Successful VBAC!
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my successful VBAC story. I lurked often on this board and asked a few questions. I know that reading others' stories was great for me so I thought I should post mine.
My first C/S was after 30+ hours of labor when DS had not descended and was having multiple heartrate decels. I had dilated to 10 and he was only 6.5 lbs (I'm very small), so my OB's were all very supportive of VBAC this time around. This delivery was almost exactly 2.5 years after my first delivery.
Two days before my EDD I felt contractions all day that gradually increased in intesity. I had stayed home from work and when DH got home we put DS in the jogging stroller and went out for a walk. We ended up walking over 2 miles! I was timing my contractions the whole time with an app on my phone. They were consistently 4 minutes apart when we got home but then I got in the shower and they slowed to almost 8 minutes apart. We took DS to my IL's house before bedtime so we wouldn't have to wake him in the middle of the night if this was really it. We came back home and cleaned up a bit. By 11pm I was back to 5 minutes apart and knew this was really it. I called my OB and we went to the hospital just after midnight.
At the hospital I was monitored for a while and admitted. My contractions were consistent at 4 minutes but not very intense. I was only dilated to a 3 after two hours so my OB and I decided to break my water. This worked to intensify the contractions. I wanted to wait for the epi because I really wanted to be able to walk and move around. I was so afraid of DD not descending like last time. My L&D nurse was amazing! She had her own VBAC years before and was so supportive and calm. I ended up laboring all night in a wooden rocking chair (covered with pads since I was leaking fluid!) and pacing to the bathroom every so often. In the early morning the pain was really wearing me out and I decided to get the epi. Afterwards I was checked and was only at a 5. I started to panic thinking I wasn't going to progress but DH and my nurse convinced me to rest and see what happened next. I was actually able to sleep a little, thanks to the white noise app on my phone that I use to help DS nap when we're not at home!
I woke up from my nap several times with the shakes but would breath through it and go back to sleep. At one point I started to feel a lot of pain in my cervix and decided to increase the epi a bit. After just two hours of resting my OB checked and I was at 10 and DD was very low and engaged! We started pushing at 10 am. For a while things were very calm and then suddenly my room was full of activitiy! DD was crowning faster than expected. My OB and I had already discussed that he would probably do a vacuum assist because he wanted to shorten the last stage of pushing in order to not have extreme pressure on my incision for too long. I was still feeling good and talking with everyone when suddenly on one push I felt intense pain! I was shocked and had not been prepared for my epi to not work fully. The contractions were on top of each other and my OB was telling me that it was a "tight fit" for DD coming around my pelvic arch and he needed me to push with everything I had. I was yelling in pain and trying to use breathing techniques between contractions to get my focus back. It was really intense but after just a few pushes DD's head was out. I felt a huge relief and with one more push she was born!
As she came out my OB looked at me in shock and said "What happened? I thought you made little babies!?" When he held her up I couldn't believe how big she was!
Because there was merconium in my fluid I was only able to see her for a second before they moved her to a table across the room for suction. DH went with her and everything went perfectly. As the nurses called out her vitals I was stunned. It turns out my VBAC baby was 8 pounds with a 90th percentile head! When they brought her to me for skin to skin she was so awake and alert! I held her on my chest and in just a few minutes she scooted herself over and started breastfeeding like a champ!
I had second degree tearing and my OB spent a while stitching me up - after giving me some numbing injections since the epi was no help there apparently! I felt so calm and peaceful after delivery. It was such a dramatically different experience from last time. I was up walking around a few hours later, able to eat as soon as I got to my room, and went home the next day just over 24 hours after delivery! My stitches and tailbone were sore and it was hard to rest too much with a toddler to run after. I took Vicodin for a few days but I can honestly say that by two weeks after delivery I was 90% recovered. DH and I kept talking about how different this was from my first delivery. I am so glad I tried for a VBAC and think there just may be another one in my future!
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