A little late... My successful vbac2 birth story :)

Luvmy2sons · May 2012

I felt like I was never going to write this since I went overdue! It's been a little over a week, so forgive me... but I just wanted to share for all the vbac hopefuls who cross that "over the EDD line" and think it will never happen...

So Tuesday, I went for my 40+4 appointment and ultrasound. Everything looked great, and even before I saw my midwife she saw me in the hall and said, "Me and You, Induction, 7am! Be there, or be square." I was so excited, but all that came out of me was, "OMG i'm petrified!" It wasn't just an induction, it was a slow pitocin induction with an AROM (artificial rupture of membranes) since I am a vbac. So I had my appointment, my midwife gave me the once over, answered every single of my even sometimes ridiculous questions and then said, "One last membrane sweep." I figured, eh, whatever. None of the other 2 worked. So she checked me, I was 3cm and went from 0% effaced to 80% effaced in a week. I knew that was good. So she swept me, and it was super painful. She also left me saying, "You know when any of the OB's or other midwives need someone in labor, they ask for me to sweep them." I just laughed. Well, I started having contractions within an hour. These weren't "hmm are these real" contractions, these were real. But they weren't lasting any longer than 20-30 seconds. I knew that I was in early labor, but knew they had to get longer before I should head in. So I walked, I played with my DS's, I jumped, cleaned, you name it, I did it. The contractions spaced out, they got close, and spaced out again. So I called my midwife. She told me that they would spread apart, probably stop, and then I would just wake up in full blown labor. I just figured, whatever happened I would be in for an induction in the morning. So just like she said, around 11pm, the contractions stopped. I showered and had nothing. So I went to bed. 1am, I shot up out of bed, and said, OMG this is a real contraction. I ran to the bathroom, threw up, and then sat on the LOO for a while. I knew I was in labor. The contractions were a minute to a minute and a half long, and started at 10 minutes apart. Within 20 minutes they were at 7, 10 minutes later, 5, and then next thing I knew they were 3-4 minutes apart. I called my mom and dad and said, "Code pink!" and they headed over. It took 15 minutes for them to get there, and by now I was about 3 minutes apart, lasting a minute and a half. My mom hopped in the car with DH and I and we went to the hospital. We got there at 2:40am. The nurses were waiting for me, my midwife had me admitted over the phone, so I went right into a room. I no sooner got changed, laid down, monitor on, and there were 3 nurses in there, flipping me on my side and throwing oxygen on my face. The baby wasn't handling the end of the contractions, at all. I started to panic. Lost focus of my breathing and really just felt out of control. The contractions were right on top of each other and all I could do was lay on my side. It was awful being confined to the bed. And even worse being confined to my sides. My midwife came in, and checked me. I was 4-5cm. She broke my water. All of a sudden, I said, OMG I have to PUSH. And my body started trembling. My midwife checked me again and said that the baby went from -2 station to +2, skipped everything in between, and that's what the pressure/pushing was. This is when I also found out there was meconium in my water. So NICU would be present. I tried to relax, but I was losing control of myself and I hated it. I asked for an epidural. It took him 30 minutes to get in. Then it took him FIVE sticks, and 30 minutes to get my epidural in. My contractions at this point were 2 minutes apart. And I had to sit, hunched over, oxygen on, while he tried to put it in. When he finally got it, I got relief from the contractions. But then the pressure hit. BAD. I couldn't do anything now except lay there. My body shook uncontrollably with each contraction from the pressure. My mom was there, and was amazing at helping me stay focused. All my nurse said was "You tell me when it's worse than the last one." I would. She checked me. 7cm. 10 minutes later, 9cm. 5 minutes later I said, I can't stop I have to push. She checked me, said, you are STILL at 9 cm, and I said, "Ask my midwife if I can push through it." My miidwife came right in, gave me a few tugs and said, OK, let's go you're complete. She stretched me to a solid 10. It took me 15 minutes to go from 7cm to 10cm and the baby's head was right there. I started pushing, not because I wanted to, but my body just did it. One contraction down, 3 pushes. Then there was a flood of people in my room. I had no idea what was going on. I looked at my midwife and she was the same as she was. I couldn't read her face. She was calm, cool, and collected. The nurses moved my DH from my side, and my mom stepped back. My midwife looked up at me and said, "You will push this baby out RIGHT NOW, do you understand me?" And with that, my contraction popped up, and I pushed harder than I ever had. 2 huge pushes, and my contraction died, but the midwife yelled for me to push. Next thing I knew, 2 nurses had their elbows out and what literally seemed like a WWF slam onto my belly and out came baby. Since there was meconium they told me I wouldn't hear her cry because they don't stimulate so she doesn't aspirate it. My mom just kept reassuring me, DH kept crying and saying how proud he was. Then I heard her cry. I got stitched up (no outside tears, just a few inside) and my baby was being given oxygen and monotired. It turns out, her shoulder got stuck. ALOT. Hense the jumping on me. And she was blue. So blue she was purple. Her entire, tiny body. My mom, midwife, husband never said a thing because they didn't want me to lose focus and she needed to come out, right then and there. My midwife never even skipped a beat. She was amazing. Baby Kailynn came into the world at 8lb. 6oz, 21 inches on May 2, and had alot of facial bruising because of her super fast entrance into the world. She also has 2 broken blood vessels in her eyes (not huge, just little) from the struggle. But she's perfect. It took 5 hours from the start of my labor to her arrival. I had her before I was even scheduled to be in the hospital for my induction! She's doing great now. Her face is still bruised, but it is going away quickly. She's breastfeeding well, but between my inverted nipples and her being slightly tounge tied... we're using a nipple shield to help us. I know I probably forgot stuff... it's the first time I wrote all this down in 3 days! My labor was super fast, scary, crazy, exciting, and it was SO many emotions wrapped into one. I am just SO thankful that she is okay, and we are SO blessed to finally have her here!