Lisa and Steven

Grant Eldon Hyer was born Feb 25th.  Yes, that was way past my due date but we felt he wasn’t ready yet and told them we did not want to be induced.  They had us do an ultra sound and monitor him to make sure he was ok and that there was enough fluid.  Everything showed fine so they didn’t induce us.
Sunday morning around 4 a.m. I started clocking my surges.  They were only 2 min. apart.  This wasn’t unusual for me though because I had been having surges for about three weeks but there surges were a bit stronger and coming from my back too.  I decided to wake Steven up around 5:00 and told him how I was feeling.  He asked if I thought we should go in and I said I don’t know but I’ve got to go to the bathroom first.  As I sat down my water broke and the surges got stronger.  We quickly got ready and headed for the AF hospital.
We walked in and they asked if I wanted a wheel chair and we said no. We got into the exam room around 6 and they said I was already to a 5.  I wasn’t doing too well in this room and kept throwing up and I said to Steven I don’t know if I can do this.  If it really gets harder I just don’t know.  We got into our room and then my water REALLY released.  Now it was about 7am and by the time I stopped leaking water we started the relaxation tapes.  From there on it went smoothly.  We didn’t know when we transitioned and it wasn’t until I was almost complete that i thought, “You know this is getting a little more difficult”, but then I remembered that you will think and feel that right before I’m ready so I didn’t worry about it.
My sister was there and she felt like she wasn’t useful at all because I didn’t need any help.  Steven was wonderful.  We ended up using the body count down.  Where you start at 5 and go down to 1, relaxing your head and moving down.  By the time we got to 1 my surge would be over and I was quite allert and awake.  The doctor would come in and want to talk and I’d tell him to wait a minute and after the surge I could talk just fine.  My mom even came in.  She is the one that said she didn’t watch her own why would she watch mine.  Since I could talk just fine we just chatted and I told her I’m about to have a surge so if you want to leave you should now but you don’t have to. She chose to stay for it and later I found out that she couldn’t believe I was doing that well even at a 9.  My sister who just got married and doesn’t have kids said, “My cramps are worse than that!”  I thought it was funny.
By two I was fully dialated.  The nurse wanted me to push and we told her no.  She kept bugging us and asked if I would at least try it her way.  I did and said, “That hurts, why would anyone want to do it like that”  She was amazed because most people at this stage think it feels good to push.  Anyway she kept bugging us saying that this is taking to long and we need to push and get this going.  Steven got really mad and gave up and we started pushing.  Grant was born at 4:28p.m.    We were disappointed with the pushing and decided that next time we want to do a midwife and we definately will not let them check me to tell we how we’re doing.  My surges never got longer than a minute long and even when we were pushing we’d push longer than the contraction was.
Luckily we got a beautiful healthy little boy.  Doctor Lind did clamp the cord too early.  Steven even said to him,”You clamped the cord too early.” And Lind said, “It’s been almost a minute.”  We were disappointed with this too.  Doctor Lind was not natural birth friendly.  Dr. Aggard at the same place was but Lind was the Dr on that day.  They didn’t ask us our pain level until after that baby was born.  She kept asking if now I wanted drugs.  I told her no.  The only pain I had was from the hep lock in my hand and I asked if they’d take it out now.  After birth I was so thirsty because I didn’t trust my tummy.  I drank lots and after the birth I really needed to use  the bathroom.  My nurse couldn’t believe I just got up to go to the restroom.  I think I probably could have rested instead of pushing and we didn’t know you could get into the tub after your water released.  I know we should have figured this but next time we are definitely using the tub!  We did end up having an episiotomy.
Grant is such a wonderful baby.  He is so happy and mello.  He hardly ever cries.  If he is tired or hungry he just makes this noise like he is calling to us to let us know he needs something.  We are so happy we took the HypnoBirthing class.  I believe it really helped me during those few weeks to be more comfortable and that it really helped me sleep.  We are so glad we didn’t have to use drugs and that things went pretty well. Next time I think I’d like to be even more relaxed.
Love, Steven, Lisa and Grant