Successful VBAC! (long)

So here is the birth story of our new little man Cormac.  Well can't call him little he came into the world at 8#12oz, but there you go. 

At my 40wk appt I was fingertip dilated. Woohoo, big deal.  So they had an induction scheduled for the 14th.  I started contracting the following night, all night.  This continued for 3 nights.  I called my CNM and asked if there was anything I could do to get things rolling.  It was suggested that I could use nipple stimulation or castor oil. 

I chose the oil, and it was not that bad.  Tasted like lipstick, but I managed to get it down with some OJ.  Now some ppl on here when I posted about it were in a twitter and said that my baby would be swimming in meconium.  That did not happen, nor would it since it does not cross the placenta. But that is neither here nor there, my doctor assured me it was safe, just uncomfortable.  

Back to the story, I took the oil around 145pm and starting feeling the effects at 3pm.  No cramping, or vomiting, just the runs *(sorry if TMI).  This lasted about an hour and then I started walking around the block.  I thought it wasn't going to happen since I was feeling nothing from the oil, no cramping like I thought I would.  

Around 8pm I started having some contractions, and my 930 they were pretty intense.  I went to the bathroom and my water broke, just a small gush, totally clear.  It was time to head out, the contractions were strong and I could no longer talk or walk through them, they were about 2 min. apart.  We call my mom and she meets us there to take our son to her house.  

At 10:30pm I am checked in and find I am dilated to 1.5 cm, I was disappointed, I really hoped I would be further along.  I had to be hooked up to a monitor until the CNM could come in and check on me so I could get up and move. Laboring in bed sucks! Finally she arrives and we go and walk the halls for an hour.  After that I tried laboring on the ball for another hour.  

I was checked at 1:30 and had made it to 4 cm. So I headed to the jacuzzi tub to relax in there.  That was awesome, don't get me wrong the contractions still hurt like a mother, but I was able to relax and even fall asleep between them.  At 3:30am I got out and was 5cm.  By this time I had had enough. I had gotten no sleep the past 3 nights and laboring exhausted is not good.  So I got the epidural.  

By 9:30am on October 4th I was 10cm, but they let me labor him down for a while longer.  We started pushing at 11:10am.  I tried every position thinkable, finally the best success I had was on my back.  I pushed for almost 3 hours and by that time the epidural had certainly worn off.  I ended up having to get an episiotomy since he just couldn't quite get out and was having some late decels.  He entered screaming at 1:47pm, 8#12 oz and 21.5 in long!  No wonder he couldn't squeeze out, plus his head was not positioned right.  

He is beautiful and perfect and well worth the labor and long hours of pushing!  I was so thankful that I got to experience true labor.  If I had to compare the two, laboring is extremely difficult and pushing was no picnic, but I think it was a special circumstance with a worn off epi and the positioning of my child.  But, compared to the recovery of a c/s I would choose this over again.  

Good luck to all VBACs out there!   If you made it to the end, congrats!