Last Friday we posted a birth story by new mama, Julia, who gave birth on the same day, at the same hospital, as a friend she’d met at her Blooma St. Paul prenatal yoga classes. And both babies arrived on their guess dates!

Not only did the two moms bond in prenatal yoga, they bonded at the hospital as they met in the hallway to show off their new babies. Congratulations to you both!

Today comes part 2 — the birth story of baby Harrison, as written by his sweet mama, Alicia.

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

__

{By Alicia}

On Sunday evening, two days before my due date, as I sat brushing my teeth my water began to leak.  I was so shocked I spit toothpaste everywhere!

After talking with my doula we decided to see if my labor would begin that night or the next morning.  My fluid was clear and there wasn’t a ton of it, so there was no worry in waiting a bit, as I wanted to labor at home as long as possible.  Throughout the night my contractions began, at about 15 minutes apart getting to about 8 minutes apart by the time morning rolled around.  They weren’t too intense, but were getting a bit stronger.

Monday morning I spoke with my doula and made a plan to keep laboring at home and let her know how we were doing as the day progressed.  My husband and I went for walks and took stairs to try and keep the labor progressing. My doula and mother came over and labor kicked in through the afternoon, I took baths to find comfort and by early evening my contractions had intensified, gotten longer, and were about 5 minutes apart.

At this point it was getting close to 24 hours since my water had begun to leak, so we decided to call the midwives and head into the hospital at about 6 p.m.  When I got to the hospital I was checked and was dilated between 3 and 4 centimeters. I was checked into my room and labor intensified, with contractions lasting longer.  Near midnight I was checked again and I had not advanced any further, not even a small change.

At this point I had to make a choice – either start pitocin to augment labor, as my water had been leaking for 24 hours, or take some pain medication to allow me to sleep through the night.  If I chose this I would then be put on pitocin in the morning to kick labor into gear. I was so very tired, I had been in some form of labor now for over 24 hours and I didn’t think I would be able to make it without some rest so I chose to take the medication to help me sleep.

Throughout the night my contractions continued but slowed down, and I was quite heavily medicated so it was all a bit of blur. By morning my contractions had all but stopped.  I ate some breakfast and got the pitocin started by 8 a.m.  I went for walks to get things kicked into gear.

As the day progressed they slowly increased my pitocin and my contractions got stronger and closer together.  At some point they checked me and I had progressed to 5 centimeters. Much later, and many, many painful contractions later I was checked and I had only advanced to 6 centimeters. At this point I was dealing with intense back labor and my contractions seemed to be right on top of each other, however they were not really effective at dilating my cervix. They inserted a sensor so they could measure the strength of my contractions so they could decide if they needed to up my pitocin.

At about 6 p.m. they increased my pitocin from 19 to 20 and almost immediately I began to feel the urge to push.  I was told not to push, if I was not fully dilated I could cause my cervix to swell.  However, as the urge increased they came and checked me and I was fully dilated and my baby was right there!  I had dilated from 6 to 10 centimeters in 30 minutes!

I was so amazed, and then they told me I could push – which was amazing!  I finally felt like I could do something, and it felt great.  After pushing for 1 hour, with amazing coaching from my mom, husband, doula, and midwife, our beautiful baby boy was born!

Harrison Ernesto was born at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 28 (his due date!), all 9 lbs, 9 oz of him!  After nearly 48 hours of labor, and a slight deviation from my birth plan, I had done it!  I had delivered my baby without an epidural and it felt amazing!

Later I found out that a Blooma friend of mine also delivered the same day — right across the hall!  Both our little boys were very punctual and were born on their due dates!

My birth story was not what I expected but was amazing in every way.  I thank my mother, husband, and doula for their amazing support throughout the entire process.  As well as all the prenatal support I received at Blooma from Cynthia and Bridget in my prenatal yoga classes.  I look forward to continuing to be a part of the Blooma community with other new mamas and our beautiful babies!

*{A little note from Blooma: We joyfully share birth stories sent to us by Blooma families, however, Blooma does not claim responsibility for and does not endorse individual choices made by families or their care providers. We seek to share an array of birth stories to showcase a wide range of experiences.}

It’s every prenatal yoga teacher’s greatest joy when community is created within class. We love hearing about friendships created with a mama on the mat next to you. These friendships are incredible connections to last you through those early months and years of parenting when sometimes you just need to hear, “yes, me, too.”

Such was the case with two Blooma St. Paul mamas. Not only did they become pals through Bridget McGreevy’s and Cynthia Levine’s prenatal yoga classes, they went on to birth their babies on the same night, at the same hospital, just across the hallway from each other.

We’re posting their birth stories in two parts (come back Monday for Part 2!). First, from new mama Julia:

I learned on Facebook later that night that Alicia from yoga — we bonded months ago over our shared guess date and choice not to find out gender — had had her baby (also a boy!) the same day, right across the hall at Woodwinds — so we had a little meet-up in the hallway to introduce our kiddos and give each other a big hug. How bizarre that two of us had our babies on their guess date.

Read on for her full story!

Love,

Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma

__

{By Julia}

Hi Cynthia and Bridget!

I’m sitting here with a happily milk-drunk baby on my chest…totally surreal.  I mean, I knew I was pregnant, and I knew that pregnancy results in babies, but somehow it still comes as a big surprise every time I look at this little guy.

Contractions started on a Sunday night / Monday morning around 2 am and continued on and off through Monday until my water broke while doing hands & knees hip circles around 6 pm.

By 11 pm we were headed into the hospital (Woodwinds, because St Joe’s was full – a huge deal to me at the time but perfectly fine in the end) with contractions ~4 minutes apart and speeding/strengthening quickly. What a disappointment to hear upon arrival that I was only at 1-2 cm (I had been a 1 four weeks earlier!) but on the upside I was 100% effaced and they were optimistic that the cervix would “just melt away” since I was so thinned.

I got in the bathtub and two hours later was at 5 cm, so we headed for the waterbirth tub since the midwife was confident it wouldn’t be long before I was at 10 and ready to push.  Unfortunately, about an hour and a cm later, my body started trying to push this baby out with each contraction – something about how the baby was positioned led to my body convulsing with each contraction so that I couldn’t NOT push, no matter what breathing or positioning or squeezing my awesome labor support team suggested.

My cervix began to swell so that I was actually losing effacement, amd each contraction was doing more harm than good, so the midwife presented me with two options: either an epidural to take the edge off the contractions, or face a likely c-section if the cervix continued to swell.

We had hoped for a natural birth, so this was a tough position to be in – but the midwife was lovely enough to point out that the drugs would not be for pain management, only to stop the pushing reflex, and with that, I agreed to the epidural.  An hour later, the drugs had knocked out that pushing reflex but I was still feeling really strong and painful contractions (I didn’t know that epidurals effect everyone so differently, and was surprised to still feel intense pain).

To my great surprise, just one more hour later I had gone from 6 to 10 and was ready to push the baby out – I only pushed for 30 minutes before I got to hear the most wonderful little cry, and my husband saying “it’s a boy!” before they put this wet slippery little dude on my chest.

That was 7 am Tuesday and little Martin weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz, and was 20 cm long. Everything since then has been a bizarre rush and we’re totally obsessed with this perfect little creature who has come to live with us.

Thanks to you both and to Blooma for the training and confidence to approach labor with grace and flexibility.  Every one of the nurses and midwives complimented me on my breathing throughout labor and I thought of you and all the Mon/Wed/Sat regulars at Blooma St Paul.  Look forward to seeing you at future Blooma events, or around town.  :)

Much love,

Julia

*{A little note from Blooma: We joyfully share birth stories sent to us by Blooma families, however, Blooma does not claim responsibility for and does not endorse individual choices made by families or their care providers. We seek to share an array of birth stories to showcase a wide range of experiences.}