The birth of our daughter Hayley

Right before we went to the hospital

Hayley Cecilia Northcutt

Since Monday last week I´ve had contractions every five minutes. Uncomfortable but not painful. Definitely not the kind you go to the hospital for. Every now and then I had real contractions, although they didn´t follow a regular pattern. Eight days later, on Tuesday this week I started to leak ammoniac fluid at least that was what I thought. We went to the hospital to see what´s going on.

3 hours old

A nurse checked me. She was really sweet and friendly but to be honest she didn´t really seem to know what she was doing. She was very nervous and the way she examined me was extremely painful. Anyway she couldn´t find my cervix at all and sent me home “since I was going to see my doctor the following afternoon anyway”. We went home and I had a really good night’s sleep.

Woke up at 6am Wednesday morning by a sharp contraction. The day before my due date. The real contractions were seven minutes apart. I feel so grateful that I slept well the night before, made it so much easier to breathe through the contractions. My plan was to go without pain medication if possible.  I moved around the ranch timing the contractions, doing some last minute things like feeding the animals and made sure they had plenty of water. When I was done I took a long shower, made breakfast and woke Philip up. We had breakfast and talked for a while, the contractions got closer and stronger. The car (a rental since ours is at the mechanic still) was already packed and Philip thought that we should go to the hospital. I thought we could wait half an hour or so and go to my regular Doctors appointment first. TheBirthPlace is in the building next doors anyway. I changed my mind since the contractions started to be a little bit stronger and was about four minutes apart. It´s only a short drive, about 30 min (depending on traffic).

Halfway there, on a difficult mountain road my water broke or should I say exploded. There was water everywhere and it was greenish. I knew that could be a sign that the baby is stressed. I had contractions all the time by then. I felt a strong urge to push. I had to push! Something was wrong. More than us not being at the hospital yet. I tried my best not to push and just breathe but the baby was moving. By the time we got to the hospital, ten minutes after the water broke I thought I was going to go insane.

Another nurse checked me this time and she couldn´t find my cervix either. She calmly told us that she was going to call my Doctor and have her come down right away; she walked until she reached the curtains of my room and started running. Then I knew that my feeling was right, something was wrong. My Doctor came immediately. I was fully dilated (and probably been fully dilated the day before as well). My Doctor whom is very professional calmly told us that she didn´t feel the baby´s head but was going to make sure by doing another ultrasound. The baby was breech and wanted to come out now!

I´m most impressed by her organizational skills. In a few minutes she organized a team for an emergency C – Section while she at the same time talked me through everything and made sure that someone else prepared Philip. I still haven´t had anything for the pain. The breathing exercises I learned at my yoga class helped me a lot. When I got the spinal shot it felt like life came back to me. Before they could begin they had to carefully push two feet back through the birth canal. Hayley really wanted to come out.

Philip was there holding my hand all the time. Hayley was in his arms less than 30min after my water broke. Very impressive teamwork at the hospital. I got too see my daughter before they started to stitch me back together again. I´m very grateful for that. It meant everything to see her. She was in good health but a little bit bruised on her feet and legs (still is). She came out with her feet first.  I needed some time at recovery. Everyone was very thoughtful, explained everything they did and tried their best to make things as good as can be.  I missed the first two hours of my daughter’s life. C- Section didn´t exist in my universe and we weren´t prepared for this. I do feel very good about the fact that Philip got to spend that special time with her. He took pictures and told me everything later in the evening. When I did get to see her and hold her in my arms for the first time she was very hungry and started eating at once. She loves eating, breastfeeding is going great. She is happy and healthy which means everything. We stayed at the hospital for three days. I really don´t like hospitals but I´m very grateful for everything they did for us.  We came home yesterday. Feels good to be home!

When I had my son seven years ago labor took 76 hours, this time I´d spent a lot of time manifesting a faster delivery and a healthy baby. I did get a faster delivery, 30 min after we came to the hospital and Hayley is a strong, healthy baby. Maybe I´ll spend some more time working on the details I´m manifesting next time!

Hayley Cecilia Northcutt was born Wednesday 25^th of July 2012, 39 weeks 6 days, 7.16lbs and 20inches (3600g and 50,8cm).