trisharenee0316 VBAC birth story (long as hell)

TL; DR: I had a successful VBAC on Saturday morning and gave birth to an adorable baby boy.

A little back story: I gave birth to my daughter via unplanned c-section after a failed induction on 12/31/12.  When we decided to have a second baby, we both thought a VBAC would give us the easiest time in my recovery and for our family dynamics generally.  I found a doctor who would agree to my having a VBAC, or so I thought.  He flip flopped once on it when I was around 16 weeks along, then supportive again at 20 weeks...so when he started questioning things again when I hit 32 weeks and started to change his mind on things we'd previously agreed, I went to a different doctor in the area who was also VBAC friendly (so, officially switched at 34 weeks).

At my 38 week appointment, my new doctor reminded me he would be out of town for a conference for several days, returning about 2 days before my due date.  Since my daughter was overdue and my cervical checks didn't reveal me to be very dilated or effaced, I felt confident my body would hold out until his return.  He also warned me that if I went into labor while he was gone, he couldn't guarantee I would VBAC because the backup doctor wouldn't necessarily be VBAC friendly.  I started having contractions almost exactly at 39 weeks pregnant.  At my 39 week appointment (39w2d) on Thursday, the doctor was a major bia bia and basically told me she wouldn't support my VBAC because hospital policy is that doctors have to be at the hospital the whole time and she didn't have time to babysit my labor since she was backing up 5 different doctors at 3 different hospitals.  Because of that, I put myself on bed rest, hoping that taking it easy would let me stay pregnant until the time my OB returned on Sunday.

On Friday night, I lost my mucus plug and started having stronger contractions around 1am Saturday that were timeable (5 minutes apart, lasting for a minute) for about a half hour.  At 2am Saturday I went to the bathroom and after I stood up from the toilet, my water broke.  My husband and I gathered up our stuff, got our toddler in the car, and headed to the hospital.  He told me he would back me up 100% with refusing a RCS, even though the doctor said I would have to have one.  By the time I checked in through the ER and was taken to L&D, I was howling with pain and wanted an epidural immediately.  I knew that without it, I would have given up and consented to a RCS.  Important to note that I'm also a total wimp and cannot tolerate pain well at all.  I had a cervical check around 2:45-3am and was a stretchy 4cm and very effaced. The nurse brought all the c section supplies into my room saying they'd spoken to my doctor and the doctor said she told me I'd have to have a RCS.  I flat out told the nurse I would not sign a consent form for surgery, period.  The nurse then left to go speak to the doctor, and everything was put on hold--no IV fluids could get started, labs run, etc. until they figured out what to do.  Which meant no epidural.  Which meant me howling in pain and wanting to throw things.  The doctor finally got to the hospital and in the face of my stubborn refusal and my husband backing me, she relented and allowed me to VBAC.