Isaac arrived after 39 hours labour

CopperT0p · January 2014

Short version:

After 39 hours of labour Isaac was born via VBAC with induction meds and an epi. In the end he slid out on his own.

Long Version:

This past Saturday (Jan 10th) I was sitting on the couch at 8:20pm after DH's huge family potluck. This was the last event on our schedule before my EDD (Jan 18th). All of a sudden I had a sharp period type pain then felt a gush so I jumped off the couch (as fast as a 9 month pregnant lady can) and ran over to the tile by the back door to get off our carpet. DH was sitting beside me at the time playing a video game on our TV. I said "my water is breaking" as I ran in front of him and he went "oh sh*t".

I immediately called my parents so they could pack up and come down to our house to look after DS1. I had wanted a home birth so I needed somebody to watch him so DH could look after me. I called my midwife to let her know and she was fine with me labouring at home until my contractions hit 5-1-1 or they weren't bearable. Contractions started after my water broke, they started out about 20 min apart, then by 9am they were bouncing between 5-10 min apart and were starting to become very painful. All contractions I had during labour I felt in my lower abdomen, like where period cramps would be.

I spoke to my midwife at 10am and she said we should go into the hospital for a NST by noon to make sure baby was doing well. The NST was fine, but a vaginal exam found I was 90% effaced and only 1cm dilated. I thought for sure I would be further dilated because the pain had become extremely intense. My midwife suggested the OB might let me have a shot of morphine before going home. I wanted to try that because I was hoping to get some rest since I didn't sleep at all the night before. It turns out the OB on call was not comfortable with that and would only let me have a shot of morphine if I was admitted. I decided I would go back home and try to labour more at home. My midwife gave me a shot of gravol so I could sleep. I was able to get a 2 hour nap in then around 7pm my midwife came by to check me again. I was still the same 1cm and nearly fully effaced. At that point we decided I should go into the hospital since I couldn't handle the pain anymore and DH was getting worried about me being in labour for so long with a VBAC.

We got to the hospital at 8:30pm after putting DS1 to bed. It took until 10pm for them to have an L&D room ready for us since it was a full house. The OB on call was busy with 2 c-sections so I didn't see her and get the OK for pain meds until 11:45pm. At that point I still had not made any progress so they suggested I go on induction meds. That made the contractions so much more intense I felt like passing out. We tried a shot of morphine, but that did nothing but make me drowsy. Then we tried laughing gas which just made me light headed. Finally I asked for an epidural and it was put in around 1:30am. By 3am I had progressed to 3cm. Then at 9am I was at 9cm and +1 station. Shortly after that I was feeling a lot of pressure and mentioned this to the nurses. I told them I felt like I had to take the biggest BM of my life. They said it was pressure from the baby moving down. My midwife arrived at 10:45am as I was prepared to start pushing. I pushed for 45 minutes. They said I was making great progress. Then all of a sudden with one push everybody told me to stop. I stopped pushing and the nurses went running for the OB on call who should have caught the baby according to hospital rules because I had an epi.

My midwife and her student stayed and watched me while the nurses left the room. All of a sudden they jumped and pressed their hands on what was baby's head because he was sliding out without me intentionally pushing. The OB walked in just then and said they could catch the baby. So they let him be born and out came DS2 crying.

I had skin to skin time with him for about half an hour, then DH took his shirt off and had some of his own skin to skin. He really wanted this, he wasn't able to do this with DS1 and was adamant he would get the chance this time. I had a couple of abrasions and a 2nd degree tear that my midwife stitched up.

We named him Isaac Thomas and he was 7lb 11oz and 21inches long. He's been a breastfeeding champ and much calmer than DS1.

Here's a pic of him at 2 days old.