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VBAC
XP: My "March baby" finally arrived - successful VBAC!
Short version... One day before my scheduled induction, my
little girl decided to cooperate and come on her own! Curran Cole N.
arrived via successful VBAC (yeah!!!) on April 3rd weighing 6 lbs 8 oz.
Long version... My first pregnancy I had severe pre-e and was delivered at 27 weeks, so this time around, I was anxious about how far I'd get. Fast forward to 35 weeks when I was diagnosed with PIH, put on bedrest, and pretty much gave up hope of getting to term or getting to VBAC like I had hoped. But things stayed stable, and at 40 weeks my Dr scheduled an induction for April 4th, though I had made no progress and was still convinced it wouldn't work out and I'd end up with another c-section. Much to my (thankful!) surprise, I went into labor on my own April 3rd around 0500, and met my doula at the hospital at 1000 with weak contractions every 3 minutes. Unfortunately, I still wasn't dilated, but my Dr wanted me to stay because I was VBACing, because of my PIH, and since he'd planned to induce the next day anyway. After walking around a bit, I made it to 2 cm. Then I spent some time on the birthing ball and got to 3 cm, but the contractions had slowed down. At 1400 my Dr broke my water and then at 1500 they started some pitocin to get my contractions closer together. (I went in open-minded about pain management and I'm glad; even though I wasn't that far along, I was having horrible back pain and the pitocin contractions put me over the edge.) I asked for an epidural a half hour later. The meds were immensely helpful in letting me relax and rest and progress.
Things continued to go well for a while, but I could only lay on my left side since Curran's heart rate would drop too much during contractions on my right side, so the epi ended up leaving my left leg completely useless while I felt a lot on the right and had HORRIBLE sciatic pain that the epi wasn't touching. So even though I had given up on a med-free birth, I ended up with a huge amount of excruciating pain anyway and was getting pretty exhausted and panicky during contractions by about 2200 when I was still just 8 cm and Curran's heart rate was dropping a lot during contractions no matter how I was laying... at this point I was completely convinced the Dr was going to say "c-section." Then all of a sudden 15 minutes later I felt tons of pressure and the nurses started prepping the room for delivery and my Dr came in and I *finally* for the first time in my entire pregnancy realized that my VBAC was really going to happen! I pushed for about 45 minutes (this part was SO not as painful or difficult as I had expected!) and Curran was born just after 2300. I had a tiny tear and just one or two stitches.
The very best part is that I got to do skin to skin and BF for the first two hours, and it was amazing! With my first, it was 36 hours before I even saw her and longer till I could hold her... having Curran go directly from my womb to my arms was unbelievably amazing and rewarding! Plus, my DH was able to skype with us from Afghanistan about an hour after the birth, so that was wonderful, too!This discussion has been closed.
Re: XP: My "March baby" finally arrived - successful VBAC!
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