Well you already know the saga of the weekend LOL...labour stalled on Sunday around noon but I continued to have contractions about once every 30 minutes to 1 hour over the next 24 hours. I had my first NST on Monday at 3pm and there were some variations that while not too concerning did mean that they wanted to monitor me and Niamh more closely and something in my gut told me I had to get Niamh to come out ASAP so I decided to try Castor Oil (which I had tried with Rhys but which had done nothing).
On Monday at around 6:30 PM I administered a "Castor Oil Creamsicle"...1 cup orange juice, scoop of vanilla ice cream and 50 ML of Castor Oil (roughly 1.5 ounces). Contractions started within 5 minutes of drinking the concoction (which actually wasn't that bad taste wise LOL but I still drank it quickly). I had contractions about 5 minutes apart last between 30-45 seconds till about 9:00 at which point they stepped up to lasting every 60 seconds but still coming every 5 minutes. At that point I began to feel like I was a complete idiot for even attempting a VBAC and started to think about my c-section with a bit of longing...(okay in hindsight...at that point I was entering transition...a thought which had actually crossed my mind in passing but I figured not near enough time had passed for me to actually be at that point given how slow things had gone on the weekend). I had Jeff call the midwife and she asked to talk to me. At that point I was still pretty verbal but I was getting discouraged and starting to feel like I couldn't do this anymore. The midwife asked me to get into the bath and see if the contractions got closer together or further apart and she would call me back in 30 minutes.
Jeff timed the contractions which stayed roughly the same for about 20 minutes then suddenly dropped to every 1-3 minutes still lasting 45-60 seconds. Jeff says he asked me at that point if he should call Buffy (the midwife) again but I honestly don't remember him saying that. All of a sudden about 5 minutes later I got this unbearable pressure in my legs and butt and realized that I had to push. I told Jeff and started screaming at the top of my lungs because the urge to push was completely overwhelming. He started to cry because he was terrified and called Buffy who said she was coming right away (but she lived across town which was about a 20 minute drive if you are speeding LOL). She told Jeff if I started to grunt to call 911 and get an ambulance there. He asked if the screaming counted and she said no as long as she is screaming she isn't pushing but if you here a single grunt call the ambulance. At that point my water broke and I started bearing down because I just couldn't do anything else. As soon as Jeff heard the first grunt he immediately called 911 and began begging me to pant but I could feel Niamh's head in my vagina and there was just no way that I could pant through that. I kept telling him her head was right there. The ambulance was there about 6 minutes later (keep in mind I am *still in the bathtub completely naked*). The paramedic wanted to get me out of the tub but I was in the middle of a contraction and I told him he had to wait until it was over. As soon as it was over the paramedics hauled me out of the tub and put me on the gurney (there was some meconium staining in the water from my water breaking and the paramedic thought he saw meconium particles...which actually turned out to be my own bowel movement...wow is labour so not glamourous!)
Buffy got to the house just as they were shuffling me into the ambulance and the paramedic told her about the meconium. She asked if it was just staining (which would have meant I could just stay at home) or if there were particles. The paramedic said there were particles and honestly she didn't really have time to check to see the contents of the bathtub so she decided to get me to the hospital just in case we needed a respiratory technician when Niamh was born.
I pushed the whole way to the hospital and all the way up to labour and delivery. They left Jeff at home to pack up a bag for me and Niamh. He calmed down once he knew he wasn't going to have to deliver the baby so he decided he was calm enough to drive. When we got up to labour and delivery Buffy got them to put the birthing bed in the delivery room which had enough space for the respiratory techs if we needed them. When we got the birthing bed Buffy had the back of the bed up at about a 45% angle and had me pulling my legs up to push with every contraction.Jeff drove to the hospital but figured he had missed the birth so he went to get the blue hospital card when he got to the hospital. I guess they re-registered me because all of a sudden I was in the computer twice (which confused the nurses) and then he showed up at the nurses station and they asked him what the heck he was doing registering me when I was having the baby any second LOL. He said that he figured he had missed it...the rushed him to the delivery room and he got there just as Niamh was crowning. After about 45 minutes of pushing (at the hospital so about 1 hour 45 minutes total) Buffy thought perhaps I was pushing Niamh against my pubic bone so they decided to lower the bed to about 20 degrees. Once they did that she was out in two pushes at 11:48pm on November 15th.
When they put her on my stomach all sticky wet the first words out of my mouth were "I got to hold her first" and I started to cry. Jeff says I also said "I'm not broken"...because that was how I was left feeling after Rhys' birth...like there was something not "right" with me since I couldn't even labour properly (I had stalled at 4 cms with Rhys so never even got to push). The took Niamh to the warmer and the respiratory techs checked her over and she was perfect. The meconium had likely been passed about 2 weeks before so there wasn't any problems associated with that. Once they were done with her they offered her back to me but I had begun shaking really strongly (apparently that is pretty common with really fast births) and I was afraid that I would drop her so I asked Jeff to hold her.
I had 2 second degree tears (one going back and one to the side) so it took about 45 minutes to stitch me up (ironically longer than it took to close me after my c-section with Rhys LOL!) Niamh weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long with very little coning (she didn't have much time to develop a cone head
Once I had peed under my own power the midwives discharged me and we got to go home so we left the hospital at 3:30am. By the time we had left the hospital Niamh had nursed 3 times on each breast and ended up nursing twice more when we got home and then wanting to nurse when we went to bed (she figured out nursing lying down like a champ though so I just let her nurse and snoozed beside her).
It was a pretty amazing experience. A bit higher in the drama department then I was looking for though! I ended up birthing Niamh completely naked without even a blanket covering me (which had always seemed right to me and was a secret wish...but I had always planned to do that AT HOME LOL!) In the ambulance I had said to my midwife "I can't get this right I am either too fast or too slow!"
Even though it was a bit more exciting then I was aiming for (I just wanted a nice relaxing homebirth) it was the most amazing experience of my life so far and looking back I don't have any regrets about anything that happened this time. Niamh is so beautiful and Rhys thinks she is amazing (once we got him to understand that the baby in momma's arms was the same baby that had been in momma's tummy LOL!) There are some pictures posted at http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/n/niamhba/ (I added a picture of Jeff and Niamh and one of Jeff, Niamh and Rhys).
I feel so very blessed and Niamh is so beautiful! Plus honestly I feel like a million bucks (pretty sore but very mobile compared to how I was with Rhys). If you got through this whole story you deserve a medal!
Steph
On Monday at around 6:30 PM I administered a "Castor Oil Creamsicle"...1 cup orange juice, scoop of vanilla ice cream and 50 ML of Castor Oil (roughly 1.5 ounces). Contractions started within 5 minutes of drinking the concoction (which actually wasn't that bad taste wise LOL but I still drank it quickly). I had contractions about 5 minutes apart last between 30-45 seconds till about 9:00 at which point they stepped up to lasting every 60 seconds but still coming every 5 minutes. At that point I began to feel like I was a complete idiot for even attempting a VBAC and started to think about my c-section with a bit of longing...(okay in hindsight...at that point I was entering transition...a thought which had actually crossed my mind in passing but I figured not near enough time had passed for me to actually be at that point given how slow things had gone on the weekend). I had Jeff call the midwife and she asked to talk to me. At that point I was still pretty verbal but I was getting discouraged and starting to feel like I couldn't do this anymore. The midwife asked me to get into the bath and see if the contractions got closer together or further apart and she would call me back in 30 minutes.
Jeff timed the contractions which stayed roughly the same for about 20 minutes then suddenly dropped to every 1-3 minutes still lasting 45-60 seconds. Jeff says he asked me at that point if he should call Buffy (the midwife) again but I honestly don't remember him saying that. All of a sudden about 5 minutes later I got this unbearable pressure in my legs and butt and realized that I had to push. I told Jeff and started screaming at the top of my lungs because the urge to push was completely overwhelming. He started to cry because he was terrified and called Buffy who said she was coming right away (but she lived across town which was about a 20 minute drive if you are speeding LOL). She told Jeff if I started to grunt to call 911 and get an ambulance there. He asked if the screaming counted and she said no as long as she is screaming she isn't pushing but if you here a single grunt call the ambulance. At that point my water broke and I started bearing down because I just couldn't do anything else. As soon as Jeff heard the first grunt he immediately called 911 and began begging me to pant but I could feel Niamh's head in my vagina and there was just no way that I could pant through that. I kept telling him her head was right there. The ambulance was there about 6 minutes later (keep in mind I am *still in the bathtub completely naked*). The paramedic wanted to get me out of the tub but I was in the middle of a contraction and I told him he had to wait until it was over. As soon as it was over the paramedics hauled me out of the tub and put me on the gurney (there was some meconium staining in the water from my water breaking and the paramedic thought he saw meconium particles...which actually turned out to be my own bowel movement...wow is labour so not glamourous!)
Buffy got to the house just as they were shuffling me into the ambulance and the paramedic told her about the meconium. She asked if it was just staining (which would have meant I could just stay at home) or if there were particles. The paramedic said there were particles and honestly she didn't really have time to check to see the contents of the bathtub so she decided to get me to the hospital just in case we needed a respiratory technician when Niamh was born.
I pushed the whole way to the hospital and all the way up to labour and delivery. They left Jeff at home to pack up a bag for me and Niamh. He calmed down once he knew he wasn't going to have to deliver the baby so he decided he was calm enough to drive. When we got up to labour and delivery Buffy got them to put the birthing bed in the delivery room which had enough space for the respiratory techs if we needed them. When we got the birthing bed Buffy had the back of the bed up at about a 45% angle and had me pulling my legs up to push with every contraction.Jeff drove to the hospital but figured he had missed the birth so he went to get the blue hospital card when he got to the hospital. I guess they re-registered me because all of a sudden I was in the computer twice (which confused the nurses) and then he showed up at the nurses station and they asked him what the heck he was doing registering me when I was having the baby any second LOL. He said that he figured he had missed it...the rushed him to the delivery room and he got there just as Niamh was crowning. After about 45 minutes of pushing (at the hospital so about 1 hour 45 minutes total) Buffy thought perhaps I was pushing Niamh against my pubic bone so they decided to lower the bed to about 20 degrees. Once they did that she was out in two pushes at 11:48pm on November 15th.
When they put her on my stomach all sticky wet the first words out of my mouth were "I got to hold her first" and I started to cry. Jeff says I also said "I'm not broken"...because that was how I was left feeling after Rhys' birth...like there was something not "right" with me since I couldn't even labour properly (I had stalled at 4 cms with Rhys so never even got to push). The took Niamh to the warmer and the respiratory techs checked her over and she was perfect. The meconium had likely been passed about 2 weeks before so there wasn't any problems associated with that. Once they were done with her they offered her back to me but I had begun shaking really strongly (apparently that is pretty common with really fast births) and I was afraid that I would drop her so I asked Jeff to hold her.
I had 2 second degree tears (one going back and one to the side) so it took about 45 minutes to stitch me up (ironically longer than it took to close me after my c-section with Rhys LOL!) Niamh weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long with very little coning (she didn't have much time to develop a cone head
Once I had peed under my own power the midwives discharged me and we got to go home so we left the hospital at 3:30am. By the time we had left the hospital Niamh had nursed 3 times on each breast and ended up nursing twice more when we got home and then wanting to nurse when we went to bed (she figured out nursing lying down like a champ though so I just let her nurse and snoozed beside her).It was a pretty amazing experience. A bit higher in the drama department then I was looking for though! I ended up birthing Niamh completely naked without even a blanket covering me (which had always seemed right to me and was a secret wish...but I had always planned to do that AT HOME LOL!) In the ambulance I had said to my midwife "I can't get this right I am either too fast or too slow!"
Even though it was a bit more exciting then I was aiming for (I just wanted a nice relaxing homebirth) it was the most amazing experience of my life so far and looking back I don't have any regrets about anything that happened this time. Niamh is so beautiful and Rhys thinks she is amazing (once we got him to understand that the baby in momma's arms was the same baby that had been in momma's tummy LOL!) There are some pictures posted at http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/n/niamhba/ (I added a picture of Jeff and Niamh and one of Jeff, Niamh and Rhys).
I feel so very blessed and Niamh is so beautiful! Plus honestly I feel like a million bucks (pretty sore but very mobile compared to how I was with Rhys). If you got through this whole story you deserve a medal!
Steph
I remember getting those shakes really bad with my first and second births, they can be scary!
