wheelchair and I could take you there?” I told him I was good, that I would just walk! Lol Floating. When I finally got to the front desk of L&D (it was on the complete opposite side of the hospital), they were like “Who are you?” and so I looked at them and matter-of-factly said. “I’m in labor!” lol They were confused and I couldn’t understand why. Finally, they nailed down who my doctor was and got me checked in. I was progressing and in active labor so they told me I could stay.

I requested intermittent monitoring so I could walk around. The nurse was fine with that. She asked me if I had anyone coming to help and I told her that my husband was picking my mom up from the airport but should be there soon.

Little did I know that Isaac was having an adventure of his own. Apparently, right as he got onto the freeway to go get my mom, our 200,000+ miles car began making an awful sound. He pulled off the road and inspected the car but didn’t see anything that he could fix, so he kept driving. He drove 80 miles an hour the whole way, willing our car to just make it there.

It made it. Barely.

When he got there, the tires were so hot that he burned his hand trying touch them. He was able to connect with my mom and they eventually decided that driving back in that car was not a good idea. They decided to just rent a car and get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

My favorite part of the story is what happened next.

Back at the airport, Isaac and my mom ran over to the designated car place (my dad had reserved a car for them) and saw that it had 3 people in line. My mom decided to just ask the people in line if they would allow she and Isaac to go ahead of them, given the fact that Isaac’s wife was in labor and the hospital was still 1 hr away. The first 2 people nodded and told my mom they were fine if she went ahead. The last person let out a frustrated grunt.

My mom being the amazing person she is, looked at the man and asked, “I can see that you don’t really agree with letting us ahead of you. Why is that?”

The man looked at my mom and with an air of frustration said, “I am late to a funeral.”

Hahahaha

My mom said she actually had to sit there for minute and think to herself, “So funeral or birth? Funeral or birth? Which one is more important?.... Nope, Birth. Birth is more important, your person isn’t going anywhere.” So she told the man she understood but that she felt that the birth was more important. He let her go ahead of him and they were able to get the car.

By this time, it was about 5:30 and I was expecting them any minute. I texted my mom to see what their ETA was and she texted, “On our way. Complications.” I texted back , “Oh, traffic?” and she said, “Car.” For a brief second I debated asking more about what happened to our car but decided that I needed to focus on my labor. Because of Hypnobabies, I wasn’t at all worried (which is crazy given my husband was stuck with a broken down car and hour away). I happily labored with my headphones in, just listening to my Hypnobabies tracks and enjoying my “pressure waves” (contractions).

By about 6:30pm, I had a contraction that was very intense. I knew from Emerson’s birth that it was likely I was headed into transition. Honestly, that’s the first time in the whole experience that I remember being worried or concerned at all. And I wasn’t concerned about the contractions, I was still breathing through those just fine. I was concerned that Isaac wasn’t going to make it to the hospital in time. After that contraction ended, I texted Isaac and said that he needed to come as quickly as possible because I was getting close. He texted back and said that they were in the hospital and on their way up!

When they walked in the room, my mom asked, “Has your water broken yet?” And literally right as I was answering her my water broke.

I knew that after my water broke things would go quickly and the nurse believed me! She got my doctor in there and they got ready for me to push. She measured me and I was only a 6, but she said “Given your history, we should expect like 10 more minutes, right?”

Sure enough.

After only 1 or 2 more contractions, I began to push. 2 more contractions and our Amelia Kate was here. 7pm on the dot. She was pretty chill, but let out a good cry. They had to give her a little oxygen to get her color up, but other than that, she was great!

Isaac and my mom made it to the hospital only 15 minutes before Millie was born. We all laughed about the timing of the whole thing. The funny thing is, I actually really enjoyed laboring on my own. Because Hypnobabies is so internal, I just had my headphones in and let it guide me through the process. I didn’t worry about Isaac not being there and I didn’t feel pain until the very end. I know it sounds weird, but I genuinely enjoyed it. It was very peaceful and sacred for me and I’m very grateful for that. I truly believe that every woman should be able to experience that, regardless of what they choose during their birthing process. What a neat thing.

I took this picture on one of my walking laps in the Labor and Delivery hall. The sunset added to the beauty of the moment for me.

When I look back, I’m grateful I have a husband who could be my voice of sanity in the midst of my clouded laboring brain. It didn’t once occur to me that if I had gone into transition or my water had broken at any point before I got to the hospital, that would’ve been bad news! I go so quickly that I wouldn’t have had time to do anything about it. I would’ve given birth all by myself in my car or something. So I’m glad that Isaac pushed me to go to the hospital and that I was able to have a positive,  peaceful experience with it all. Also huge props to Isaac for keeping the car drama far away from my labor. I am really grateful he understood that I didn’t need to know any of that and that I was working on bringing our baby into the world. It wasn’t until Millie was safely sleeping in my arms and I was about to be discharged to a postpartum room that I asked Isaac what had happened with the car and he told me.

My recovery has gone well and Miss Millie is sweet and adorable as ever. She did have jaundice in the hospital so we had to stay an extra day and have her under the phototherapy lights, but she kicked that pretty quickly. She also has a dairy allergy so we’ve been adjusting to that, but overall, she’s a sweet and aware baby girl. She fits snuggly into our little bigger family and we all love her bunches.