Preston's VBAC Birth Story! (Long)

I'm so excited to be able to share my VBAC birth story of Preston Beau!  He was born on 2/18 at 10:04pm, 7 lbs. 14 oz. 21 1/2 inches!

On Wednesday, 2/16 I went for my 39 wk apt, and had been having contractions most of the day, and they were about 5 minutes apart.  I was hopeful that maybe she would send me to L&D, but she said they weren't strong enough to be doing anything, since I had only dilated 1cm over the previous week.  I continued to have contractions Wednesday and Thursday, but no change.  Friday morning my 3yo DS woke me up asking where his sock was   After that I couldn't go to sleep, the contractions were getting much more intense, but were 8 minutes apart.  I kept trying to rest, but in the next 45 minutes, they went to 3 minutes apart, and I was getting very uncomfortable.  So at 6am Friday, we started for the hospital.  When we got checked in at 7am, I was still only at a 4, so my doctor said for the nurse to have me wait an hour and recheck me to see if I was actually in labor.  At this point, my contractions were very intense, lots of back pain, and not really any relief in between.  Even though I hadn't had any change after an hour, they decided to keep me.  I wasn't getting any relief, so at 10am, got an epi, and couldn't have been happier.

I still hadn't made much progress, was at a 5 around 2pm, so my doc broke my water, and then about 3pm, they started me on low dose of pitocin to help me along.  When she broke my water, she found meconium inside, which really scared me, but she said they would closely monitor him so they knew if they needed to get him out fast.  At 7:30pm, I was at a 9, completely effaced, but then an hour later, my cervix started swelling up again and was still at a 9.  This is exactly what had happened with DS#1, and my doc told me she didn't want to, but if I hadn't changed in an hour, we would have to do another c/s.  I was very upset, but my doc was great and very encouraging.  I was shocked when she came back at 9:30 and started talking to me about how to push!  I pushed through 4 contractions (about 15 mins) and he was out, I couldn't believe it!  The epi had worn off enough that I couldn't feel pain, but could feel where to push!  I couldn't stop crying, I was so happy and in shock that I got to have my VBAC, I couldn't stop crying!

I got to hold him shortly afterwards (they had to do lots of suctioning from the meconium), and I also got to breastfeed right away.  I was also very excited to know that I could eat and drink right after, I know this sounds stupid, but it was just one more wonderful thing I got to do with my VBAC that I didn't get w/ the c/s.  The recovery and everything about Preston has been 100% better than with DS#1.  Preston is breastfeeding great, where as my oldest wouldn't latch for over 2 weeks.  I couldn't be happier! 

Thanks for reading my novel   If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.  Good luck to all those preparing or deciding on a VBAC!