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Birth Stories
"Team Green" VBAC (LONG)
This is a REALLY long post, but the short of it is that after a long labor (over 14 hours of active labor, 36 hours of total labor and with a leaking bag of waters) I had my beautiful 8 pound, 5 ounce baby boy on December 24. Feel free to skip the rest of the story unless you want all the details! 
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Quick background: With my 1st child I had hoped for a med-free birth. I slept through my early labor, woke up to my bag of waters partially breaking. Got to the hospital at 6.5 cms. OB decided I needed the rest of my waters ruptured (the part in front of the baby). Labor progressed quickly to 10 cms. Pushed for an hour, and OB said my DD was ?stuck? and I needed a CS. Our stats were fine so I begged for more time. After a total of 2.5 hours of pushing I consented to a CS., at which time they waited until I could get an epidural placed. On 12/30/08 my 8 pound, 7 ounce 21.5 inch baby girl was born. She was ?just too big? for my small frame. After further research I feel I had an unneeded CS, since DD was not positioned well, and really hoped for a V-BAC the next time around. Total time in labor to delivery: 8 hours .
This time around, about 2 years later, I was more prepared. Took Bradley classes, hired a doula (who kept track of the times & changes for me?otherwise this story would be all over the place!) and changed practices to a midwifery group with a back up OB. The other practice kept telling me ?your pelvis is so small?, ?Second babies are often larger.?
For a week prior to my actual delivery day, I was having
contractions every night, for a few hours, 2-5 minutes apart. So, I didn?t actually think I was in
labor and went to work on 12/23. I
thought my water may have been trickling that morning, but I wasn?t sure, so I
called the midwives after work when I had a slightly larger gush.
They had me go and get checked, we were SO sure that I wouldn?t be
admitted but lo and behold I was 4 CM, 100% effaced, and my water HAD been trickling all day... so they were keeping me. Called the sitters and let them know.
We relaxed for a while., I tried to sleep some while the contractions were mild. At about 1 AM the contractions started to really pick up in intensity and I was a solid 6 CM by 2am (at which point they put my Heplock in, since I was now in active labor). I was trying many things for pain management- hands/knees, sitting on the birth ball, the glorious wonderful HOT HOT shower (a suggestion by my doula).
About 5:30 AM I was exhausted (24 hours since I woke up for work). I figured I MUST be close and requested to be checked. I was ?only? (my words at the time) 8.5 CM. I felt super defeated. The midwife suggested some Nubain to take the edge off. It was a great choice for me at that time, allowed me to rest in between contractions and work through them much better.
At about 9:00 AM I felt the urge to push. The midwife was delivering another baby at the time, so I just went with my body. After an hour of pushing, midwife came in. Baby had STILL not dropped, and I still had a tiny lip of cervix and a bulging bag of water in front of the baby?s head. She suggested breaking the water, but I was SO scared to do that given that it sounded too familiar to my last delivery (hindsight being what it is, I totally should have had her do this, I imagine it would have allowed my cervix to fully dilate. ) This was at 10 AM (28.5 hours awake) I told them ?I?m done, I?m not doing this anymore.? At this point I requested an epidural, and by 10:30 AM it was complete.
My DH and I both slept from 11 AM ? 1:30 PM, it was SO the best nap ever. At this point the bag had STILL not broken, so I agreed to let them break it. It took 2 tries, and it gushed everywhere- the midwife asked if I had an ark hidden up there too. I promptly fell back asleep until about 3:30 PM.
Pushing (again) began at 4 PM. My little boy was OA, but his head was positioned in such a way that it wasn?t molding like it should. They tried turning him manually, but no luck. After about an hour of this I agreed to an episiotomy, which tore further (3rd degree total), but another two pushes and baby was OUT!
5:25 PM on 12/24 our beautiful , stubborn, hard-headed baby boy was born-. 8 Pounds, 5 Ounces, 20 inches long and with a head circumference almost a full inch larger than his big sister! Total time in labor if you count work: 36 hours (but I really only count active labor?so 14.5 hours)?so much for a shorter 2nd labor!
I?m so happy I was able to have a VBAC. Even with the episiotomy and tear my healing was MUCH easier than with my C-section and I had a ?standard? healing from that. I was able to be up and walking around immediately, able to hold my baby boy right away, and I was able to hold and snuggle my 2 year old DD.
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Re: "Team Green" VBAC (LONG)
What a great story! I am glad you stuck to your gut feelings.