My accidental/failed vbac attempt

Gipper0809 · October 2011

Hi girls

I had decided about 3 weeks ago to go with a rcs after major flip flopping on my decision. I felt it was best for me and my family even though I was super nervous about another c/s. It was scheduled for 10/13.

The morning of 10/10 I was having timable contractions. I was actually annoyed because I had spent the weekend at a conference and wanted a day to relax and reconnect with my DD. So much for that plan! My water broke around 11am and the contractions started coming fast and furious very quickly after that. My mom came to get my DD and me to drive me to the hospital as my husband works an hour away. He met us there and my mom took DD with her to spend the day/night.

My contractions were instantly painful and coming every 2 minutes. Of course the first question everyone asked me is if I just wanted to head right into my c/s but I decided to go for the VBAC since things were happening well on their own. I had the support of my doctors so we went for it. That was at 1 pm. I managed to wait until about 6 pm before getting the epi. Natural labor is not for me and I loved my anesthesiologist!

Somewhere around 8 pm, I spiked a fever and my little man's heart rate skyrocketed. At 12 am, my dr. said I had an hour to show some progress (I had stalled at 7 cm for 3 hours) or I was headed into surgery because she didnt' like how long the baby's heart rate had been high. 1 am, nothing and the c/s was called.

The surgery went well and Lincoln Samuel was born healthy and screaming. 9 lbs 2 ozs. and 21 1/4 inches. He's adorable and chubby! Things were going well in recovery and I was sent down to the post partum/mom/baby floor. Somewhere around 4:30 am I started hemorraging and my room was suddenly filled with about 8 people. (this gets a little graphic, so be warned) I had 3 nurses practically on top of me pushing on my stomach and my doctor was elbow deep manually extracting clots our of my uterus. It was more pain than I had had in labor and my sweet dh just sat in the corner of my room crying and trying to hold it together. I was screaming in pain and had no idea how serious of a situation it really was. DH told me that he couldn't look at the doctors/nurses because they looked so concerned that it freaked him out. After what seemed like an eternity, the chaos subsided and the bleeding stopped. Which is good because they had threatened a return to the OR and even mentioned a hysterectomy at one point. Not a good moment for me.

My blood levels were low and the next morning they decided to give me a blood transfusion. That was scary for its own reasons but it's the only thing that was going to help me regain my strength. It worked almost instantly and I felt like a new woman.

They kept me an extra day to make sure that everything stayed stable. I am so thankful for my doctors and the amazing nurses who took care of me. They made my stay so pleasant even in the midst of chaos and complications. My little man is so perfect and we are so in love with him. DD loves him too but is super emotional right now and doesn't understand why mom can't pick her up, wrestle, "walk faster", etc.

I'm glad I tried for the VBAC after all. I felt like I really gave it a shot but it wasn't meant to be. Thank you, ladies, for all of your insight and advice--it was invaluable to me.

manbearpig31610 · October 2011

Goodness, what a story! I'm SO sorry you had to go through all that. It sounds terrible! On the positive side, I am glad you are feeling better and your LO is absolutely PRECIOUS!! Hope you have a speedy recovery. Enjoy that sweet little guy