Desmond

 It's about time for the official announcement post, eh?

DESMOND LLOYD MITCHELL

 3:45am July 25th, 2012 

(exactly one week late) 

8 lbs 3 oz

Here are the deets (again, if this sort of stuff makes you queasy, feel free to skip right along.)

 Although I had been having practice waves (oft called Braxton Hicks, but how silly is it to name a natural occurance in a pregnant woman's body after a doctor who claimed to "discover" it??) for weeks and weeks, on July 24th they became more "noticeable" throughout the day. I kept busy with regular errands and schedules but told Darren that it felt a bit different. We were actually together all morning picking up our repaired car, washing/dropping off the borrowed car, etc. Twice when I was using the bathroom I found bits of my mucous plug (one of D's favorite terms!) and figured these waves were finally doing something to my cervix. I started tentatively hoping this might be the real deal and we even had some nice spicy malaysian food for lunch to move it along. By dinner I had to breathe through a few waves at which my family started taking notice. Mom kept saying, "this is a good sign" and we were all smiles. That night after kids were in bed and a few laundry loads and clean up jobs were done I finally sat down to time them. It was more out of curiosity than anything since I'd been going nonstop all day. Mom hit the hay at a reasonable hour "just in case" and Darren was just settling into bed - we were both shocked to find they were 6 minutes apart, lasting a minute. Although I'd never had "fast" labors, this being my fifth I knew to take notice in case my body kicked into gear quickly. That was at 11pm. We rolled our eyes that I always seem to go into labor at the beginning of the night which makes for frustrating fatigue! I kept timing them while doing random things and tried to sleep to one of my Hypnobabies tracks at about 1:00am. I found I could catch sleep between surges for an hour but when I started to get mini waves at two minutes between the 6 min intervals it became too intense. I got out of bed and walked around a bit. Breathing deep and slow and staying super relaxed was key to managing as they grew. With each wave I tried to visualize what my body was doing which made them seem less painful and more productive. I called the hospital at 2am who said to come right in. I told Darren "it's time" and actually started to get a bit shaky and nauseous as I gathered bags and made last minute overseas insurance calls. D was surprised to be awakened so soon, thinking I would labor in the bath at home for a while like last time, but hopped up to wake GramB and the kids. (A few months back we'd decided to share the birth experience with our bigger kids. They'd been begging me to have it at home so they could witness, but I had to think about it for a while. After some informative books and carefully selected online videos of calm Hypnobirths, I could tell they were sufficiently mature to be there. They were ecstatic and have been so excited every day leading up to this, each night saying "maybe this is the night!")

 With huge smiles and big eyes, they got shoes and coats on and headed to the car. I had been using the toilet a lot and knew the shakes and nausea were a good sign of progression but didn't dare let myself hope I was that far along yet. When I started needing to vocalize through each wave with semi-loud middle of the night "aaahs" and "peace" everyone knew this was it. We woke the cousins to let them know they were in charge of Summer and left the house. As we drove we both were encouraged, never having had things progress so quickly like this. I'm not gonna lie, each "pressure wave" hurt, (so much for my hoped-for "pressure, not pain" experience,) but deep breathing, hearing the hypnosis tracks in my ear and the distraction of vocalizing and transportation all helped me manage the discomfort very well and at least not get overwhelmed. Hypnobabies program teaches a lot of different tools such as "eyes open hypnosis" and "hypno-anesthesia" which go above and beyond the deep relaxation and visualization I'd used with Summer. I found it very helpful. We arrived at 2:20 am and my mom took the kids off to my recovery room while D helped me settle into the delivery suite. I had asked for the bath to be filled and was anxious to get in to ease the shakes and nausea that tend to throw me for a loop, but they had to monitor me/baby on the bed for 20 minutes first. Laying there wasn't my favorite. I vocalized through the waves like I was the only one there and it wasn't the middle of the night. (Hopefully I didn't disturb any sleeping ladies in recovery?) I probably would rather have walked around though since the distraction seemed to help. Baby was fine and the midwife finally checked me at 4-5 cms. Great. On the way to the bath I stopped to use the toilet and was slammed with three pressure waves in a row. I could hardly even sit down and certainly couldn't use the toilet. I did make some involuntary pushing sounds which got the midwife very nervous, saying we needed to get me back in bed. I adamantly resisted being moved. She checked me there saying the head was low and I might be fully dilated. I thought "What?! Wasn't I barely at 5 cms twenty seconds ago??" I reluctantly let them walk me back to the bed (desperately wanted to labor in that warm water!!) but willing to do anything to get the waves to stop. (In hindsight I wish I'd just insisted on getting in the bath to slow things down.) She called my OB saying to get there quick and I got a few minutes break between waves again. I was shaking quite hard and needed D to massage my legs to calm me. He was great - and I kept him on his toes with my constant requests for water (so thirsty!) He kept looking me in the eyes with a big smile and saying "you're doing it, this baby's going to be here soon!" My OB was a friend of ours (another parent from school) and when she arrived and checked me, she said the head was pretty low and I could have this baby quick if I wanted to. Well, that sounded good, but I still couldn't believe I was there yet. When she said I could push whenever I wanted, I was floored. I was really that far along?! Problem was, I had no urge to push. And the waves were starting to discourage me. I'm not sure if I was very deep in hypnosis at this point because my "directed anesthesia" didn't seem to be touching the pain much. It was suggested that I resume a standing or sitting position to get that pushing urge back like in the bathroom, but sitting up in bed didn't do it. I got to the "I don't want to do this anymore" stage, a bit panicky and worried, but then she reminded me that if I could just push baby out, it would stop hurting.

We brought my mom and kids in and I loved seeing their excited faces. I said between waves, "You guys ready to have a baby?!" They were nervous, and quiet and totally stoked. I loved that I was so close (even remember saying, "this is so easy!" between waves) but just didn't think I could possibly push him out on my own without having that urge. Felt sorta helpless. Like I was way too weak to bring about such a force that I knew needed to happen to birth. My "pushing" was only half hearted since it hurt rather than felt uncontrollable/good/natural like last time when I hardly did a thing. (At Summer's birth I couldn't have stopped the pushing, my body simply took over and expelled her, but this time there was nothing, no oomph.) At this point doc got worried about my bleeding and baby's heart rate dropping and said "baby's not happy, you've gotta bear down and get this baby out or I'll have to intervene" (ie: the vacuum.) The midwife suggested I kneel over back of the bed and that sounded good. Never tried that one before but I was up for anything. I was able to breathe/push baby down a bit between waves, which hurt less but still wasn't too effective. There was a sense of urgency now though so I finally just held my breath and pushed with everything I could muster. I actually felt the baby slowly slide down the birth canal. Whoa. Now that's a sensation you can't describe. I would have preferred to breathe him down like before, but really needed to bear down stronger this time, sorta forced. Held my breath with another huge push and out came the head, a bit faster than expected so I had a small tear, darn it. "Whoa!" they all said, "stop now, hold off!" Cord was around his neck so she got him unwrapped and rotated (me gasping) and then one more insane push and out came our boy. I sorta collapsed over the back of the bed from the intensity and didn't like that I could not really see what was happening, but that definitely was the key position for me in getting baby out this time. It was a bit messy sitting around and getting stitched up in all the aftermath but we had a solid two hours of immediate skin on skin and nursing and he hardly made a peep. That's what I love about "hypno births" - such calm, sweet tempered babies, probably from months of mommy's daily self hypnosis practice. All in all it was a fantastic, short (less than 5 hrs - wahoo!) and relatively easy birth. While not simply "pressure" or pain free it was definitely "more comfortable" as promised. The hypnosis truly allowed me to relax and handle the waves long enough to allow my body to naturally and efficiently birth how it was made to and gave me the confidence to achieve it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat - but if there's a next time, it's definitely going to be at home in the water. That sounds just about perfect.

The kids were so thrilled. They couldn't believe it. Will got the privilege of cutting the cord. (He even keeps the scissors he used on his dresser.) And Des was so red and tiny and perfect. They touched his hands and face then headed home for some sleep (poor Kenna was fighting off the flu but wasn't about to miss this.) I finally got washed up and took my soak in the tub then moved into the recovery room where we all fell asleep around 6am. It was pretty exhilarating and exhausting and awesome. And now we have another son. I'll tell you what, there is no happier boy on the planet about that little fact, than this guy. :)