On Thursday at work before HypnoBirthing class, I was pretty sure I lost some of my mucus plug and was experiencing light cramping. I had an ob appointment scheduled for the next day so I decided to wait and ask them unless things got worse.
On Friday, I told my midwife what happened and she asked if I’d like my cervix to be checked. She said it wasn’t necessary but if I was curious then I could know. I did want to know just to see if I should possibly be prepared for labor sooner than later. Sure enough I was 2-3 cm dilated and 50% effaced, but she said this could mean I’m having a baby in a few days or a few weeks. She said I didn’t have to come to the hospital until I couldn’t talk through a surge.
On Saturday and Sunday I was still experiencing some mucus like discharge but no real changes in terms of surges or pain. But then when I went to bed on Sunday night, I woke up a few hours later at midnight having surges (felt like back cramps) . They weren’t super strong and there wasn’t a clear pattern to how far apart they were, so I practiced my breathing we learned in the class and even listened to the script from the last class again. This really helped and I was able to get some extra sleep (on and off).
By 4 am they were getting stronger, so I took a shower to help and to get ready for the hospital. After my shower I woke up Jimmy around 445 and said he should probably get ready to go. We didn’t rush out the door, just took our time, and I think my water may have broken around 530. I went to the bathroom and it looked like my bloody show and lots of watery discharge.
We were on our way to the hospital by 6am and got checked in by 630. At this point admittedly, my HypnoBirthing practice went out the window a little bit. I had told Jimmy I was open to an epidural when we got to the hospital to help the pain and my breathing was not great.
When we went into triage my midwife checked me and I was at 8 cm. She told me we probably didn’t have time for an epidural and sure enough we didn’t. We got moved to a room shortly after and I could feel the pressure to push already. My midwife instructed me on what to do (I will say my mind was resisting the instruction to push when my body wasn’t telling me to at certain points but most of the time it was naturally coming with the surges anyway) but I powered through and with 3-4 pushes our baby was born!
I give all the credit to what Amanda taught us that allowed me to labor at home for so long, making my labor and delivery very short at the hospital. So thank you Amanda, and cheers to hypnobirthing! I wish you all the best with your upcoming deliveries. You got this mamas!