Our baby girl Lyra actually came 3 weeks early on her 37th week birthday. Born in June on Soltice!
My water broke at 6 PM on June 19th, I was in disbelief that it was happening so early. The saddest part of my labor was saying goodnight to my sweet 2 year old boy, knowing that our lives would all be changed when I got back.
We put our son to bed and called in the grandparent backup to watch him. We packed our remaining things and headed to the hospital. I wasn’t feeling any painful contractions at this point, which made the hour long drive to the hospital much more relaxing than I had preparing it would be.
We arrived at the hospital and they confirmed the water broke. They said we could labor more at home but the distance and potential for a fast labor made us want to spend the night and labor there. They offered augmentation to kickstart my labor but I asked to try and sleep and wait til morning.
We got a birthing room with a nice large tub for laboring in. My husband and I slept as best we could, I was nervous and excited. Starting at 4:45 AM I started feeling consistent surges. They were uncomfortable but extremely manageable. I used the music recordings and focused on being as relaxed as possible during and between them.
The nurses offered augmentation again the morning of the 20th, but I refused saying that my surges had started and my labor was well on its way. My birth plan made it clear I wanted no pain medication and no coaching for pushing. I managed the surges with breathing techniques and some walking around the room until 8:50 AM when the surges were very painful. At this point I called in my birth doula to join us and got in the large tub to labor in the warm water.
The bath helped make the surges easier to manage, though they were still very powerful. I was starting to be tempted by the idea of an epidural. Then around 10 AM, I suddenly felt intense pressure and said “baby!” Then the room got very busy. The nurses helped me out of the tub. I stood next to the bed, which they raised so I could lean my forearms on. I felt the natural urge to push. 4 or so contractions later, I pushed out baby Lyra. She looked purple and covered in vernix. She cried and I was so pleased! Also very proud for pushing her out standing up!
We then got on the bed and they wanted to give me pitocin to push out the placenta. I asked if that was necessary. They allowed me to wait and then the placenta came out soon after. They say I lost very little blood.
I was also pleased that I did not suffer any tearing. I think having this be a second birth and an early/small baby (5lb 6oz) helped with that.
We are all doing well and I have had a very good recovery. Lyra had a bit of jaundice (which runs in the family) but we have managed it without need for bili lights. She is a sleepy feeder, so we have had to bottle feed to make sure she gets enough to eat. Luckily I have good milk supply. Still working on getting her to latch so we can be nursing instead.
If you have read this far, thanks for reading my birth story! It is so nice to share!
I am very happy with my birthing and thank HypnoBirthing for their teachings. While the birth was in no way painless, the meditation techniques helped me change my relation to the pain, allowing me to birth unmedicated.
