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April 2014 Moms
Bluebird2318
member
Long Version: On April 22nd I woke up to a large damp spot in my pajamas and wondered if maybe I had a small leak as I had little trickles randomly but rarely throughout the day. I had an appointment that day so DH and I went together just in case. One of my OB's checked me out and determined that there wasn't enough pooling for it to have been my water breaking, just excess discharge. That was good enough for me, though slightly disappointing. So we went home expecting to wait another week or more for our baby. The trickles of discharge still happened, but rarely.
Dorian Alexander's VBAC Birth Story (Bluebird2318)
Bluebird2318
member
Short Version: Dorian Alexander was born at 3:15 PM on 4/25 via successful VBAC (with epi) 28 hours after my water broke on its own. He was 8 lb. 7 oz. and 22 in. long.
A couple days later (April 24th) I was relaxing on the couch and felt another trickle and assumed it was more of the discharge I was having the previous day. I went to the bathroom to wipe but while in the bathroom I had a larger gush, almost as if I was peeing and couldn't control it. That same thing happened every couple minutes or so, and at first I was hesitant to believe that it was my water because of the false alarm the previous day. It went on intermittently like that for 30 minutes or so before slowing down a bit. I did the lying down trick (15 minutes resting on the couch) and then got up and did a squat and got another gush so I figured it could be the real deal this time and called DH home from work, then called the labor line at my OB's office. Since the hospital is 1.5 hours away from us, they suggested we just go straight to L&D to be checked out.
We got to L&D triage at 3:30 PM where they confirmed that my water had indeed broken this time; there was tons of pooling, so much so that they didn't feel the need to run any other tests. I was only dilated somewhere between a 1.5 and a 2, but was admitted within the hour anyway given the circumstances. They moved me to a private L&D room and let me contract on my own until 8:00 PM, but the contractions just weren't very strong at all. At that point they placed internal monitors since I was a VBAC patient and confirmed that the contractions just weren't enough to get things going. I was started on pitocin at 8:30 PM.
As a VBAC I could not be given any cervical ripening agents, and with the pitocin only my progress was slow but the contractions were noticeably improved and were 2-3 minutes apart by midnight--painful, but manageable. I hadn't specifically planned to labor without pain medication, but I figured I'd hold out as long as I could just for the experience and see what happened. DH was awesome and gave me some fabulous foot rubs to keep my mind off the pain. Unfortunately by 3:00 AM the contractions had become agonizing. Each contraction made me dizzy and nauseated with the pain. I was exhausted and hadn't eaten in 30 hours at that point, so when they checked me and I had only made it to a 3 despite having labored on pitocin for 7 hours I asked for the epi. That was the longest 30 minutes that I ever had to wait. It seemed like the anesthesiologist would never come. DH was great again and counted through the contractions for me and held my hand. Luckily I had my epi in by 3:30 AM and the relief was amazing. My whole mindset changed and I felt much more positive.
I napped on and off until 9:00 AM when I was checked again. I had progressed to 6 cm and baby's head had descended a bit more. By 10:20 AM I was having the most terrible, painful butt pressure (butt labor, y'all!) that was not being resolved by the epi. I was re-checked and was between 7 and 8 cm. The anesthesiologist was called back and I was given a bolus that helped with the pain for awhile. A couple hours later I was between 8 and 9 cm and the dreaded butt labor was back with a vengeance. At that point they didn't want to give anything extra to numb it since pushing probably wasn't too far off, so I just struggled through the pain. The epi was still helping me to not feel the contractions in my abdomen however.
I labored that way for 2 hours and my OB came in sometime after 2:30 PM or so to check me. I was complete and she talked to me about pushing. She and the nurse let me know that as a first time vaginal labor patient I should be prepared for a possible 1-2 hours. I was horrified. The pain and pressure was already hard to bear. I couldn't even imagine pushing. By 2:50 PM I started to push, and sure enough the epi wasn't really helping. Luckily I was able to power through it and baby was crowning (oh my lord, that pain...) after about 25 minutes of pushing. One more set of three good pushes and he was out! When people say the relief is instant, they are right! I did not have any perineal tearing, but I did have an internal vaginal tear and a small tear up high on the labia that required 2 stitches.
Dorian Alexander was born at 3:15 PM at 8 lb. 7 oz. and 22 in. long, with a head of dark hair! Thanks for reading and for all of the kind words and support while I was in labor!
March 2017 September Siggy Challenge: Favorite Fall Things
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Re: Dorian Alexander's VBAC Birth Story (Bluebird2318)
BFP: 7/5/10 EDD: 3/13/11 Miscarriage 8/1/10 at 8 weeks
BFP: 10/30/10 EDD: 7/7/11 Born 7/11//11 7lb12oz, 20 in.
BFP: 7/30/13 EDD: 4/9/14 Born right on time on his due date! 8lb10oz, 21.5 in.
Awesome prophetic fortune cookie: Love is a present that can be given every single day you live
BFP#2 7/28/13 EDD 4/9/14 Birthday : 4/10/14 Adalyn Nanette
Ps. Absolutely love love love his name!
Natural miscarriage @ 8 weeks - 3/8/2005
Big Brother "Skippy" born - 2/28/2007
Missed miscarriage - (EDD 3/5/2013) - D&E @ 11 weeks - 8/8/2012
"Hen" (EDD 6/7/2013) - born sleeping @ 19 weeks - 1/15/2013
"G-Unit" born - 4/14/2014 and he's 100% perfection!!
With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere. - C.S.Lewis