My VBAC story!

Aimlc1281 · May 2012

Andrew Thomas was born Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 7:47 pm. He weighs 7 lbs 5 oz and is 20.5 inches long.

On Friday, May 25th contractions started right before DS's nap around 1:00. The contractions came every 15 minutes and were painful but manageable at that point. Around 2:00 I called DH at work. He had just been given the option to leave work at 2:15 due to the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. By the time DH came home, contractions were every five minutes and lasting for one minute. We made the decision to head to the hospital. We called MIL and asked her to come takeDS . By the time she arrived, contractions were coming every 3 minutes and were getting fairly painful.

After arriving at the hospital, we were instructed to sit in the waiting room until a nurse could assist us. We sat for a miserable hour as the contractions intensified but began to space out. After being checked in the triage room, it was determined that I remained 2 cm dilated, just as I had been at my previous appointment on Monday. We were sent home that night with orders to keep my doctor's appointment for Tuesday and return to the hospital when the contractions were more intense. I was crushed and feeling extremely defeated. In my mind, if I wasn't experiencing labor just now, I didn't know what I could handle!

Contractions continued all night long ranging from 3 to 15 minutes apart. I couldn't even attempt to sleep laying down so I tried the rocking chair. I spent the night and much of the morning in an enormous amount of pain and slept very little. However, I was terrified to return to the hospital just to be told to go back home.

Around 1:00 on Saturday, we decided to go back to hospital expecting to be sent home again. We thought it would be wiser to be spent back home around 4:00 as opposed to 9:30 like the night before. Contractions had really slowed down and were anywhere from 10-15 minutes apart and felt relatively weak. In fact, we stopped to get ice cream before going to the hospital.

When we returned to the hospital, yet again, I was given a room in labor and delivery immediately rather than in the waiting room because triage was full. I was checked fairly early where it was determined that I was dilated 5-6 cm! From there, everything seemed to go so quickly! I was immediately given an epidural and the doctor broke my water around 4:30 to place an internal monitor on baby. I was check again around 6:45 pm and was dilated 8 cm.

My dad and step mom arrived around this time but weren't able to stay long in the room. Almost as soon as they got there, I felt an incredible amount of pressure. When checked, I was AC (almost complete.) Literally two minutes later, my doctor returned to the room, checked, and said it was time to push!!!! After just a few pushes, baby's heart rate started to drop and I became terrified that another c-section was in the future. Instead the doctor used forceps and Andrew arrived quickly after.

I ended up with a second degree tear but overall, delivery and recovery has been so much better with the VBAC. I've been asked several times already which method I prefer and I say, without a doubt, VBAC. Best of luck to you all!

cchill01 · May 2012

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing. One of my biggest fears is being sent home from the hospital for failure to make progress. That must be disappointing. I've never experienced a normal early labor, so I don't know how much pain you're supposed to be in to be making progress.

Twizzle · May 2012

Congratulations! I also have a fear of being sent home due to no progress, but so glad to hear that your body finally kicked in and started going quickly! Great story.