We are so excited to announce the birth of Kaya Raine, 2/1/10 at 10:08pm. She was 7 lbs 13 oz, 20.5 inches long & is the MVP of a very, VERY long game!!! If it weren't for her perfect, stong, heartbeat that NEVER once in 30 hours gave any reason to make anyone question us, I would not have my VBAC. I am also thrilled to be able to say that my OB stayed true to her promise of supporting me in my VBAC pursuit & allowed me to go 45 hours after my water broke before delivering. Between my metformin controlled GD & trying for a VBAC, I doubt I would have found anyone else in the world who would have stood by my side like she did. Sure, I had to agree to some periodic monitoring & in the end, it wasn't the all natural birth I had once dreamed of...but considering the situation...to be sitting here with a vaginal birth is a miracle to me. I wouldn't trade a thing.
At one point during my labor, she came in with a little gift bag for me & one of the things inside was a little angel ornament that said "all things are possible" on it...she was right!
Here goes my attempt to tell the story...
This past Saturday night (39 weeks) we went to bed around 11pm exhausted from a long day & a bad nights sleep the night before...DD#1 had come in & woke me up at 1am. As I lifted my head off the pillow to see what was wrong, I felt a warm gush. Went to the bathroom & of course my water had broken. No labor but I had been having cramping for a couple weeks. Had started EPO orally at 37 weeks & vaginally at 38 weeks. Had also started DTD regularly that week. At Thursdays appt, I was 50% effaced & all GD related monitoring was great. EFW was saying 7 lbs 5 oz, NST were beautiful & my sugars were spot on.
I waited till 9am to call my OB & had no signs of real labor yet so she said walk, squat, start getting our stuff together (we live an hour away) & go hang out at my Mom's (up by the hospital) as we had planned for the day anyway-BUT that she wanted me to check in by afternoon/early evening because of the PROM/GD & VBAC. She wanted to have them checking my temp & BP every hour & wanted to do 20 mins on the hour external monitoring for the baby. This is a small hospital where my Mom is an L&D nurse (20 years now) so I really had no issues with heading in at some point. We are very comfie there & they are so good to me so no big deal. With the GD, I felt better knowing my baby was healthy & happy inside me & movement had been a little slow that night after my water broke...
We hung at my Mom's, tried to get things going a little with walking up her steep driveway & squats, ate an early dinner & then around 4pm we went to the hospital & got settled. Around 6pm, started using the hosp grade breast pump. The 2nd session of that around 7:30 finally established some consist. contractions so we did some more of that, along with tons of walking, squatting etc. She did do an internal around then & I was super soft, 50% & as she said "kinda 1 cm".
At this point, we talked honestly about the situation & she said she had nowhere to go & as long as the baby & I were fine, she was on board with letting this go the way I wanted. I just had to agree to the periodic checks & monitoring which I truly was ok with. Since I was there anyway-I wasn't that worried about infection. She also said that she wasn't looking for "progress each hou"r type labor, but that once we hit the 24 hr mark from my water breaking, we had to start talking about a little bit of Pit. (because I was a VBAC, we couldn't push the pit far)
I was able to get her to leave me alone till 6am-29 hours after my water broke. She checked me & I was almost 2cms. She said she was happy with it but felt it was time to try a little Pit. At this point, our Doula was on her way & we had also had not slept in 29 hours. Contractions were 8-10 mins apart, strong but I was using my Bradley methods & doing well. DH was amazing-actually surpassed my expectations & made me so proud.
I felt contractions pick up & get stronger quickly from the Pit & our Doula had now arrived to help pitch in. My Mom was also there & one of her closest friends was assigned as my labor nurse (i loved her from last time). I had a great team. Around 10am, I was checked again & had gone to almost 3 cms. She agreed to leave me be & check again in a couple hours. I was struggling with the pit contractions but was managing. But wow...they hurt!
Around 2pm or so, she thought we should go for a little bump on the Pit so we went from 2 to 4. I knew 6 was the max she would go with a VBAC. Things immediately got crazy for me. The Pit contractions were insane & I was struggling. I was a mess...doing everything to get through them, having major emotional breakdowns with each one. They were about 4-6 mins apart & it was like nothing I have ever experienced. An hour in I started to think I couldn't survive this. I was now 5cms & everyone cheered & told me how wonderful that was & what a milestone I had hit. I couldn't rejoice-I was working so hard to just survive each contraction. But in my head, I remembered I could never get past 5cms with DD#1 & wondered what would happen over the next few hours...
Just before 3ish, my nurse said that while she knew I wasn't doing pain meds, she thought I could use some rest & that relaxing a little could really help me progress. When I was able to talk, I brought up how last time, the epidural didn't help me progress at all & I didn't want to sign myself up for another C section. A few people mentioned to me not to rule out the ability of the epidural to really allow my body to relax & do the rest of what it needed to do & it didn't mean a c section was to come. To my shock, even my Bradley Coach/Doula said that while she couldn't tell me what to do, she was so concerned about my lack of sleep in 2 days & that when it came time to push-having the energy to do so...
I ended up getting the epidural but it was a very small dose. They told me I could have a little more if I needed it but that they wanted me to be ready for any pushing that might come later. I was able to sleep from 3:30pm to almost 6:30pm & when I woke up felt like a new person. I could feel my contractions but they were back to feeling like just cramps. The pain started to get worse though & at 7:30 I got checked & had made it to 7cms. Everyone freaked out & clapped & I was feeling positive. I got a little booster of the epidural though because it had almost worn off. I was totally relaxed again & at this point my sis in law was also there & the fresh face brought some life back into me. A little after 9pm, I was hurting again & she checked me & I had done it...I had made it to 10cms!!!!!!!!! It took a little while to get the room ready for delivery...at 9:40pm, I officially started pushing...at 1st, I had a hard time getting the hang of things & felt like I was doing it all wrong & never going to figure it out. But then everyone kept telling me to open my eyes & look in the mirror because her head was popping in & out. We could see her full head of dark hair & that just got me in the right place. I couldn't keep my eyes open while I was pushing-I needed to close them to focus...but then I would open them in between & see the progress happening quickly which was what got me into the groove. The crowning experience moved me beyond words, tears, anything...I was in another place. Everyone stayed in the room so it was DH, my Mom, my Sis In Law, my Doula, my OB & the 2 other nurses working that night because they have known me for so long & had no other patients needing them right then. So my bed was surrounded with A LOT of faces cheering me on & at 10:08pm, Kaya Raine greeted them all. My Ob handed her to my Mom right away & my Mom put her right on my chest...DH was on my other side & my Mom reached across & pulled him in to us & I could hear my Sis in Law crying & laughing at the same time.
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/r...ne/photo-1.jpg
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/r.../photo-1-1.jpg
At one point during my labor, she came in with a little gift bag for me & one of the things inside was a little angel ornament that said "all things are possible" on it...she was right!
Here goes my attempt to tell the story...
This past Saturday night (39 weeks) we went to bed around 11pm exhausted from a long day & a bad nights sleep the night before...DD#1 had come in & woke me up at 1am. As I lifted my head off the pillow to see what was wrong, I felt a warm gush. Went to the bathroom & of course my water had broken. No labor but I had been having cramping for a couple weeks. Had started EPO orally at 37 weeks & vaginally at 38 weeks. Had also started DTD regularly that week. At Thursdays appt, I was 50% effaced & all GD related monitoring was great. EFW was saying 7 lbs 5 oz, NST were beautiful & my sugars were spot on.
I waited till 9am to call my OB & had no signs of real labor yet so she said walk, squat, start getting our stuff together (we live an hour away) & go hang out at my Mom's (up by the hospital) as we had planned for the day anyway-BUT that she wanted me to check in by afternoon/early evening because of the PROM/GD & VBAC. She wanted to have them checking my temp & BP every hour & wanted to do 20 mins on the hour external monitoring for the baby. This is a small hospital where my Mom is an L&D nurse (20 years now) so I really had no issues with heading in at some point. We are very comfie there & they are so good to me so no big deal. With the GD, I felt better knowing my baby was healthy & happy inside me & movement had been a little slow that night after my water broke...
We hung at my Mom's, tried to get things going a little with walking up her steep driveway & squats, ate an early dinner & then around 4pm we went to the hospital & got settled. Around 6pm, started using the hosp grade breast pump. The 2nd session of that around 7:30 finally established some consist. contractions so we did some more of that, along with tons of walking, squatting etc. She did do an internal around then & I was super soft, 50% & as she said "kinda 1 cm".
At this point, we talked honestly about the situation & she said she had nowhere to go & as long as the baby & I were fine, she was on board with letting this go the way I wanted. I just had to agree to the periodic checks & monitoring which I truly was ok with. Since I was there anyway-I wasn't that worried about infection. She also said that she wasn't looking for "progress each hou"r type labor, but that once we hit the 24 hr mark from my water breaking, we had to start talking about a little bit of Pit. (because I was a VBAC, we couldn't push the pit far)
I was able to get her to leave me alone till 6am-29 hours after my water broke. She checked me & I was almost 2cms. She said she was happy with it but felt it was time to try a little Pit. At this point, our Doula was on her way & we had also had not slept in 29 hours. Contractions were 8-10 mins apart, strong but I was using my Bradley methods & doing well. DH was amazing-actually surpassed my expectations & made me so proud.
I felt contractions pick up & get stronger quickly from the Pit & our Doula had now arrived to help pitch in. My Mom was also there & one of her closest friends was assigned as my labor nurse (i loved her from last time). I had a great team. Around 10am, I was checked again & had gone to almost 3 cms. She agreed to leave me be & check again in a couple hours. I was struggling with the pit contractions but was managing. But wow...they hurt!
Around 2pm or so, she thought we should go for a little bump on the Pit so we went from 2 to 4. I knew 6 was the max she would go with a VBAC. Things immediately got crazy for me. The Pit contractions were insane & I was struggling. I was a mess...doing everything to get through them, having major emotional breakdowns with each one. They were about 4-6 mins apart & it was like nothing I have ever experienced. An hour in I started to think I couldn't survive this. I was now 5cms & everyone cheered & told me how wonderful that was & what a milestone I had hit. I couldn't rejoice-I was working so hard to just survive each contraction. But in my head, I remembered I could never get past 5cms with DD#1 & wondered what would happen over the next few hours...
Just before 3ish, my nurse said that while she knew I wasn't doing pain meds, she thought I could use some rest & that relaxing a little could really help me progress. When I was able to talk, I brought up how last time, the epidural didn't help me progress at all & I didn't want to sign myself up for another C section. A few people mentioned to me not to rule out the ability of the epidural to really allow my body to relax & do the rest of what it needed to do & it didn't mean a c section was to come. To my shock, even my Bradley Coach/Doula said that while she couldn't tell me what to do, she was so concerned about my lack of sleep in 2 days & that when it came time to push-having the energy to do so...
I ended up getting the epidural but it was a very small dose. They told me I could have a little more if I needed it but that they wanted me to be ready for any pushing that might come later. I was able to sleep from 3:30pm to almost 6:30pm & when I woke up felt like a new person. I could feel my contractions but they were back to feeling like just cramps. The pain started to get worse though & at 7:30 I got checked & had made it to 7cms. Everyone freaked out & clapped & I was feeling positive. I got a little booster of the epidural though because it had almost worn off. I was totally relaxed again & at this point my sis in law was also there & the fresh face brought some life back into me. A little after 9pm, I was hurting again & she checked me & I had done it...I had made it to 10cms!!!!!!!!! It took a little while to get the room ready for delivery...at 9:40pm, I officially started pushing...at 1st, I had a hard time getting the hang of things & felt like I was doing it all wrong & never going to figure it out. But then everyone kept telling me to open my eyes & look in the mirror because her head was popping in & out. We could see her full head of dark hair & that just got me in the right place. I couldn't keep my eyes open while I was pushing-I needed to close them to focus...but then I would open them in between & see the progress happening quickly which was what got me into the groove. The crowning experience moved me beyond words, tears, anything...I was in another place. Everyone stayed in the room so it was DH, my Mom, my Sis In Law, my Doula, my OB & the 2 other nurses working that night because they have known me for so long & had no other patients needing them right then. So my bed was surrounded with A LOT of faces cheering me on & at 10:08pm, Kaya Raine greeted them all. My Ob handed her to my Mom right away & my Mom put her right on my chest...DH was on my other side & my Mom reached across & pulled him in to us & I could hear my Sis in Law crying & laughing at the same time.
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/r...ne/photo-1.jpg
http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/r.../photo-1-1.jpg
What beautiful babies!
Your babies are precious!
LOL
