Laura, John, and Warner's HypnoBirth!

The long awaited arrival of Warner Joseph!!

"Being pregnant and awaiting our second baby boy while taking care of an 18 month old was an experience unlike any other! I had a mostly natural birth with our first son despite needing pitocin to get things moving, and while I was relatively happy with the way things turned out, I wanted a better experience the second time around. I wanted to feel more in control and in tune with my body and so I decided to take HypnoBirthing classes with Danielle. I wanted to be one of those women that calmly breathed their way through labor and I was hoping to be successful even though I was worried that I wouldn't be able to "be good at it."
When my due date came and went, I started to become emotionally frustrated. My first needed to be induced, and I desperately wanted to avoid this, and I also really wanted to be in the Karmanos Natural Birth Center at Beaumont. A week before Warner was born, I started having contractions on and off every day. They would come every 15 minutes or so, but then go away when I laid down for bed. I finally turned off my phone and social media and listened to the positive birth affirmation track on repeat whenever I had the chance.
FINALLY, we got to the hospital on Wednesday, August 9th around 8pm (the night my induction was supposed to start) and I was in early active labor on my own and already dilated to 4cm! Yay! Triage did their standard tests and Kris did some side-lying releases while we waited to be admitted to the KNBC because she thought that the reason I wasn't progressing faster was due to Warner's positioning.
We finally got to our beautiful room around 10:30pm and I utilized the heck out of everything in that room! The king size bed at first, the rain shower, the outdoor walking path, and birth stools. I was amazed at how calm I was during labor, and enjoyed listening to the positive affirmations. I got a huge boost of confidence when my husband told me that he could hardly tell when I was having a contraction!
Around 4am Kris checked me and I was at 8cm and 100% effaced! I was SO shocked that I was that far along because I had maintained composure SO WELL. Instead of panicking with the intensity of my contractions, I was excited to feel them intensify because I knew it meant things were moving in the right direction. To say that I was proud of myself would be a complete understatement. I literally danced around the room between contractions and made my husband take pictures of me so that I could prove to people that I was smiling at 8cm. I couldn't wait to meet my baby and I was just as excited that I was rocking HypnoBirthing!! The jacuzzi tub was the perfect way to celebrate my accomplishment and it was such a welcome relief!
About an hour and a half later, I was feeling antsy and wondering if I should push. Kris checked me again, and said that I was still 8, and she thought Warner had rotated in a way that made it hard for him to descend in my pelvis and get me to the pushing phase. This unraveled me quite a bit. I was ready to meet my baby and I was becoming physically/emotionally exhausted from laboring for almost 12 hours.
Chris and Tracie (we hit the shift change at 7am) helped me find laboring positions that would help him rotate, but I had a really hard time staying in those positions through contractions and his positioning was also giving me false urges to push. This part was very tough on me because I wanted to follow their directions, but I wasn't able to sustain the positions. Emotionally, I was having a hard time keeping things together and I wasn't able to maintain my breathing as well anymore.
Finally, after about 6 hours at 8cm and trying to rotate him myself, I opted to have an epidural around 10am so that I could labor effectively in the side-lying position that my midwives thought would help rotate my baby the best. I switched out of the KNBC and had the epidural administered by 10:30am, and by 11:30, he had rotated and I was dilated to 9cm. Finally, at 1:10 I was ready to push and he was out after 4 pushes at 1:16pm on August 10th.
Looking back, I'm really glad we did things the way we did and I'm really proud of myself. I know if Warner had been in an optimal position, I would've been able to birth him completely naturally shortly after reaching transition. However, this experience reminded me that things don't always go as planned and it's okay to change things. I still can't believe he's finally here (and 9lbs 1oz!!!) haha! I'm so happy I practiced HypnoBirthing and took classes with Danielle. It completely changed the way I look at childbirth and even though I had an epidural, this birth proved to me even more than my first birth (which I experienced sans epidural) that I am "good" at childbirth and that women really are made to do this despite all the challenges that you might face along the way. Warner's birth story is the beautiful birth story I'd always wanted even though the details aren't what I thought they would be. My heart is fuller than I ever thought possible! Thanks again for everything Danielle."