Colton's Birth Story: My natural, Hypnobabies experience

So Colton just turned 2 months old a few days ago and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by! Most of his pregnancy seemed to fly by as well and I think that's due to the fact that Raylee keeps me so busy! She is such an active little girl. And in case you were wondering, it is true that you become so much more relaxed with your second child! (At least it's true for me)

Our precious son, Colton Covington Hefner was born on May 9, 2015.

I'll start off by saying that I began this pregnancy with the same plan as I did with Raylee's, to get an epidural and there was no way I could handle (or even want to) giving birth naturally. I didn't have any problems with my epidural with Raylee and it did make me very comfortable during my long labor since I was induced. However, her birth was very stressful to say the least and I knew that I wanted things to be different for Colton's birth. That's when I began to explore the idea of going natural and looking into different birthing techniques. I knew that if I wasn't prepared with some sort of skills, I would give into the epidural again. After doing a ton of research and reading every birth story I could, I decided that I would use the Hypnobabies Home Study 5-week course to help me prepare.  I also hired a doula and she was amazing!

Waiting for Colton to arrive was excruciating! His due date was May 3rd and every day that passed after then felt like a year! I had been having inconsistent contractions for a week or so and I really thought that he would be coming any day. Then on Friday, May 8th I woke up having mild contractions pretty consistently. I took a bath and sure enough, they were still coming! I was really thinking (and hoping) that this was the day! My doctor told me to come in and get checked out and I had Aaron come home early from work.

To my disappointment, the contractions started to become very irregular again and by the time we got to the doctor's office, they had almost stopped. I was very frustrated and embarrassed by this point! My doctor checked me out and found that I was 2cm dilated, so that was good news to hear! She stripped my membranes and afterwards said that she would be surprised if I didn't deliver by Monday. Feeling determined, Aaron and I drove to a mall and walked and walked to try to get things moving. Things were still very irregular but the contractions I was feeling were much stronger, so I kept my spirits up!

The next morning, May 9th was a typical Saturday morning. Nothing had really changed yet so I took the opportunity to sleep in and then took a relaxing, hot bath. After bathing, strong contractions started coming! Aaron timed them for me and they were coming every 10-12 minutes apart, then 5-8 minutes apart. They weren't as consistent as I thought they would be so I called my doula, Katie, to get her input. I was feeling very comfortable still and I didn't want to have another false alarm. Katie got to our house about 30ish minutes later and all of a sudden, contractions were coming exactly 3 minutes apart and were feeling much stronger! I was having to really focus through each contraction so we decided we better get to the hospital!

The 20 minute drive to the hospital went much smoother than I had expected. I just put my headphones in and listened to my Hypnobabies tracks to help me get in my "zone" and stay really calm. The nurses at the hospital didn't believe I could be in active labor yet because I was still walking around and talking easily but sure enough, they checked me and I was already 6cm dilated! Music to my ears!

Labor was still very manageable and I was still feeling pretty comfortable. When a contraction would come I would simply close my eyes, and get into my "zone". Afterwards I would open my eyes again and return to talking with Aaron, Katie, and the nurses. I chose to have a hep-lock IV and fetal monitoring 20 minutes of every hour so that I could still walk around and move when I needed to. About an hour and a half after getting to the hospital I was finally settled in and could go stand in the shower, which is what I was waiting to do. Oh my goodness, the shower helped so much! It totally took the edge off and really helped me to relax even more.

After getting out of the shower I could tell that things were very different. The pressure I was feeling from the contractions were getting very intense and I was having to work hard to stay focused. Contractions were coming close to a minute apart and I knew that I must be transition (which is one of the toughest parts of labor) This photo was taken about 30 minutes before Colton was born.

I had the nurse call my doctor to check me and as I expected, I was fully dilated and ready to push! This is when I began to lose my focus and I was feeling really scared. My water had not broke yet and my doctor asked me if I wanted to try delivering with the amniotic sac still intact or if I wanted her to break it. She told me that it might be more difficult to push out the baby with the amniotic sac so I quickly responded with, "Yes, break it!!" 

Pushing was the most difficult part for me. Things were moving so quickly that I totally lost all of my focus and this was the first time that I began to show distress and cry. I remember saying, "I can't do this" and hearing Aaron and Katie encouraging me to keep going. To me, it felt like he wasn't going to get out. Pushing lasted between 15-20 minutes and at 8:44pm (3 hours after arriving at the hospital) Colton was born! 

He was 8lbs 9oz and 21 inches long. Big boy!

This was truly such an amazing experience! I had so much support from Aaron during this entire process and having Katie there also really helped me! My labor was exactly what I hoped it would be, calm, quick, and uncomplicated. I highly recommend Hypnobabies to anyone who may be looking into birthing techniques to help with labor.