VBAC birth story (2 years later)

My DS is almost 2 years old, but I thought I'd share now anyway.

I went to the hospital on Thursday 12/6 with contrax 5 min apart for about 4 hours. Only 1cm dilated still having regular contractions but no changes after 7 hours in triage so I asked to go home. The midwife and nurses expected to see me back within the day because I was what they considered in "early active" labor.

Friday comes and goes, still having regular contractions every 3-5 min that are painful. I had a Midwife appt on Friday late afternoon and couldnt drive myself, so DH took me. I was still only 1cm. I went home and tried to rest the best I could.

Saturday 12/8 I continued to have regular contrax all day and around 7pm I began to vomit. This continued until I decided to head to the hospital around 1:30am Sunday, hoping desperately for some progress.

2am Sunday 12/9 :Upon arriving at the hospital, my contrax were about 2 min apart and I was 3 cm dilated. Yay! So I was admitted and got to my room. My nurses and midwives knew I didn't want any drugs so they were really great about helping me cope in other ways. I was in the bath, on the birth ball, walking etc. I wasnt using the bed at all so I told DH to take a nap in it while I was in the tub. I wanted one of us to be rested and lucid! 6am Sunday: After laboring for several hours my contrax started to slow down. Midwife suggested nipple stimulation and walking. This really worked and contrax were again about 3 min apart.

9am Sunday: Cervical Check: still only about 4 - 4.5 cm dilated. Bummer. I kept moving around in hopes of dilating more.

12pm Sunday: Still no change so my water was broken to see if that would help with dilation. The midwife was able to stretch my cervix to about 6-7 cm when she broke my water because it was "stretchy". Contractions became even more intense and were only about 1-2 min apart.

6pm Sunday: With contractions 1min apart (or less!!) for more than 6 hours, my midwives were sure I was getting close. After a cervical check, I was STILL only about 6-7 cm dilated. Everyone was disappointed with the lack of progress and I was starting to become worried that I would be too tired when it came time to push. I was passing out (from lack of sleep and energy) between contractions. I had nothing in my stomach from vomiting. I did NOT want any narcotics, but I had to get some sleep if I wanted to have enough energy to get through this and avoid a c-section. I asked if I could get a low dose spinal block (similar to whats used for c-sections but lower dose), since it would offer almost immediate relief but would only last a few hours and it's just one injection as opposed to the catheter that's left in with an epidural. It was perfect for what I wanted (or rather, a reasonable alternative to what I DIDNT want).

8pm Sunday: I could still feel the contractions but they were not very painful so I could sleep. Luckily, I was still able to move my legs on my own even though they felt a bit numb. I rested, I was covered with several blankets. I developed a fever of 101 so I was put on antibiotics just in case there was an infection (even though long labors and spinals/epidurals are known to raise body temps....) During this time, my blood pressure, which is normally on the lowest end of average, dropped significantly and a nurse ran into the room with a shot of epinephrine. I don't remember much about that part, but at my 6wk pp appt, the midwife said it had dropped to 45/50. VERY low, and likely the result of the spinal. Great. 

11pm-12am Sunday: Was feeling more rested and the spinal had slowly worn off so that the intensity was increasing again. Still about 7cm so pitocin was added to IV so that I make some progress. His head was still a bit high (probably because I'd been reclined for a while) so I rolled from side to side to get him to descend a bit.

4am Monday: I was finally 9.5cm! I didnt feel an urge to push so I just waited. I got to 10cm and stayed there for about 30 minutes before I felt an urge to push at all. The midwife could see his head and it was slightly off center, which is almost certainly why my labor was so long. But it was almost done!

5am Monday: My body began involuntarily pusing and I just went with it. I told the nurse that I had to push but she didnt believe me (Thanks, lady). She peeked under my sheet and said "Oh, well it looks like you're ready to push." Really?? Thanks! She unfolded the stirrups and I sort of lost it and told her to get my midwife and that I wasnt using the stirrups. She grabbed my leg and tried to MAKE me put my foot in the stirrup. It was all I could do not to kick her between contractions. Thankfully, my midwife arrived and asked her to please check on another patient Thank you lovely midwife! Whew!

5:15am Monday: Pushing was wonderful and while the contractions were still painful, they felt different and pushing felt like a true relief. I felt very good that I was finally able to DO something! I was ENJOYING it!

 5:40am Monday 12/10: After about 30 min of pushing, he crowned and the midwife said "Look down!" I did and holy crap, there was my baby's head, right there! That burned like mad! He had the cord around his neck so the midwife used her finger to hook it and bring it back around. I had been pushing in a sitting position, so I was able to reach down with the next push and grabbed under his arms and pulled him onto my chest. I got to deliver my own baby! The midwives were clapping and teary eyed and DH was crying and it was amazing.

DH later said he thought something was wrong during my labor and delivery because I didn't scream or cry or yell. I barely made any noise at all. Maybe it was just because I was too tired, but I was SO focused during contractions, I could barely even think let alone yell. The long labor was completely worth it and the experience was amazing.

I got to hold Charlie for a few minutes and then they cleaned him up. Because I'd had a fever during labor, they wanted to do a blood test on him. They discovered his blood sugar was really low (duh, I hadn't eaten anything myself!!) and since I'd had a fever, it was ?better safe than sorry" for them to treat him as though it was an infection even though my blood test came back negative.

It was hard, because he was in the special care nursery for 48 hours. I could be with him as much as I wanted, but he couldn't be in my room and he had an IV and my heart just broke seeing him like that. After 48 hours his blood test came back negative for any infections and we were discharged. Unfortunately, only about 24 hours later he had to be readmitted for treatment of jaundice (which is very common and he was more prone to it because of the long labor). He had to be in a bed with bili lights for almost 48 hours and I could only take him out for 30 min every 3 hours. That was the WORST because if he cried, I had to "comfort" him through the little holes in the side of the isolette. We are FINALLY home, all doing well, and very happy that Charlie is finally here!