Water breaking/Foley bulb catheter
My water broke at 2:30AM on 11/6 and some contractions
started, but then stopped. I had a few more when I got up in the morning,
but then those stopped, too. I'm a VBAC mommy, so my midwife suggested
castor oil to try to get things started, so we could try to avoid pitocin and another
c-section. I had a few more contractions on my way to the hospital after
taking that. I continued to have a few while they hooked me up for an
NST. My cervix was very soft and I was 50% effaced, but only dilated
about 1 cm. It?s hard to tell how
quickly I would have progressed on my own at that point or if I was truly in
labor. My midwife suggested inserting a Foley bulb catheter that fills with water to dilate my cervix to
try to get things moving without medicine. It was uncomfortable for a little
while and I had to stay in bed for about a half hour. I continued to have contractions. I was told that when it came out (up to 12
hrs later), I would be 3-4 cm dilated and if labor wasn't continuing on its
own, she would want to start Pitocin. The thought of Pitocin definitely
made me nervous. I spent a lot of time
rocking in a chair because being in bed or sitting on the exercise ball were
both too uncomfortable.
Labor Progressing
DH and I started
an episode of Modern Family, which was nice for a little while, until sitting
in the chair got to be uncomfortable, too.
I was just feeling way too much pressure down low and found myself
pushing up on the arms of the chair with my arms during contractions, which I
know was making my body tense up (even though I kept my hands from making fists
or squeezing anything). By around 9 or
10, I was getting impatient for the bulb to fall out because I had hoped I would
have progressed further by then. They
checked my vitals every 2 hours and every time they came to check, I was
surprised another two hours had gone by.
Contractions started to come
pretty close together and some seemed to last for quite a long time. I was exhausted (partially due to almost no
sleep the night before) and desperately wanted to lay in bed to try to sleep
in-between contractions, but laying in bed was really uncomfortable. I began to doubt myself and wondered if I
would be able to make it through without any medication. I had visions of being in labor until
sometime the next day. My midwife asked
if I wanted Morphine or something to help me sleep. She seemed to think we had a long night ahead
of us. I said that I didn?t want
anything because I know of two people who took Ambien to help them sleep and it
totally back-fired on them. I didn?t
want to deliver my baby while on any drugs, not to mention that I didn?t want
him to get anything. I ended up laying
in bed and dozed a bit.
Pushing
Around 11 or so,
I suddenly felt the urge to push and out came the bubble, so it was assumed
that I was now 3-4 cm dilated. VERY shortly after that (maybe 2-3
contractions??), I was feeling the urge to push again. I couldn't
understand why, so she checked me and said I was about 7cm and 100% effaced.
Everything after that started to happen so quickly. I had contraction
after contraction with almost no break in-between and kept feeling the urge to
push. Finally, I think she did something to help push my cervix aside and
then said I could start pushing. At one
point after I started pushing, she held up her hand to show me how much of the
head she could see. I couldn?t believe
it was only about the size of a silver dollar, yet she sounded so happy! They set up the mirror so that I could watch
my progress. I had really hoped I would
only need to push a few times, but that didn?t happen. I pushed for about an hour and seriously
wondered if I would have the energy to keep going. It was HARD
work. I was exhausted. Seeing her
getting everything ready was so encouraging though! I was surprised to hear her say that the next
time I felt the urge to push, she might have me push and then blow through one
of the urges because she didn?t want him to come out too quickly. I couldn?t believe it when he actually came
out on my next push.
After the birth
They put him right
on my belly (where we saw for ourselves that he was a boy!) and then I was able
to hold him close for hours before they took him away from me. He had a hard time latching on to nurse, but
I think it was because I had to lay on my back as they stitched me up. Stitching my tears after it was all over was
AWFUL. I had second degree tears (I
sometimes wish I hadn?t tried so hard to push him out, but I was worried that I
was getting too exhausted and wouldn?t be able to get him out) and a sulcus
tear, which is a tear that goes into the vagina. They thought that was from his elbow on his
way out. Trust me ? it is not easy for
them to access a tear on the INSIDE of your body without causing considerable
discomfort. I could not wait for it all
to be over with and was so glad that I was holding my little boy through the
whole thing. After he was born, DH made
a comment about avoiding a c-section. It
suddenly hit me then that I actually got the drug-free VBAC that I wanted! I was so proud of myself and DH told me he
was really impressed with how I did. So,
Jonathan Cameron was born at 1:11 AM (only about 2 hours after I was only 3-4
cm dilated!) on 11/7/11, weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz and measuring 20 ? inches.
Re: My VBAC/Hypnobirth Story
Congrats! And thank you for sharing.
I had placenta previa with my first son.
BFP 8/2/10 (3w5d); No more heartbeat on 8/30/10 (7w4d); D&C on 9/2/10 (8w) - Baby Boy with Triploidy
BFP 12/3/10 (4w2d); Natural miscarriage 12/12/10 (5w4d) - Unknown cause
Diagnosed with Compound Heterozygous MTHFR
BFP 3/9/11; Baby Boy #2 born on 11/7/11
Currently TTC Baby #3