Henry's Birth Story (pain med-free VBAC) - PIP

MamaP19 · February 2014

I went into labor Tuesday evening at 41w 1d. I went to bed to relax and watch a movie after putting DD down for the night. At 8:00pm I started having contractions every 5 minutes apart. I gave my doula and OB a heads up and tried to rest. Meanwhile, DH was on the phone with MIL letting her know that we needed her to come. She lives 2 hours away and volunteered to come and watch DD for a few days. By 11:00 I was in too much pain to rest so I asked our doula to come over. This is when H told me that his mom refused to come until it was light out because she has poor night vision and high anxiety about highway driving... so naturally, I panicked. After a long talk we decided H would stay at home with DD until the last minute, they would come to the hospital, and our doula would watch her so that H could be there when DS was born. Worst plan ever, but we felt like we had no other options.

My doula took me to the hospital around 2:00am and I had made it to 6cm. By 6am I was 8cm and begging for some drugs, but was told it was too late. To my surprise H showed up around 9am. His aunt ended up calling in to work to help us out and watch DD. I spent about four hours in transition until my water finally broke and I could push. After trying a few different positions, Henry Ace was born at 1:00pm on the dot on Weds, Jan. 29th. He was 9lbs 9oz and 22 inches long. I ended up having a 3rd degree tear which has been a lot worse than I expected but still much easier than what I went through with my c/s recovery.

I was surprised at how quickly my labor progressed since I had a very hard time with my induction with DD. I was very lucky to have a lot of support and have found that this has really been a healing experience for me after all of the sadness and depression I went through following DDs birth. We are happy to be home with both LOs and very much in love with our new little squish!

ETA: I'm running on very little sleep and a whole lot of percocet so I hope this is coherent!