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VBAC
sweetmelissa0707
member
One more for our team :)
sweetmelissa0707
member
in VBAC
Hey ladies,
Just wanted to share the good news, and based on some of the recent questions, I feel my experience my be helpful. First and foremost, VBAC was successful. My DD, Elise Adelaide Marie was born 2/16 at 1:08 am and was an induced VBAC. To clarify, only pitocin was used and I was soft, and three cm dilated when they decided to do this. Very low pit to start, slow increase, etc. So here's the story!
On Tuesday, 2/15, had my 40 week appointments, first at ten, which was the ultrasound, followed by the regular clinical. Ultrasound showed a "big baby" and they were estimating her weight at 9lbs, 1 oz. Went to clinical appointment to see my doctor, only to find she was out with a family emergency. Did the whole pee/ bp routine and they found trace protein in urine and my bp had climbed up from previous appointment. The covering doctors said, under the circumstances (my previous pre-e, my being full term, etc,) that they would not risk sending me home if I was starting to exhibit signs of PIH/ Pre-e. I was sent over to L&D to be more thoroughly checked. This was about 1pm. They checked, found my cervix to be favorable and still at three cm. Decided because I was still at +3, they could not just break my water and risk cord prolapse. It was decided that I would be admitted and put on Pitocin.
My H and I decided that he would take my son home and get him settled with my brother and sil to be, while I was being admitted. Was brought to my room and settled in, IV was placed, and I just hung out there for a while, watching tv. Doctors came in, did the scary speech thing, going over risks etc, but generally were aware and supportive of my goal of vaginal delivery. Around three they began the Pit, lowest dose, at that point, H was on the return trip to Boston, and ultimately he arrived around5:30pm. This is where I had one of my bigger tests of faith. At shift change, the main doctor (attending) came in, sat down, and basically "wanted to make me aware that I had a 10% chance of being successful" and he "wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page". I said, "well, we're not" "no one up to this point has expressed that low of a success rate". He says "well what percentage were you told" I said, "you're the first one to even bring one up today", and furthermore, my consultation (with original doctor) gave a 40-60 percent success rate. I think he could feel me giving him the thousand yard glare, because even my husband spoke up and said "have you even spoken with any of the other doctor's she's been seeing". So, I don't know what he thought I was going to do, given that I had already been on pit for over three hours, as if I was going to just pop the IV out and march down to the OR on his statistic or something. Anyway, he left and the the intern came in and said, we'll check and see if we can break your water so that this might progress a little faster.
Well, at that check, I was six cm, and they broke my water, she had started to move down, so she acted like a cork, but eventually I could feel the water coming out. This is where my times and such start to get fuzzy, there was a definite upswing in strength and frequency of contrax, but I was able to breathe through them, and I used the rocking chair for a while. I then switched to standing by the bed and swaying back and forth, but then DD was showing not to like that too much, so I had to be back in bed. I labored with pit contrax until they said I only had a anterior lip remaining, but in between contrax, I was literally falling asleep (or would have) if they weren't so close together. I realized I was going to be too tired to push if I didn't get a little relief and initially just asked for some nubain. (It didn't do a dang thing) I was literally writhing, oh, and I'm "THAT WOMAN" the one you laugh at on TLC for moaning, yodeling and generally making enough noise to wake the dead, I became her towards the end. I guess I thought I could be louder than the pain I felt ( I couldn't). Enter the epi. I asked for the low dose, so that I could still feel enough to push, which they did a great job. I started pushing around nine thirty or ten. It was intense, the pressure was super crazy, and I'll be honest, there were times when I did not think I had the strength to keep pushing.
Then they started talking forceps and vacuums, and god help me, the idea that surgery would allow me to avoid that, entered my mind. But then, it happened the contractions and the pressure literally took me over, there was no me anymore, just my body went into combat mode and just kept pushing, I was hollering at them to "help me", seeing how they were telling me to "push harder" I didn't realize that while she was crowning, the were also giving me an episiotomy. It was such a relief when her head came out, temporary of course, since her body still had to come out, but then she was all out, the pressure/pain was gone. It was amazing. I ended up with a third degree tear, as she was 8lbs 10oz, 20.5 inches. I only wish I had maybe hit the epi button one more time towards the end, because the stitching was horrendous, that and the fact that just when I though my vag would be empty I had two sets of hands scooping me out and sewing me up.
So, there you have it! Don't be discouraged by "big babies". Don't let them tell you "you pushed, and failed, so it won't work". I was told because I pushed for over 3 hours with my 7lb, 4oz son and he didn't come out, that basically I was doomed with this baby. Do your research, get support around you, and stand your ground if you feel like someone is trying to spook/bully you into surgery. For those who care, I prayed about this a lot and kept reminding myself that my faith could be "greater than a mustard seed", can't promise that's what did it, but I felt stronger in myself as a result.
If you managed to read that whole thing, good job. Thanks to those of you who have been encouraging and informative and for those of you still waiting/deciding, good luck. IF you have specific questions about my experience, I'd be happy to share.
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Re: One more for our team :)
Wonderful story! I'm so happy for you
PS: That doctor in the hospital, with his made up statistic - he sucks. I'm glad you proved him wrong. Go you!
Yay, congrats! What a great story, thanks for sharing it with us.
And I love how you and your husband set that doctor straight! Good for you
TTC #1 Cycle 14 - IUI#1=BFN, IUI#2=BFP | TTC #2 Cycle 8=BFP!!
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DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
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I was told that he was going into distress, failing to descend, and there was the usual "cpd" on my chart. Who knows? They can say what they want, my personal feeling is that it is most likely that he was just too far up, I was not pushing effectively and in comparison of how it "felt' I feel like his head may have been turned off to the side.
Recovery is amazing this time around! I had limited drugs, so there wasn't any crazy fog over me the whole time, I could see my daughter, be aware of her, and actively hold her. My H was amazing, they offered her to him first, but he knew how much it meant to me and he said 'no, let mom hold her first', it was so awesome. I was crying the whole time. I am up, active, able to hold my son, walk stairs, eat, do it all basically. My perineum is sore, but not so much that I have even filled my motrin script yet, in fact I haven't taken pain meds since I left the hospital on Friday. I'm just enjoying the fact that these first few days, I actually get to see what she's like from the start. I wasn't consciously aware of what was going on until two days after my c-section. I missed out on so much, people would come by, but I didn't talk to them, I had to see my son's first movements in the nursery through the videos my H took. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't uncomfortable at first with the tears, but they seem to be healing up and aren't preventing me from doing anything as of yet!
All of the above is awesome.
Congratulations!
This.