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VBAC
MrsJordanalmond
member
XP: very long ... no vbac : ( ... but all is good
MrsJordanalmond
member
in VBAC
monday (12/19, my due date) at around noon, i started feeling real contractions.
they were very short, and they were coming quickly ... but not very intense.
told DH he didn't have to rush home, but not to stop at a bar on his way.
a few hours passed, started seeing (what i thought) was blood.
we asked the nanny to come back at ~11pm and be ready to stay the night.
checked in with the doc, they told me to hold tight, called the doula, she said the same.
contractions started getting a little more painful. jad (my almost 4 year old) would hug me thru them, call me wonder woman and tell me that everything would be all right. he really is the sweetest creature in the land.
about 10:30pm i have a contraction that makes me feel like i have to pee, so i run to the bathroom ... wasn't a huge gush, but substantial and brownish. even tho i'm gbs-, i call the doc because of the color, thinking it might be blood ... they tell me my water broke and the brown was meconium and that i should head to the hospital so that they can monitor the baby (meconium aspiration could be bad). so doula arrives, nanny arrives, we leave for hospital. i am spewing amniotic fluid with baby poop and find a very thick waterproof lap pad and fold it in fours and put it in the undies.
get to hospital l&d where i was triaged almost 4cm. i feel like i could deal with the pain of the contractions for a bit longer, but really don't want to, so i get the epidural. this was the point where DH faints. he was great for me, held steady and strong, but when it was over he turned gray, his eyes rolled back and he 'fell' into his chair. i lose it ... i knew he was the squeemish type, but he is my rock, and i got hysterical that he fainted. he was fine in a second, but still not pleasant.
get into a room where i basically labored most of the night without incident. we all tried to rest and prep for the big show.
first thing tue. am, i get an exam ... almost 6cm. i thought it would have been more, but it was ok.
oh, despite being told NOT to come, like no mincing words, my mother shows up. when she comes into the room i basically ignore her, i didn't really talk to anyone (was sort of laboring in my own world) and didn't want her to bring down my groove. but still, can you imagine??? this is why my kids will never spent the weekend with her, she ignores my wishes to my face, what on earth would she do with my kids??
anyway, at about noon, get another check 10cm! we are all excited. decided to turn the epi down a bit so that i can feel the pushing urge better and be more effective. try pushing a few times, not too useful, we turn the epi off. oh, guess who is now sunnyside up??? meaning severe back labor. i push a few times, do a good job, but am in so much pain i cry and see stars. i ask for the epi to go back up to 50% but we think they went full blast because i really wasn't able to make anything happen. at this point it's been about 3.5 hours of pushing ... doc says that the baby's forehead was up against the pelvic bone and not coming down, he is also not flipping and i'm not pushing effectively. she said his head was getting swollen, and let's not forget all the meconium. dh asked the doc for half hour more, and was there anything else we could try ... so i got on my elbows and knees ... a$$ high up to the sky. we push a few more times, doc says she can see a full head of hair, but that he isn't going to come.
i lose it, completely and totally lose it. grab onto dh hysterical. i can't believe that after everything i did, after going before 41 weeks, after getting all the way to pushing, that i was going to have to end it there. was exhausted, totally hormonal and sobbing uncontrollably. doc said she would let me keep pushing, but at that point it wasn't getting us anywhere. i agree to the c/s.
i was pretty sad about this outcome. i was so obsessed with going into labor before 41 weeks, and just assumed that if that worked, everything else would. it didn't occur to me that there might be other reasons for needing a c/s. i hate that i missed the opportunity to deliver a baby the 'normal' way.
meanwhile ... i find doula to be incredibly irritating throughout most of the proceedings. physically, she is good, with pressure points and massage and other stuff, but i just want her to stfu! at one point, she gets it and walks away, but comes back.
c/s itself is awful ... took much longer than the first one (scar tissue, etc.) plus i was so physically and emotionally exhausted. the additional drug really made me shake and shiver and cry.
when the baby came out there was mass outcry of how big and feisty he was. the pediatricians got him right away to make sure he didn't breath in any of the meconium. recovery was pretty awful as well, my heart rate was too high and they kept having me breath deeply, which of course worried me and made my heart race faster. also since he was higher than average birth weight, they have been doing blood sugar tests every few hours. poor things feet are pin cushions.
speaking of being a pin cushion, i have had 3 different iv's and they keep coming out! so they had to remove the epidural early, so i have had more pain this time around.
a few days later, i got a call from the doc who attended the delivery and did the c/s. she wanted to talk while i wasn't so emotional and tired and tell me that there was no way the baby was coming out the hoo haa ... she said his size and position even made him hard to get out via c/s, she also regrets letting me push as long as i did. i thanked her for the call ... it meant a lot to me because in my state of i was hearing 'he isn't coming out because you can't push him out' ... when that isn't what she was saying.
anyway, it's over now, and really is over. there will be no more babies, no other chances. when things really are out of my hands, they are out ... and i'm letting this one go.
baby is nursing like a champ. he looks exactly like a stockier, feistier version of my son. same mouth, chin, nose ... he also has eyebrows, pretty unusual for a newborn. his nose is a little smooshed, but that will go away soon. when i get a chance i'll share some of pics.
in a nutshell ... i really am over the moon, and can't wait to spend more time getting to know this boy.
Rami, 12/20, 5:56pm, 8lbs 14oz, 20 in.
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Re: XP: very long ... no vbac : ( ... but all is good
My Wedding Bio!
Congrats on your healthy baby! I'm sorry it didn't go as you planned but it definitely sounds like you did everythig right and it wasn't you who wasn't making it happen. That was really nice of your doctor to call you to talk to you after the fact.
Congrats! I'm sorry it didn't go as you hoped, that is awesome the OB called you to talk to you about it, though. The OBs who did my c-section with my first son were really understanding and helpfu, too. I think it makes a huge difference in the end, you know?
I love the part about your older son helping you labor! What a sweetie. Enjoy your new baby!!
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
Congratulations on your new baby! I'm sorry the birth didn't go better. It's wonderful that your doctor took the time to call you later and talk to you about the birth. I think if my OB had done that after my c/s instead of acting like she didn't even want to talk about it, it would have made a world of difference to me.
Enjoy your new baby
There truly is a time and a place for c/s, and it sounds like you truly needed one to deliver a healthy son. You did everything you possibly could have done, so rest knowing that.
Congratulations on your new little one!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Congratulations on your sweet baby boy! Your story sounds so much like my first delivery.
Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Congratulations on your new baby boy! I love his name!
Your doctor sounds wonderful. I think there is a point where we have to appreciate that we have an option to have a c-section for the healthy and safety of you and your baby. When I think about it, although I want to deliver vaginally, my son who was delivered via c-section because he was breech is no less dear to me than a vaginally delivered baby. I don't believe for a second that bonding has anything to do with how you deliver your baby or bring home a baby. This baby is breech AGAIN right now, and I'm mentally preparing myself to have another c-section. It's a bummer because my due date is my husband's birthday, so maybe they could have shared the same birthday, but oh well.
Proud mother of two breech babies:)