I'm so happy I got my VBAC.. even though it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life!
I went to the midwife for my 38 week checkup on Thursday and I was 2cm and 100% effaced.. she didn't want to get my hopes up so she said it could be tomorrow or it could be 2 weeks, but i was pretty positive after hearing she could feel her head, etc. At 10:30 pm I got my first real contraction.. I've been having BH's since week 12 and they had been getting more and more uncomfortable.. but this one made me yell out loud a little. My husband and I were laying in bed so he wanted me to get some sleep (yeah right). Had a couple of uncomfortable BH's and 20 minutes later had another major contraction. Decided to get out of bed and maybe get some things together since I hadn't even packed a bag yet. From this point on my contractions picked up big time and started coming every 5 minutes. I called my doula after about a half hour of this and she told me to get in the shower/rest to see if they'd slow down.. Hour later they were still going strong. Called the midwife and she wanted them to be consistantly lasting a minute or more. (Just a sidenote, the hospital we delivered at is about 45 minutes from our house and I didn't want to wait to long to take that car ride.) My mom came over to watch my dd and I labored a little more - they were now lasting over a minute and still coming every 5. Around 2am we decided to head off. My contractions slowed a bit in the car so my husband was worried they send us home (there was NOOO way i was leaving that hospital). When I checked in around 3am I was 4cm. At this point, even with my doula there I was seriously considering the drugs.. didn't know if I could make it. I had to be monitored the whole time with the belt since I was a VBAC candidate so that was a little annoying. Everytime I'd get on my hands and knees they'd have to fix the belt, etc. At some point my water broke and I begged my doula to get the midwife to check me.. thinking if I was only 6cm or so that I was def. taking the drugs! It took awhile for her to get back to check.. it felt like a very LOOONNGG time and when she checked me around 6am I was already 9-10cm with just a lip of my cervix left - so there went my option for the drugs. Thought we were nearing the end, but nope... I ended up pushing for the next 4 hours!! I still don't know how I made it through. At one point I looked around and all of us were snoozing in between contractions. It took me awhile to get a hang of pushing effectively and during that phase my contractions slowed to an average of 5 minutes apart. For hours, I'd push - she'd come down a little and then slide back up during the break. I really thought she'd never come out. Finally at 11:05am, Maya Grace was born and it was the biggest rush of relief I've ever felt after that amount of pushing. I'm very happy that my midwife waited it out with me.. my doula mentioned any other hospital in our area would have had me in for a C-section hours earlier.
I can't believe it's almost been a week! We are doing well.. I lost a lot of blood so my hemoglobin dropped incredibly low. I'm really run down and tired, but what else do we have to do but lay around.
Congrats to all the other mamas and can't wait to hear the news about all the new ones to come!
I went to the midwife for my 38 week checkup on Thursday and I was 2cm and 100% effaced.. she didn't want to get my hopes up so she said it could be tomorrow or it could be 2 weeks, but i was pretty positive after hearing she could feel her head, etc. At 10:30 pm I got my first real contraction.. I've been having BH's since week 12 and they had been getting more and more uncomfortable.. but this one made me yell out loud a little. My husband and I were laying in bed so he wanted me to get some sleep (yeah right). Had a couple of uncomfortable BH's and 20 minutes later had another major contraction. Decided to get out of bed and maybe get some things together since I hadn't even packed a bag yet. From this point on my contractions picked up big time and started coming every 5 minutes. I called my doula after about a half hour of this and she told me to get in the shower/rest to see if they'd slow down.. Hour later they were still going strong. Called the midwife and she wanted them to be consistantly lasting a minute or more. (Just a sidenote, the hospital we delivered at is about 45 minutes from our house and I didn't want to wait to long to take that car ride.) My mom came over to watch my dd and I labored a little more - they were now lasting over a minute and still coming every 5. Around 2am we decided to head off. My contractions slowed a bit in the car so my husband was worried they send us home (there was NOOO way i was leaving that hospital). When I checked in around 3am I was 4cm. At this point, even with my doula there I was seriously considering the drugs.. didn't know if I could make it. I had to be monitored the whole time with the belt since I was a VBAC candidate so that was a little annoying. Everytime I'd get on my hands and knees they'd have to fix the belt, etc. At some point my water broke and I begged my doula to get the midwife to check me.. thinking if I was only 6cm or so that I was def. taking the drugs! It took awhile for her to get back to check.. it felt like a very LOOONNGG time and when she checked me around 6am I was already 9-10cm with just a lip of my cervix left - so there went my option for the drugs. Thought we were nearing the end, but nope... I ended up pushing for the next 4 hours!! I still don't know how I made it through. At one point I looked around and all of us were snoozing in between contractions. It took me awhile to get a hang of pushing effectively and during that phase my contractions slowed to an average of 5 minutes apart. For hours, I'd push - she'd come down a little and then slide back up during the break. I really thought she'd never come out. Finally at 11:05am, Maya Grace was born and it was the biggest rush of relief I've ever felt after that amount of pushing. I'm very happy that my midwife waited it out with me.. my doula mentioned any other hospital in our area would have had me in for a C-section hours earlier.
I can't believe it's almost been a week! We are doing well.. I lost a lot of blood so my hemoglobin dropped incredibly low. I'm really run down and tired, but what else do we have to do but lay around.
Congrats to all the other mamas and can't wait to hear the news about all the new ones to come!
:
I got an epidural at the 24 hour point (after 5 hours of pit too - awful stuff) just so I could sleep for a few hours. I woke up, went from 9-10 and pushed her out!
:
