VBAC Birth Story

Shemico

On Monday February 14 (37w1d) I had diarea all day and by dinner time I was pretty nauseous (note to others, eating dinner was a bad idea).

By 9 pm started having contracts, irregular but painfull.

By 11 pm they were every 10 minutes and quickly progressed from there.

By 230/3am (now Feb 15) they were about every 3 minutes and I was not coping well with the pain.

We called my parents to watch DD and got to the hospital around 4.

In the assessment room I was only 1 cm dilated but having very strong contractions. My dr. decided I should be kept do to the strength and consistency of the contractions. I threw up my dinner shortly thereafter.

I was admitted with continuous monitoring (due to VBAC) and my dr. checked me again at 630 am ish. I had only progressed to 1.5cm.

My dr. decided to come back at lunch time to check me again. I was still 1.5 cm. At this point as I was a VBAC candidate the ob on call was consulted. It was recommended that my water be broken to push me over into active labour and that was done at 1:30pm.

By 3pm the pain was intense and right on my tail bone.  I decided it was too much and I requested an epidural.

When my dr. came back to check me around 5:00pm?, I had progressed to 3cm, was having regular contractions and was in active labour.

The on call dr. came by to check me at 630pm and to everyones surprise I was between 8 and 9 cm and 100% effaced.

I was feeling quite a bit of pressure and was checked again at 7pm and was at 9cm with only a slight lip.

At 8/9pm  I was at 10 cm but the baby was still a bit high at -2 so we waiting longer. At my next check at around 10 pm the baby was -1 (still on the high side) and it was decided that pushing would start in about an hour.

A few practice pushes later her head was moving down so it was decided I would push. I could feel lots of pressure from the contractions and during pushing but no pain. Luckily my epidural was light enough that I could move onto my side to push which ended up being the more productive position.

Things are a bit blurry at this point. At 12:52am on February 16 Lorelei Hannah was born.  Despite the epidural,  it was painful. She had to be taken to the wamer right away and didn?t cry right away. But she was healthy after a quick check and some suction. We went skin to skin and about an hour later as I was being transferred to the mom & baby room she breast fed for the first time.

Thanks to my wonderful nurse I didn?t have any tearing and am just achey and sore.

EDIT: I had a bunch of plans to help labour get going but hadn't had the chance to let them kick in. I started evening primrose oil orally that am and rassberry leaf tea the day before so I doubt they had long enough to do much. We also had sex the night before.

AGFaso

Beautiful story (as is your daughter!) thank you for sharing!!

KtotheYtotheM

Congrats on VBac.. I love your daughters name-gorgeous! 

jcsntms06

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter.