Gavin's VBAC Birth Story!!

mom2b_09 · January 2012

At about 37 weeks I started having false labor on almost a daily basis, I would start timing contractions by the end of the day and they would stop as soon as I laid down to go to sleep. I was 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced at 37 weeks. I started losing my MP at about 39-40 weeks. At 41 weeks my doctor said that she was getting nervous that I was not going into labor and wanted to schedule an induction at 41w 2d because she would be on call that day. I was scared to end up with a different doctor doing the induction so I agreed to schedule it with her on December 22, 2011 at 7 AM. I was so scared and horrified to be induced because it did not go well with my first child. With Oliver, I was induced at 40 weeks with no signs of progress. Along with the horrible decision to induce instead of waiting for the baby to come naturally, the doctor ended up pushing pit too fast which ended up swelling my cervix and Oliver?s head. The birth ended in a c-section, but a perfectly healthy baby. What kept me positive with my second induction was that I was well over my due date and I was showing many more signs of progress. Also, I had done much more research on VBACS, inductions, and spoke with my OB at every appointment about my wishes.

My water was finally broken at 10:15 AM. I was about 2.5 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. I was waiting for the intense contractions to start, but nothing really happened. My OB told me that she would give me about 2 hours, and if I did not start having good contractions or start showing more progress she wanted to put me on pit. Well, I walked, stretched, squatted, bounced on the birthing ball, etc. My contractions really were not getting strong enough and I was not really progressing which was completely opposite of what happened during my labor with Oliver. Once my water was broken with Oliver I immediately started having good contractions. This time my contractions did not pick up fast enough and by 12:30 PM I was getting pit at a very low rate with the nurse only increasing the dosage every half an hour. I told my doctor and my nurse that this was a marathon not a sprint; we do not have to have a baby by 5 PM. I wanted to take it slow and not be pushed to progress faster. Of course my contractions started getting pretty intense once I was on pit. I was still able to get out of bed and walk, stretch, squat, etc. By about 2 PM the contractions were getting very intense so I asked for Fentanyl which made me feel like a drunken drug addict! I then got into the whirlpool bathtub and tried to relax through each contraction. At this time I was at only 3.5 centimeters and still 50% effaced. I only lasted about an hour longer. By about 3 the contractions were just getting to be too intense for me to handle. I just could not relax or get through them without tensing up, so I buckled and asked for an epidural.

I finally had relief at about 3:30 PM. I gave them instructions to not check me until they absolutely had to; I just did not want the stressful news if I was not progressing. Well, at about 4:30 the nurse told me that she needed to empty my bladder so that the baby had more room to come down. I really was not paying attention to what she was doing as I was just relaxing. Once she was finished she said that I was at a 5 and 80% effaced, so she snuck in a cervix check! I did not say anything since it was good news. I then told her that I did not want to be checked until I felt pushy. At around 5:30 she told me that the monitors were showing that the baby?s head was being squeezed which meant that it was getting close. So, I let her check me. At that time I was completely effaced, and 7 centimeters dilated. Once 6 PM rolled around I was complete and she said that she could probably just pull the baby out! My DH took a look and could see the head of hair, so I got curious and used a mirror to take a look myself. The head was right there!

Of course my doctor was in an emergency c-section, so they had me labor down until she was finished. They kept reminding me that it was my first time pushing out a baby, so it was going to take 2 hours to do so. As I was laboring down surgery tech brought in her things, they brought in the baby?s table, they got my legs up in the stirrups, etc. At this time I was feeling really pushy, feels like how your bottom feels right before you pass gas. Around 6:45 my doctor showed up and I tried one push. With that one push the baby really started to come out, at least that is what all of the medical team was saying. My doctor even said, ?it took me two hours to look like that!?. I really did not think that the head moved all that much. I ended up pushing 3 more times and Gavin Russell was born at 6:53 PM! He was placed right on my chest and we got skin to skin contact immediately. It was so amazing and exciting that I actually pushed him out, and in 7 minutes! I was floating around somewhere on cloud 27 the entire evening, I could not even sleep! What a difference from a c-section. All of my research, worrying, praying, etc. was worth this birth experience!