WEBVTT 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:04.927 This is Boris Elise interviewing Catherine Brennan for the Creative Push 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:12.960 project on June 24, 2015 at 12:10. OK. So why don't we start with um maybe 00:00:13.189 --> 00:00:16.515 taking us back to around the time that you were pregnant if there's any, 00:00:16.548 --> 00:00:20.675 you know, extreme weather or like events or anything that you remember 00:00:20.708 --> 00:00:28.175 just to kind of situate us in time. So, I got pregnant in July, so it was 00:00:28.208 --> 00:00:36.208 a little hot. And I don't really remember it being extraordinarily hot for 00:00:39.020 --> 00:00:43.265 my pregnancy. I was lucky that it was that I gave birth in April, so it 00:00:43.298 --> 00:00:49.826 wasn't hot yet. Um, I don't remember any big weather events or anything 00:00:49.859 --> 00:00:57.859 that. Happened um. Mostly I just remember being uncomfortable. 00:00:59.609 --> 00:01:04.066 And we talk about that, the pregnancy part, the conception, was it a 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:11.706 planned pregnancy? It was planned. Um, we were I, I really wanted another 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:18.936 child, and I finally convinced my husband after 65 years of waiting that 00:01:18.969 --> 00:01:26.969 we needed to have another one, so I was lucky that um that he agreed to 00:01:27.709 --> 00:01:35.709 that, um, so it wasn't a surprise. Um, so I was. I was happy that it ended 00:01:36.209 --> 00:01:41.697 up happening and we were trying to do it to plan to have the baby in March 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:46.855 because we're all March birthdays, but he ended up being April, so we were 00:01:46.888 --> 00:01:53.876 a month off, but it was still I'm still happy. Was it a quick conception? 00:01:53.909 --> 00:01:59.147 I mean, after you. Yeah, so we, yeah, we tried to have it so that he would 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:02.876 have been born in March. That would have been a June conception, but he 00:02:02.909 --> 00:02:09.906 was July, so it was just a month, a month off, but. Yeah, still good. So, 00:02:09.939 --> 00:02:16.786 um, why don't you walk us through the actual pregnancy card? OK, so I was 00:02:16.819 --> 00:02:23.457 not. Um, Nauseous at all with my first son. I didn't have morning sickness 00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:28.975 or anything, which was pretty lucky with him. I was sick the entire 9 00:02:29.008 --> 00:02:34.495 months. It was not fun. I think part of it was I was diagnosed with 00:02:34.528 --> 00:02:41.696 gestational diabetes. So before I realized or was tested for that, I was 00:02:41.729 --> 00:02:46.946 just eating whatever I wanted. And I think when my sugar would spike, it 00:02:46.979 --> 00:02:53.906 would make me sick. So I had a lot of of nausea and I never, it was weird 00:02:53.939 --> 00:02:57.505 because one day pineapple would make me feel better and one day pineapple 00:02:57.538 --> 00:03:02.946 would make me feel really sick, so it was very not fun trying to figure 00:03:02.979 --> 00:03:07.536 out what I could eat and not eat and then. Once I was diagnosed with 00:03:07.569 --> 00:03:11.775 gestational diabetes, that cut out all the carbs that were kind of making 00:03:11.808 --> 00:03:16.495 me feel better, so I couldn't eat English muffins or crackers or any of 00:03:16.528 --> 00:03:24.528 that fun stuff. It was, yeah, pretty strict and all of the. Fun sugar 00:03:24.679 --> 00:03:30.646 testing that goes along with that, so. So what does that mean? Um, can you 00:03:30.679 --> 00:03:34.055 give us some specifics about what that actually means for people that 00:03:34.088 --> 00:03:41.207 don't know? Yeah, so gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that only 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:46.126 happens while you're pregnant, and it's basically a hormone induced 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:54.085 diabetes, that means your body isn't able to process sugars in food the 00:03:54.118 --> 00:03:59.446 way your body would normally would. So instead of using the sugars to 00:03:59.479 --> 00:04:05.517 create energy, it kind of just gets stored inside your body and kind of 00:04:05.550 --> 00:04:11.286 creates a toxic environment and makes your blood sugar shoot up too high, 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:16.555 which can cause in really terrible cases, the death of your baby, or it 00:04:16.588 --> 00:04:22.007 can cause your baby to be really large and have heart problems and that 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:28.467 kind of thing. So it's just something that. You, it, it needed to be 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:32.226 controlled. Luckily I didn't have to take medication. I know that some 00:04:32.259 --> 00:04:36.745 women do have to take medication to control the levels, the blood sugar 00:04:36.778 --> 00:04:43.627 levels. So it was, um, yeah, it was not fun cause it was a, there was a 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:49.145 little device that I had to prick my finger with 4 times a day to make 00:04:49.178 --> 00:04:55.406 sure my blood sugar was staying where it needed to. But I'm glad that I 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:01.486 don't have to do that all the time, but it did also help with um keeping 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:06.705 my weight down. I only gained 20 pounds because I couldn't eat anything. I 00:05:06.738 --> 00:05:13.437 like was basically paleo diet, like meat and veggies and nuts as snacks 00:05:13.470 --> 00:05:18.036 and that kind of stuff. So how much did he weigh? He was 7 pounds, 7 00:05:18.069 --> 00:05:22.395 ounces, so he's normal, but I think that was part of it because of the 00:05:22.428 --> 00:05:26.555 diet. Like if I had been like, oh, the diet, whatever, I can eat whatever 00:05:26.588 --> 00:05:30.745 I want, he probably would have been bigger, 00:05:30.778 --> 00:05:37.586 but. You had him and then you were like, I had 10 pounds to lose. Yeah. So 00:05:37.619 --> 00:05:39.606 Yeah. 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.947 Um, OK, so then, um. 00:05:42.980 --> 00:05:46.286 So let's see, is there any other details about the pregnancy that you want 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.437 to mention? 00:05:49.470 --> 00:05:57.067 Um, Um, I worked in an office during my pregnancy, which made it. A little 00:05:57.100 --> 00:06:03.067 difficult. I, I don't know, maybe not. It gave me more structure, so I 00:06:03.100 --> 00:06:07.187 knew when I was supposed to eat and then I, I had a schedule. I would 00:06:07.220 --> 00:06:11.656 leave work and I would work out and all these things and. I was lucky that 00:06:11.689 --> 00:06:17.495 I was able to work out the entire time. I know a lot of moms are not able 00:06:17.528 --> 00:06:23.546 to do that, so that was. Um, helpful emotionally too, I think to be able 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:29.846 to go and like work out some stress or whatever at the gym after work, so. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:34.187 So at what point did you decide like you have a plan, you know, for the 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:42.220 birth? Actually, I knew before I even conceived that it would be natural. 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:49.127 I had tried to do it with my first son, naturally, I did this course 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:54.765 called Hypno Birthing. And I think because of the hospital I gave birth in 00:06:54.798 --> 00:06:58.726 with my first son, it was very clinical. They didn't want. I brought in a 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:01.805 birth plan. They didn't want to stick to the birth plan the whole time we 00:07:01.838 --> 00:07:05.606 were just fighting with them, so I knew I didn't want to give birth there 00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:12.286 again and I didn't want to have it with an OB. I wanted to try it with a 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:20.319 midwife. But my insurance didn't want to pay for the midwife um clinic. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:25.745 There's a um. It's more like you give birth at the center, the birthing 00:07:25.778 --> 00:07:29.745 center. They weren't willing to pay for that, but in the hospital, I ended 00:07:29.778 --> 00:07:34.346 up giving birth and they have a midwife clinic in the hospital. So because 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:40.507 the hospital was in plan, that meant that the midwives were in my plan, 00:07:40.540 --> 00:07:44.467 which was nice, and I didn't have to write a birth plan. I just told them 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:48.546 I wanted to go all natural. They knew everything I wanted before I even 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:55.536 said what I wanted, which was awesome. And I just liked how hands off they 00:07:55.569 --> 00:08:00.015 were. Like if I didn't need something and they didn't try to push me to do 00:08:00.048 --> 00:08:07.817 it and um it was a really great process and I never felt pressured to do 00:08:07.850 --> 00:08:14.887 anything I didn't want to do. So did you meet with them before 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.286 you went to them? So I actually switched from my OB. To the midwife clinic 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:27.325 at around 5 months pregnant. And then they were basically in exchange for 00:08:27.358 --> 00:08:35.358 my OB from there on to my birth. And then the Woman, the midwife that 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:41.895 ended up giving or going through my birth with me, she, I had never 00:08:41.928 --> 00:08:46.775 actually met her before because there were 8 midwives in the clinic, and I 00:08:46.808 --> 00:08:51.336 , I had another midwife, but she was still great. I was still really happy 00:08:51.369 --> 00:08:56.986 with it, so. This is how my son would he couldn't be on my body. He always 00:08:57.019 --> 00:09:02.206 had to be projected like away from me, but still held in emotion. She was 00:09:02.239 --> 00:09:09.336 really funny, but I always get to kiss his back. Yeah. Um, OK, great. 00:09:09.369 --> 00:09:17.369 Let's see, see. 00:09:17.529 --> 00:09:21.057 When you said you didn't like being pregnant before, was it because of the 00:09:21.090 --> 00:09:25.407 throwing up mainly and the nausea? I think I didn't like being pregnant. I 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:31.696 don't, I like being fit and in shape, and I like fitting into my clothes 00:09:31.729 --> 00:09:39.729 and I just don't, I feel gross, you know, I just feel like It's not even 00:09:40.158 --> 00:09:47.025 fat, it's just like. This extra weight on you and it's just annoying. And 00:09:47.058 --> 00:09:52.836 yeah, the being sick all the time and the heartburn and all of that put 00:09:52.869 --> 00:09:57.226 together and just that your clothes that you like don't fit and then you 00:09:57.259 --> 00:10:02.686 have like I feel like. Um, maternity clothes are hideous. So like there's 00:10:02.719 --> 00:10:07.717 no, even the nicest ones are really, I wouldn't choose them over non 00:10:07.750 --> 00:10:13.917 maternity clothes. So I think that's the hard part about it for me like I 00:10:13.950 --> 00:10:20.537 just. I like being a normal size and all that stuff, so it's nice to hear 00:10:20.570 --> 00:10:23.856 that verbally expressed because I think a lot of women feel that way and 00:10:23.889 --> 00:10:27.856 so it's one of the nice things about this archive, you know, um, yeah, and 00:10:27.889 --> 00:10:33.265 it's not vanity, it's just like you're You liked who you were and you 00:10:33.298 --> 00:10:39.116 liked your body before. Exactly, you know, your stuff, 00:10:39.149 --> 00:10:44.177 yeah, that was hard psychologically just seeing that change every day. Um 00:10:44.210 --> 00:10:50.135 , but you didn't put on much weight that you were lucky about that. OK, so 00:10:50.168 --> 00:10:54.375 maybe you can start talking about like when you first knew you were in 00:10:54.408 --> 00:10:59.336 labor or you know with family in town. How did you plan that out? Yeah, so 00:10:59.369 --> 00:11:05.657 with my labor, I'm lucky that my parents live 10 minutes away from me and 00:11:05.690 --> 00:11:11.346 so we knew that they would be watching my 6 year old, but Um, we ended up 00:11:11.379 --> 00:11:16.866 actually, my water broke was the only way I knew I was in labor because I 00:11:16.899 --> 00:11:22.505 had been having mild contractions for the past two weeks before my labor 00:11:22.538 --> 00:11:27.427 broke, and I was dilating the entire time, really slowly, but my water 00:11:27.460 --> 00:11:32.316 hadn't broke, so it was one of those. Don't worry about it. But I did keep 00:11:32.349 --> 00:11:39.125 dilating, so by the time I, my water broke, I was already 56 centimeters. 00:11:39.158 --> 00:11:43.736 So I had been just walking around, going to work, all this stuff being 5 00:11:43.769 --> 00:11:48.765 centimeters dilated because it was like, what else am I gonna do? Sit at 00:11:48.798 --> 00:11:55.336 home, I'm not in labor, so. And I kept thinking, OK, how am I going to 00:11:55.369 --> 00:11:58.456 know? And everyone kept saying, Oh, you'll know, you'll know when you need 00:11:58.489 --> 00:12:02.736 to go to the hospital. And I really didn't. Like I think the only reason I 00:12:02.769 --> 00:12:07.196 went to the hospital was because my water broke. I, if my water hadn't 00:12:07.229 --> 00:12:11.736 broken, I wouldn't have gone to the hospital. I wasn't in active labor. I 00:12:11.769 --> 00:12:17.746 was having contractions, but they weren't regular. They weren't strong. So 00:12:17.779 --> 00:12:23.717 yeah, I, and when I I woke up to my water breaking, but I didn't, it 00:12:23.750 --> 00:12:28.826 wasn't at the bottom of my water sack. It was at the top. So it wasn't 00:12:28.859 --> 00:12:33.226 like a gush. It would just like come out a little bit at a time. So I 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:39.726 wasn't sure if it was just normal fluid or if it was actually my water. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:47.759 And so I had read on the internet that if you Get up, go to the bathroom, 00:12:48.178 --> 00:12:53.467 and then come back and lie down for 5 minutes and then get back up and 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:59.145 water gushes out, then it's your water and not just normal fluid. So I 00:12:59.178 --> 00:13:03.066 tried that and that's what happens and I was like, OK, I think we need to 00:13:03.099 --> 00:13:07.307 start getting ready to go to the hospital. And when I had talked to my 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:11.657 midwife about it the week before, she said, don't, you don't have to rush 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:17.236 , just kind of meander to the hospital. Make sure you get there after your 00:13:17.269 --> 00:13:23.417 water breaks. Um, so my water broke around 4 in the morning. We probably 00:13:23.450 --> 00:13:30.246 got to the hospital around 6 in the morning. And then they checked me in 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:36.967 OB triage, made sure my water broke, and then once that was decided by the 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:42.726 nurses, they moved me into labor and delivery. And I still wasn't 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:49.467 contracting or anything. So I thought, OK, let's go for a walk. By then my 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:54.417 parents had come to pick up my six year old, and we went and walked around 00:13:54.450 --> 00:13:59.505 to the uh cafeteria and then came back up to the room and the midwife came 00:13:59.538 --> 00:14:04.015 in. And she said, I can tell by the fact that you don't want to kill me, 00:14:04.048 --> 00:14:09.196 that you're not in active labor yet. So you're not, you're not ready. So 00:14:09.229 --> 00:14:15.606 let's see what happens. And then in, let's say 6 hours if you're not, if 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:21.436 nothing's changed, we need to talk about options. So yeah, we've just kind 00:14:21.469 --> 00:14:25.866 of sat around. I wasn't contracting really. I mean, I was having 00:14:25.899 --> 00:14:30.226 contractions, but they weren't regular and It just didn't feel like 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:36.157 anything was happening. 00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:40.086 And 00:14:40.119 --> 00:14:48.119 Let's what happened next? Oh, so yeah, so she came in around 11. 00:14:48.298 --> 00:14:54.625 And she checked me and I was still only 6 centimeters, which was really no 00:14:54.658 --> 00:15:00.515 change from when I had come in, and she said, you know what, your water, 00:15:00.548 --> 00:15:04.956 there's still a big piece of water down here. It would change your water 00:15:04.989 --> 00:15:11.525 must have broken at the top of the sack instead of the bottom. 00:15:11.558 --> 00:15:18.765 Hold on. OK, sorry. The water was broken. Yeah, at the top of the sack. So 00:15:18.798 --> 00:15:24.346 she said, OK, maybe if we, if we burst this little bit of water, that'll 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:29.525 help. And she, but she gave me the option. That was the great part about 00:15:29.558 --> 00:15:33.807 working with her, I think, is that everything was always up to me. It 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:38.086 wasn't like, oh, we're definitely going to do this because I think this is 00:15:38.119 --> 00:15:42.895 what we need to do. It was always like. Do you, do you want to do this? 00:15:42.928 --> 00:15:48.635 Because this is, we may progress labor if we, if we get rid of this water 00:15:48.668 --> 00:15:52.765 that's like right above his head, basically. And I said, OK, I don't 00:15:52.798 --> 00:15:56.765 really see any negative of that because my water is already broken. It's 00:15:56.798 --> 00:16:03.316 just broken in different places. So, uh she did break my water. And that 00:16:03.349 --> 00:16:08.515 helped a little bit, but my contractions still weren't very strong. So the 00:16:08.548 --> 00:16:13.586 nurse came in and my nurse was amazing. She was kind of like the doula 00:16:13.619 --> 00:16:20.326 that I didn't have kind of thing. She was just super. Um, sweet and always 00:16:20.359 --> 00:16:26.566 like very nurturing and she is really awesome. And she was like, why don't 00:16:26.599 --> 00:16:31.557 we try the breast pump? Because that'll stimulate oxytocin rather than 00:16:31.590 --> 00:16:36.395 having to give you Pitocin through a drip like this may work. And I was 00:16:36.428 --> 00:16:41.596 also using um an essential oil called Clarisage that's supposed to 00:16:41.629 --> 00:16:47.677 stimulate contractions too. And I think cause all of these things happened 00:16:47.710 --> 00:16:51.586 within like an hour, the breaking of the water and the using of the breast 00:16:51.619 --> 00:16:58.846 pump and everything. And I think all of those together. Really kickstarted 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:05.887 my labor because that was probably around 120 and um within an hour, even 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:10.857 half an hour, I was having regular strong contractions, which was I 00:17:10.890 --> 00:17:16.406 thought amazing that we could kind of do something like that drug free, um 00:17:16.439 --> 00:17:22.726 , and I, I hope they continue to do stuff like that because I think a lot 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:29.266 of moms could benefit from it. Um, yeah, so that was amazing. So then, um 00:17:29.299 --> 00:17:36.426 , and it pretty much as soon as. I, um, started having the regular strong 00:17:36.459 --> 00:17:40.436 contractions. I went into transition, like I went up to 7 centimeters and 00:17:40.469 --> 00:17:46.696 I pretty much just try and like progressed um until around 4, and he was 00:17:46.729 --> 00:17:53.647 born at like 4:30. So, I don't really remember a lot between 1 and 4, it 00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:59.805 was very much like an out of body experience. I, I remember it being 00:17:59.838 --> 00:18:06.887 painful, but it wasn't ever so painful that I felt like I needed any sort 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:12.006 of intervention. It was one of those, like I kept thinking, this can't 00:18:12.039 --> 00:18:19.397 last forever and it's like for, I'm having a baby like. It'll be over and 00:18:19.430 --> 00:18:24.756 then I'll have a baby and then I won't have to worry about it anymore, so. 00:18:24.789 --> 00:18:31.156 Um, but it was, yeah, it was pretty amazing. And I'm, but I'm glad that I 00:18:31.189 --> 00:18:37.035 was in the hospital because after he was born, I lost a lot of blood and 00:18:37.068 --> 00:18:42.575 they ended up having to give me a Pitocin drip to stop the the bleeding. 00:18:42.608 --> 00:18:48.236 So, um, I mean, I had thought about having him at home, but I'm glad that 00:18:48.269 --> 00:18:52.436 I had him in a hospital because kind of a safer environment in case 00:18:52.469 --> 00:18:57.406 something goes wrong, so. Yeah, that makes sense. So when it came to the 00:18:57.439 --> 00:19:02.045 actual labor part, you know, a lot of women who have had their babies in 00:19:02.078 --> 00:19:07.607 the hospital have a real controlled pushing. They're in the stirrups. 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:13.006 They're, you know. Do you know what I mean? So the same as that. So I was 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:19.926 on the bed. I was on a birthing ball until I reached about 8 centimeters 00:19:19.959 --> 00:19:24.647 and then I was on the bed and they would have allowed me to move around to 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:27.926 birth differently, but I didn't want to move. I was just like done. I 00:19:27.959 --> 00:19:33.055 didn't want to do anything. So Um, I ended up, the nurse was holding one 00:19:33.088 --> 00:19:37.496 of my feet and my husband was holding the other, and then they were 00:19:37.529 --> 00:19:41.097 holding my hands. I don't even know how they were doing that. I must have 00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:46.857 been like having my feet in their bicep area or something, or maybe they 00:19:46.890 --> 00:19:50.506 were holding my hands with their other hands. And so then I ended up 00:19:50.539 --> 00:19:58.539 pushing just into their arms and um. The midwife was just like it was very 00:19:58.719 --> 00:20:03.486 classical, like I was lying down pushing and she was just there ready to 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:10.315 catch so and um yeah, I like that because yeah, with my first son, I did 00:20:10.348 --> 00:20:17.137 have stirrups and it was very, yeah, I felt clinical and not as. I didn't 00:20:17.170 --> 00:20:22.397 feel as at home as if I had just been with uh like getting help from other 00:20:22.430 --> 00:20:28.026 people like I did with him, so with with this guy. Did they talk to you 00:20:28.059 --> 00:20:31.585 about um what would happen immediately afterwards like if they would keep 00:20:31.618 --> 00:20:39.618 the umbilical cord. So they did ask, um, but then I think when it cause he 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:44.026 had the cordraped around his neck 3 times. So I think when that kind of 00:20:44.059 --> 00:20:49.446 thing happens, it kind of just turns into let's make sure the baby's OK. 00:20:49.479 --> 00:20:54.575 It's funny because my husband is very afraid of blood and he doesn't, he 00:20:54.608 --> 00:20:58.446 didn't cut the umbilical cord with my first son. He didn't want to do it 00:20:58.479 --> 00:21:03.835 with this one. Um, so I actually ended up cutting the umbilical cord cause 00:21:03.868 --> 00:21:07.847 the midwife was like, well, do you want to do it? I was like, sure, 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:15.880 whatever. So yeah, they took him over the baby over to the heater area, um 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:22.967 , and just made sure that he was breathing OK. Um, and then, um, we, we, 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:29.186 we did, I think we waited 30 seconds or something like that, but, um, yeah 00:21:29.219 --> 00:21:35.676 , we didn't have um. I guess the mom next in the room next to us had had 00:21:35.709 --> 00:21:40.795 what they call a lotus where they leave the placenta attached, like they 00:21:40.828 --> 00:21:48.828 don't cut it at all until it stops. Um, going, so yeah. 00:21:52.140 --> 00:21:57.717 But Um, 00:21:57.750 --> 00:22:03.075 Yeah, it was pretty standard umbilical cord cutting. So then did they put 00:22:03.108 --> 00:22:06.996 him on your chest, and he nurse? Yeah, so they did put him on my chest 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:13.276 right away and that it's interesting just having another baby um the with 00:22:13.309 --> 00:22:19.285 my first son. I don't know whether it was because I had Pitocin and an 00:22:19.318 --> 00:22:24.967 epidural and all those things, um, but I didn't really feel like I bonded 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.607 with my oldest son right away. It was just kind of like, well, that was 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:35.476 long and arduous and now I'm really tired and I have this baby and. I 00:22:35.509 --> 00:22:40.597 never really felt like connected to him until he got a little bit older, 00:22:40.630 --> 00:22:46.476 like a few weeks. But with him it was like right away. I felt like I 00:22:46.509 --> 00:22:54.509 bonded with him and he um and I just was in a really positive mood and 00:22:54.910 --> 00:22:59.627 just like really happy that I had, he had gone through something difficult 00:22:59.660 --> 00:23:07.535 , but that there was such a positive reward to it. And um. Yeah, so he did 00:23:07.568 --> 00:23:11.897 nurse right away. That was actually a positive. I had been using the 00:23:11.930 --> 00:23:16.736 breast pump for a few weeks before he was born, so I was already, I had 00:23:16.769 --> 00:23:21.305 built up a good amount of colostrum. So he nursed probably for 45 minutes 00:23:21.338 --> 00:23:28.436 after he was born. So, and then what they said they now I'm trying to 00:23:28.469 --> 00:23:35.726 think back. Oh, because I had the gestational diabetes after the baby is 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:41.446 born, they have to check their blood sugar levels for the 1st 24 hours. So 00:23:41.479 --> 00:23:46.166 they had, he nursed and then about a half an hour after they had to check 00:23:46.199 --> 00:23:52.006 his blood sugar and then they continued to do that. So, so you were there 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:57.647 for, I think I was there for 24, maybe 30 hours after birth and then they 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:05.680 released us. That's not very long. And honestly, with with this with the 00:24:05.809 --> 00:24:13.809 new baby, I um Feel like my What's the word, rebound or bounce back from 00:24:15.529 --> 00:24:21.166 birth was a lot faster versus, but he, it was the labor was a lot shorter 00:24:21.199 --> 00:24:27.446 too. With my first son, my labor was 30 hours, and with him, I mean, 00:24:27.479 --> 00:24:34.986 active labor was only like 3 or 4 hours, so. Yeah, I felt a lot better and 00:24:35.019 --> 00:24:42.276 like I could. Like get up and do stuff, and yeah, I just felt a lot more 00:24:42.309 --> 00:24:48.676 capable and I felt like I returned to who I was a lot faster, so. Did you 00:24:48.709 --> 00:24:52.387 , um, after you had them, did you feel that kind of endorphin rush at all 00:24:52.420 --> 00:24:56.877 or you know, was the pain just like completely gone? I did feel the 00:24:56.910 --> 00:25:02.756 endorphin rush and then also the afterbirth. Um, I don't know if all moms 00:25:02.789 --> 00:25:08.717 have this, but my afterbirth was pretty painful. So they ended up giving 00:25:08.750 --> 00:25:14.637 me medication for it. Um, I, I don't know if that's because I lost so much 00:25:14.670 --> 00:25:21.976 blood because of it. Um, so yeah, I ended up on, I think it was Tylenol 00:25:22.009 --> 00:25:28.387 with codeine or something like that for 12 hours or so. Um, yeah, because 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:34.746 there was just, um, the afterbirth and all the stuff that comes out like 00:25:34.779 --> 00:25:40.956 it was, that was not super fun. And you um had contractions and pushed 00:25:40.989 --> 00:25:45.835 that out yourself, or did they manually kind of push them out? I did um I 00:25:45.868 --> 00:25:50.357 did have contractions and I pushed it out on my own, but yeah, they had to 00:25:50.390 --> 00:25:58.390 end up giving you Pitocin anyway because of the blood loss, so. 00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:04.127 How was um life when you got home? Life was actually pretty easy after I 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:11.367 got him home. He's a good sleeper and um I maybe it's because it was my 00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:19.065 second baby. I kind of, he's very similar to my older son and I kind of. 00:26:19.098 --> 00:26:25.476 Remembered what I had to do and um all that stuff. The actually the most 00:26:25.509 --> 00:26:30.867 difficult part was the dog. She, it was, I don't know if she was jealous 00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:37.526 or if it was just so new, the, the baby and everything, but I would wake 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:43.506 up at like 2 in the morning to her breathing in my face, just wanting 00:26:43.539 --> 00:26:49.206 attention, and she would do that 2 or 3 times a night. So it wasn't the 00:26:49.239 --> 00:26:54.236 baby waking me up all night long. It was the dog and it was driving me 00:26:54.269 --> 00:27:00.637 crazy. She finally calmed down, but it was the first week or so. I was 00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:08.670 like I cannot handle this. To too hard, but. Yeah, he was, he was a pretty 00:27:09.108 --> 00:27:15.627 good baby. I did um. The pediatrician did say we had to wake him up every 00:27:15.660 --> 00:27:21.785 4 hours to nurse him, so um I did have to do that a couple times. He 00:27:21.818 --> 00:27:28.906 didn't always want to wake up to eat, but. Yeah. I think the other weird 00:27:28.939 --> 00:27:32.867 part was that it wasn't even that he had his days and nights mixed up, as 00:27:32.900 --> 00:27:38.467 I know a lot of babies have that. He just had no schedule. So one day he'd 00:27:38.500 --> 00:27:43.266 wake up at 6 a.m. and the next day he'd wake up at 9:30 and then the next 00:27:43.299 --> 00:27:49.127 day he'd sleep all morning and then. Like it was, it was strange. I don't 00:27:49.160 --> 00:27:53.196 know. Is he on schedule now? Yeah, he's pretty good. He'll wake up at 00:27:53.229 --> 00:27:59.647 around um 3:30 to eat and then he'll go back to sleep and then wake up at 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:07.680 around 7:30. So, but I'm not sure what I want to do because my, my career 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:14.486 , my job, I start work at 5, which means I have to leave my house at like 00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:16.607 4:30. 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:21.357 And I'm not sure if I want to try and put him on a schedule so that he's 00:28:21.390 --> 00:28:29.065 eating before I leave or how I wanna do that. So we'll see how that goes. 00:28:29.098 --> 00:28:36.666 Are you? Yeah. So. But Can you tell us a little bit about the first birth 00:28:36.699 --> 00:28:44.699 ? Sure. Um, so with my first baby, he, the pregnancy was a lot more uh 00:28:47.219 --> 00:28:55.219 benign or um uneventful, but the my labor itself was more difficult, and I 00:28:58.779 --> 00:29:05.877 had just a regular OB. Um, and she ended up stripping my membranes at 39 00:29:05.910 --> 00:29:10.756 weeks, which is where she, they take their fingers and they go and 00:29:10.789 --> 00:29:17.196 separate the lining of the uterus from the, the water sack, and it's 00:29:17.229 --> 00:29:22.835 supposed to stimulate contractions, which it did, um, a little bit. So she 00:29:22.868 --> 00:29:26.526 stripped my membranes on Friday morning and then my water broke on 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.006 Saturday morning. And so we went into the hospital, but I just wasn't 00:29:32.039 --> 00:29:40.039 progressing, so they. Um, ended up putting me on a Pitocin drip. And then 00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:44.276 that got really painful, so they ended up giving me an epidural, which 00:29:44.309 --> 00:29:52.309 ended up slowing down my labor. Um, but Thank goodness I was able to sleep 00:29:52.439 --> 00:29:56.436 and then I ended up dilating and I didn't have to get a C-section or 00:29:56.469 --> 00:30:00.496 anything because they kept threatening that because once you get past the 00:30:00.529 --> 00:30:05.565 24 hour mark, they really don't like you to labor. They're afraid of 00:30:05.598 --> 00:30:13.107 infection or whatever. Um, but it ended up being around 30 hours. And I 00:30:13.140 --> 00:30:18.006 pushed for a really long time. I think I must have pushed for 4 hours 00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:24.565 because my epidural was so strong, I couldn't feel what was going on. And 00:30:24.598 --> 00:30:30.085 I think the only reason I didn't have a C-section is because the nurse who 00:30:30.118 --> 00:30:35.377 ended up delivering him. Um, she turned my epidural off. She's like, 00:30:35.410 --> 00:30:38.406 You're not going to like me for this, but this is the only way you're not 00:30:38.439 --> 00:30:42.486 going to have a C-section. Like, we need to turn this off and you need to 00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:47.406 start pushing and figuring out like what's going on. So, yeah, within her 00:30:47.439 --> 00:30:53.887 two hours of her turning the epidural off, he was born. So was it like 00:30:53.920 --> 00:31:00.147 instant pain? You know what, it really wasn't, and I think the The pushing 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:05.226 allowed me to focus, versus maybe if she had done it while I was just in 00:31:05.259 --> 00:31:09.305 labor when I wasn't ready to push, that would have been terrible. But the 00:31:09.338 --> 00:31:14.107 fact that I was already pushing and that he was already descending down 00:31:14.140 --> 00:31:20.055 the birth canal, it wasn't as terrible. But I did feel like in that 00:31:20.088 --> 00:31:24.946 instance, I was in a different hospital. And it was a hospital that tends 00:31:24.979 --> 00:31:29.815 to like all the high risk and multiple births go to this hospital, so I 00:31:29.848 --> 00:31:36.647 think. That they see more of those and then they view all births as a 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:42.656 possible issue like everything's high risk, so. And I think like I would 00:31:42.689 --> 00:31:46.785 say things like, oh my hips hurt. And instead of the nurse being like, oh 00:31:46.818 --> 00:31:50.976 , maybe we can do something about that. She'd be like, no, I don't think, 00:31:51.009 --> 00:31:56.176 I think you're just feeling it wrong. Like, no, your, your hips don't hurt. 00:31:56.209 --> 00:31:59.045 This is what you should be feeling. So this is what you're feeling. I'm 00:31:59.078 --> 00:32:03.217 like, no, they're not. That's weird. I know. So there was just a big 00:32:03.250 --> 00:32:11.250 disconnect between me and the nurses and the doctor and everything. So, um. 00:32:12.809 --> 00:32:16.897 Yeah, that was a much harder rebound, and I don't know if it was because 00:32:16.930 --> 00:32:22.535 it was my first baby. And so I didn't know what to expect and my body 00:32:22.568 --> 00:32:27.776 didn't really know what it was doing and all that stuff, but um it took a 00:32:27.809 --> 00:32:32.976 lot longer to feel like myself again and to not be totally exhausted all 00:32:33.009 --> 00:32:40.065 the time. And whereas with this baby, I I had a like the adrenaline rush 00:32:40.098 --> 00:32:46.467 for a couple days, um, where I didn't feel tired at all and then um he 00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:49.617 started sleeping well. So then by the time I ended up getting really tired 00:32:49.650 --> 00:32:56.446 , I was able to sleep and that kind of stuff, so. Were the um Pitocin 00:32:56.479 --> 00:32:58.597 contractions very different than the natural ones because I had the 00:32:58.630 --> 00:33:04.246 Pitocin one. They were, it was really different. So with the Pitocin 00:33:04.279 --> 00:33:10.127 contractions, it was like that sharp pain and it's, I think part of it is 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:14.446 the fact that it's not your body doing it. It's like this. Foreign 00:33:14.479 --> 00:33:20.496 substance that's creating these fake hormones in you that's causing the 00:33:20.529 --> 00:33:26.137 the contractions, um, versus the natural ones were almost like an ebb and 00:33:26.170 --> 00:33:33.416 flow rhythm. Like because the body is working to create the contractions. 00:33:33.449 --> 00:33:39.055 It's almost like I knew that they were coming before it was going to 00:33:39.088 --> 00:33:47.088 happen and then that allowed Me to focus on working, um, working with the 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:55.166 contraction to help um progress the labor. So it was still really painful 00:33:55.199 --> 00:34:02.766 , but it was definitely not as painful as the Pitocin ones, and it was 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:10.236 more of a feeling of like I knew that what was happening was actually Not 00:34:10.269 --> 00:34:15.595 even supposed to be happening, but that I knew that it was helping like 00:34:15.628 --> 00:34:20.287 with the baby and progressing the labor and everything. So it was easier 00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:26.517 to take them versus the Pitocin ones were just so bam bam bam that there's 00:34:26.550 --> 00:34:30.916 , I just felt like there was no choice but to have an epidural because it 00:34:30.949 --> 00:34:37.276 was so painful that was just ridiculous, so. Yeah, I had no drill at like 00:34:37.309 --> 00:34:42.977 4 centimeters with ones I was just like, no. Yeah, um, can you talk about 00:34:43.010 --> 00:34:47.497 how the hypno birthing came into play during the process? So we tried to 00:34:47.530 --> 00:34:54.977 use hypno birthing, um, and we did like the, I sat on a birthing ball and 00:34:55.010 --> 00:35:01.095 mostly it was, we tried to use it. At the beginning of the labor to try 00:35:01.128 --> 00:35:08.017 and make me dilate, cause I was not dilating with my first son at all. And 00:35:08.050 --> 00:35:13.816 yeah, and then we tried to do some visual exercises and that kind of stuff 00:35:13.849 --> 00:35:20.217 , but nothing really worked, like nothing was helping me dilate and I 00:35:20.250 --> 00:35:25.776 don't know if part of it was that um. My husband and I had only been 00:35:25.809 --> 00:35:30.405 married about 2 years, um, and I don't know if it's like we still didn't 00:35:30.438 --> 00:35:38.217 really feel entirely comfortable with each other. And so trying to use 00:35:38.250 --> 00:35:41.655 something like hypno birthing with someone that you don't always 00:35:41.688 --> 00:35:47.896 communicate with well, it didn't, it just didn't work. So yeah, I, for me 00:35:47.929 --> 00:35:54.916 personally, hypno birthing was not helpful with that birth, so. Maybe with 00:35:54.949 --> 00:35:58.155 the new birth, it would have been different because we're in a different 00:35:58.188 --> 00:36:03.396 place and then I was also in a different place as a person and it was my 00:36:03.429 --> 00:36:07.436 second baby, so my body kind of knew more what to do. It could have helped 00:36:07.469 --> 00:36:12.546 , but. I tried the hypno birthing thing too, yeah, well, and with the 00:36:12.579 --> 00:36:16.945 pitos and stuff it was just you know amount of exactly, it's not gonna, 00:36:16.978 --> 00:36:23.626 yeah, it didn't. Well I think this is great. I, um, is there any way you 00:36:23.659 --> 00:36:28.865 can think of like a word or a grouping of words that could like summarize 00:36:28.898 --> 00:36:33.856 or describe your experience because we're separating these into themes. 00:36:33.889 --> 00:36:41.889 Um. 00:36:42.989 --> 00:36:50.989 Let's you can take your time. 00:36:52.728 --> 00:37:00.728 This totally brings me back. 00:37:00.878 --> 00:37:05.865 My arms are so buff. 00:37:05.898 --> 00:37:09.327 I know, right? You get the totals, right? 00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:17.360 I guess um if it were to be like a small group of words, it would be um 00:37:17.458 --> 00:37:23.546 just things in their own time, because I felt like with my first son, I 00:37:23.579 --> 00:37:29.456 kind of Rushed and I just wanted the baby to be born, which I mean, I 00:37:29.489 --> 00:37:34.336 wanted him to be born too, but um it was very much like I was maybe 00:37:34.369 --> 00:37:39.095 willing to do things that like to induce some things like that that 00:37:39.128 --> 00:37:44.936 probably didn't help me in the long run, versus with him um just letting 00:37:44.969 --> 00:37:50.747 things in their own natural time happen. Um, I think gave me a better 00:37:50.780 --> 00:37:58.780 labor and a um a more calm experience and a better experience, so. That's 00:37:59.070 --> 00:38:03.539 great, yeah. Well I think we're good.