:: Waves Hello (& Finally a Birth Story) ::

Been a few months since I've been around! DH got a job transfer immediately after Tovah was born (as in, his boss called him w/ the news as we were leaving the hospital with her & we moved the week she turned 1 mo old) so things have been crazy. I do not recommend a cross country move that quickly after giving birth. LOL. I tried updating my siggy with a pic of Tovah & a new pic of Ari, but it doesn't seem to be updating properly.

Here is Tovah's birth story. I was trying for an HBAC water birth. Tovah had been in a perfect OA position for weeks before my guess date. Ari had somersaulted between transverse & breech my entire 3rd tri, so I was really happy she was positioned so well & excited about having a home birth.

Then about a week before the guess date, she decided to get all posterior & asynclitic. My MW said not to worry, with various tricks before & during labor, this should correct. 

Off to the chiropractor I went, getting three Webster Technique adjustments in 5 days. I was also religiously using Spinning Babies to help things. Then my BP started to climb (I had pregnancy induced hypertension with Ari), & the MW started to worry a bit. She suggested we make sure we have a solid "Plan B" in place in case we had to do a hospital transfer & that I need to rest as much as possible until Tovah arrived. I also had a consult with my backup hospital MW just in case. 

The hospital MW decided after checking my BP that a 24 hr urine collection was in order to check for spilled protein. She also scheduled an NST for the following Monday. I was due that following day (Thurs), so she said hopefully by then I would have just have a baby by then so we could not worry about the BP issue. 

The next morning, I was showering when some contrax started. I pretty much ignored them for awhile (I had constant BH contrax all 3rd tri, so nothing new) until I noticed they felt different than BH & timeable. I had to drop off my pee samples (2 jugs worth!) @ the lab & texted my HB MW as I was leaving to let her know what was up. She tended to send long texts, so I'm trying to drive, time contrax, & navigate terrible traffic otw to the lab, when I made a sharp left turn & one of the jugs flies up from the floor & into the dash. The cap flew off & there was literally piss everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere. And it was the really full jug. 

I arrived at the lab & was told the 2nd jug was not enough for a sample & I would need to collect again. I went up for my BP check & told the MW that I was having some contrax. She said forget the resample, keep monitoring (my HB MW was having me check my BP 3x per day) & just get the contrax going & have a damn baby!

I basically had contrax all day that were basically as intense as medium level menstrual cramps. Around 2 a.m., full back labor had kicked in. Once the contrax got closer together (around 8ish), my MW & the birth team arrived. I had a student doula & 2 assistants. I was a little pissed @ first b/c I had said I only wanted 1 assistant (didn't want too many ppl) but I personally liked everyone in the team so let it go. We made arrangements for Ari to be p/u from school by my Stepdad & sister. My youngest sister (18) was Ari's "support person" for the birth. 

This is where things got a little shitty for me. DH & I wanted to have Ari at home for the labor & birth process. We figured my Stepdad & sister could take him out for awhile as we didn't expect him to want to watch the whole thing, & if he wanted to leave that was fine, but we spent a lot of time prepping him for a HB & he had stated repeatedly he wanted to be present. Somehow it ended up that he just stayed @ my Stepdad's & was then going to be spending the night there. I got really pissed. I wasn't in a state to argue or really get to the bottom of what had happened, but found out later that my MW had convinced DH that everything would be better if Ari weren't there. Ari had never spent a night away & is prone to separation anxiety. I expressed that I was upset about this & the MW semi convinced me that everything was fine, Ari was in good hands, blah blah. After time to digest the birth, I felt like she gave lip service to being okay with kids being present when I interviewed her & remembered a few comments she made about clients not having proper support for children & realized that she just doesn't like other kids being around. Which is pretty dumb if you're a HB MW. Anyway, back to the birth...

Every time labor would start really rocking & rolling, I would get very tired & labor would just peter out. After a short rest it would kick back in, only to have contrax space out again. I had been in & out of the water, walked & walked, tried many tricks to correct Tovah's position, but nothing was working. By about 7 a.m. (so about 29 hours after "real labor" started), labor had totally shut down & the birth team left. My MW said to rest then get walking & let her know when things got kicking again.

To make a long story a little shorter, I had a stop start labor pattern from Fri at 2 a.m. until Sunday night. Sunday I was in labor nearly all day & the MW came by herself, thinking maybe too many ppl had hurt the process before. Ari was back home & was pretty traumatized by the whole ordeal on Friday but was happy to be home. My sister was still taking care of him, & DH was back & forth between Ari & me.

By about 11 or so (can't remember exactly what time) Sunday night, we decided to transfer to the hospital. Nothing was working, & we decided better to go in before I was a total train wreck or in danger & was pushed to do a c/s immediately. I had been in touch with the hospital MW & she suggested I may need some pit, although she didn't like doing pit period & especially with a VBAC, but it may be necessary for me to have a vaginal birth at this point.  Labor had been mostly stalled again, but right before we hit the car, the worst back labor ever started up & contrax were long & coming every 1-2 mins. I had been handling labor fine all along & have an epic pain tolerance, but now I was screaming with each contrax. That was one long car ride. 

I was lucky to get an epi within 30 mins of arriving @ the hospital. At that point I was exhausted from 3.5 days of contrax & both MWs suggested an epi overnight for rest may be just what I needed. I knew I needed a good sleep & the back labor wasn't tolerable any longer, so it took me about 30 seconds to agree to it.  

The MW came in a few minutes later & we discussed my options. She checked Tovah's position & my dilation (still stuck @ 5 cm, been there since Fri a.m.). Tovah was firmly locked posterior & asynclitic. I can't remember what station she was but she was very, very low. We all felt at this point that as much as I wanted an intervention free birth, it wasn't going to happen. Better to try a few interventions now before the attending OBs started really watching the clock & pushing for another c/s. Plus I was over it & ready to have a baby by then. The MW started a very small dose of pit & I went to sleep.  The MW came in to turn me from one side to the other a few times (the modified rotisserie to help Tovah turn around) & check my dilation progress, but other than that I slept for almost 12 hours. It was the best sleep I had since Ari (a notoriously crappy sleeper) was born! Glorious!!

Around 9 a.m., the MW checked me & said I was complete but Tovah was still positioned poorly. I was still tired, so she decided to let me labor down for awhile longer. Two hours later, Tovah was slightly turned around but still very asynclitic, but we decided this was as good as it was going to get & it was time to push. I asked to turn off the epi (it hadn't been working from my belly button up for the last several hours anyway & I knew I could push better w/o it). The epi wore off quickly except for in my legs, so I couldn't squat or anything like that very well. The MW positioned the bed to I could basically sit up & that worked well for pushing. One hour & 2 mins of pushing & Tovah was out. She finally turned as she was crowning. She was 8 lbs 1 oz. I had a 2nd degree labial tear, which sucked but was definitely easier to heal from then a c/s. I couldn't believe that I could get out of bed & pee like an hour after she was born! 

My HB MW called my birth "natural with a little break in the middle". I don't have any regrets or issues with having to transfer to the hospital or have the pit & epi. There's a time & a place for interventions, & obviously my labor was one of those times. I was able to achieve my VBAC. My recovery was cake compared to a c/s, even with 3.5 days of labor & a tear. I was able to leave the hospital the following a.m. instead of being stuck there for days, so I was able to be home with Ari sooner. DH ended up having to go out of town twice in Tovah's 1st month (once for 2 days, once for 2 weeks), so it's a really good thing I didn't have another c/s!  

So that's it. Ari is a wonderful big brother. Tovah is a slightly less crappy sleeper than Ari but not by much. She doesn't appear to have major food allergies, just some sensitivity if I have dairy more than once a week, & some minor reflux at firstt that was corrected with keeping her upright after feeds & addressing my ridiculous oversupply. She's been army crawling since 2.5 months & was able to roll both ways by 2 months as well. Oh, & we are loving Denver too. It's a much better fit for us than SC. 

Good to "see" you all again!