Successful VBAC!!! The birth of Kyle Joseph

[NaturalMama311]

On the morning of Saturday, January 8^th I woke up at 4 am and to my surprise my water broke! I was still 2 ½ weeks from my EDD so it came as quite a shock. I woke DH and told him what happened and we both started to freak out a little bit realizing how much we still had to do to get ready for baby. The only thing we had done was install the car seat. We decided to get up and start doing some things around the house like washing the baby clothes and getting the pack and play set up which would have to be our changing table since we had no furniture in the baby's room yet. We were still waiting for the new carpet to be installed in his room!

I wasn't really feeling any major contractions, at least nothing stronger than the BH contractions I had been feeling for weeks. I decided not to call my midwife just yet because I knew they would tell me to immediately come to the hospital, mainly because I wanted a VBAC and that was their policy. They had told me at my previous appointments that I should not labor at home for any amount of time, I should come right to the hospital so I could be monitored.

DH and I went about our day, got DD out of bed and did tons of laundry and unpacked all the baby gear. Around 2 pm I still wasn't really feeling any contractions so DH and I decided to go out shopping to Babies R Us to pick up some last minute things. As the day went on, DH started getting worried that something might be wrong since my water broke but nothing else seemed to be happening to progress labor. We came home, ate dinner and I finally decided to call the midwife around 5:30 Saturday evening. As I had expected, she told me to immediately come to the hospital. We decided to go in and called my parents to pick up DD.

We got to the hospital around 7 pm and were immediately admitted and put into our birthing suite. The mdiwife came in and checked me and I was only 1 cm dilated. I was pretty disappointed but didn't think I would be too far along since I still wasn't having contractions of any significance. The midwife started talking about giving me pitocin but I told her I wanted to wait it out a while to see what my body was going to do on its own. She got a little pushy about it over the next few hours, even having the pediatrician on call come in to explain the risks of infection since my membranes had already been ruptured for so long.

At around 3 am the midwife came in to check me again, I was STILL only 1 cm dilated. I still wasn't having any contractions and at that point I was getting pretty discouraged because my body didn't seem to be doing anything on its own. The midwife told us that it was our choice what to do, even gave us the option to go home and wait it out, but also reiterated the risks of infection and other complications. Since I really wanted a VBAC we decided that we would stay put because I didn't want anything to jeopardize my chances for the VBAC. The last thing I wanted was to have another c-section, especially an emergency section. Around 4:30 am the midwife came back in and we agreed to start the pitocin. I wasn't happy about it but again, thought it was going to give me the best chance for having the vaginal birth that I wanted.

The pitocin slowly started to work its magic and around 8 am the contractions finally started to pick up.

I constantly moved around from laying in bed to sitting on the bed, sitting on the birth ball, standing up, leaning over the bed, any position that I could get comfortable in. The contractions were pretty strong all day and would be consistent every 2-3 minutes, then slow down to 3-4 minutes or 5 minutes apart. The nurses kept increasing the pitocin every few hours to try to get a good pattern of contractions going.

The midwife came in to check me again, I really have no idea what time it was but sometime on Sunday afternoon. Since the contractions had been pretty strong and regular I thought I would have progressed a bit. She checked me and I was only 2 cm but 100% effaced. I was so disappointed but she assured me that being 100% effaced was a good thing and the rest of the dilation should go fairly quickly at that point. She had the nurse increase the pitocin yet again to try to get things moving more quickly.

As the hours went by the contractions got more intense and lasted longer. When the midwife checked me again I was 5 cm. I was a little more encouraged since the time from 2 cm to 5 cm seemed to go by fairly quickly. At the same time, I realized I was only halfway there and started to wonder if this baby was ever coming out! Since it had been 38 hours since my water broke I was getting worried that I was going to be sent for a c-section.

At this point the midwife also realized that the baby's head was engaged by tilted sideways. His heart rate was slowing down because of the position he was in so they had to have me lay on my side to try to get him to settle in properly. This was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life! Just getting on my side was excruciating, but laying in that position was horrendous. She tried to get me to turn on my other side but I was in so much much pain I felt paralyzed. I just laid there and basically cried through the contractions, they even had to give me an oxygen mask because I could barely breathe I was in so much pain. I could feel the baby's head in my pelvis and the pressure on my pelvic bone was unbearable.

I finally told the midwife and DH that I just couldn't take the pain anymore. I was totally exhausted and felt like I had no strength left in me to push when the time came. I told them I wanted the epidural and I wanted it now. The midwife said she knew I didn't plan on an epidural so if I really wanted one I needed to look her dead in the eyes and tell her I wanted it. So I did. DH and I also had a code word that I would use if I really decided I wanted one (the code word was blue bird). He asked me if I was really serious and if so I knew what I needed to say. I looked at him and said, “yes! Blue bird, red bird, green bird, yellow bird!” The midwife agreed and called for the anesthesiologist.

I continued to try to breathe through the contractions until the anesthesiologist got there and I was shaking uncontrollably. My midwife said she was trying to hold off on checking me again but I was showing so many signs of being close to having this baby that she wanted to check me before the anesthesiologist showed up. She checked me and I was 8 cm!!! I had gone from 5 cm to 8 cm in less than 30 minutes. She leaned in and told me I was almost there and just needed to hang in there a little bit longer and the baby was coming.

At that point the anesthesiologist walked in the room and asked if I was ready. My midwife and DH both told me not to do it, that I would be so disappointed with myself after the fact because I was so close to having the natural birth I wanted. I realized that I was in transition and this was the hardest part, I just needed to be strong. I told the anesthesiologist to leave because I didn't want the epidural. He asked if I was totally sure because he was going into surgery in 5 minutes and this was my only chance. I told him I was positive I didn't want it and that he could leave.

After he left the room my midwife told me to try to get up and go to the bathroom to empty my bladder because the baby was coming very soon. While I was in the bathroom I told DH I felt like I had to poop (lol, TMI) and he said he wasn't sure if I should so he called in the midwife. She said that's probably the baby's head coming down and I was ready to push so come back into the room. Once I got back into bed I felt the urge to push and the midwife said go for it. I started pushing while they were getting everything set up. The baby's heart rate started to drop again so she told me I had to roll back over onto my side again. Not what I wanted to hear or do but I knew I had to do it because the baby was in danger. My midwife told me I was going to have to deliver this baby on my side because his head was still tilted to the side a bit and that was the only way to keep his heart rate up. I also had to continue on the oxygen mask to make sure the baby was getting enough oxygen.

I pushed for about 20 minutes and at 7:46 pm on January 9, 2011 Kyle Joseph was born weighing in at 6 lbs 2 oz, 18.5 inches long. He was immediately placed on my chest and wiped down but had to be quickly taken away because he was having a little difficulty breathing. Fortunately it wasn't serious enough to take him out of the room, the pediatrician on call was brought into the room. There were several people around him so I couldn't see what was going on, and didn't know until the next day, but he had to be intubated to assist him in breathing. They checked his oxygen levels and everything was perfect. The pediatrician said because it was such a quick delivery there was just excess fluid in his lungs that didn't get squeezed out. Within a few minutes he was completely fine. As soon as his breathing was regulated he was given back to me and immediately started nursing like a champ!

The next morning my parents came to the hospital with DD and she immediately fell in love. As soon as she walked in the room and saw him her face lit up – right away she put her arms out and said she wanted to hold her little brother. She is already a very proud big sister:)

Yay for a successful VBAC and a healthy baby boy!!!

Edited by NaturalMama311 - 1/17/11 at 4:00pm

[Agatha_Ann]

That is so wonderful you were able to have a VBAC like you wanted! Congratulations on your new little one!

[Birdie B.]

Fabulous! Great job mama!