So....we're home! Forgive any typos, I'm typing one handed and in a really odd position.
Rowan Sophia, my 9lb 21 inch VBAC baby, was born at 12:35 in the afternoon on Friday June 8th 2007. Since my contractions seemed to become regular around midnight I guess that means my labor was ~12 hours long! And if you count from my water breaking at 3:30am that morning that makes it only 9 hours...not too bad when you compare it to my first birth which took 32 hours and ended in a c/s.
However, Rowan decided to "one up" her older sister and while the birth began beautifully we wound up with a LOT of drama at the end. And ouchies.
Thursday I had an appointment and asked to be checked...I was 2cm and 60% effaced. I asked for a membrane sweep (I was past 40 weeks). That evening DH, DD, and I went to a yummy Mexican place and then off to the mall for some last minute baby shopping and some walking. I didn't go to bed till around midnight, but I noticed I was having painless contractions that were getting more regular so I put on my hypnobabies "easy first stage" cd and fell asleep. I woke up every hour and those contractions were still there. Then at 3:30am my water broke with a POP (and I was glad I'd put a pad on the bed "just in case")
I woke DH and asked him to call our doctor and doula to let them know, and call my mom so she could come watch dd1. I cleaned up in the bathroom, put on my comfy "labor skirt", and went downstairs to sit on my birth ball. I logged into mdc and sent emails to friends...the contractions were regular and DH timed them as lasting a minute and having 2-3 minutes between them but they weren't even all that uncomfortable. I did need to focus during them, but that was all.
I had planned to stay home till I felt like pushing but once my mom arrived to care for dd I decided I'd rather be at the hospital (my mom is not the calm/peaceful sort). Also I wasn't feeling the babe move much and with her water broken I wanted some outside reassurance that she was doing okay.
We left for the hospital around 5am Friday morning. Everthing was still very comfy, the dawn was breaking, the birds were singing and we stood in the hospital parking lot for a while just enjoying the breeze and the sun coming up. When we went in the nurse hooked me up for the "15 minute strip" (the only required monitoring) and did a check...I was only 3cm dilated so DH and I (and our doula, who arrived a few minutes after we did) discussed going home but my OB asked me to stay. A very good call since things picked up FAST and I was pushing 4 hours later!
The hypnobabies helped a lot, but mostly as a focus...every contraction I started chanting "just pressure, just pressure, just pressure" over and over. And eventually it became "just just just just" during them. I spent a lot of time in the jacuzzi and unlike my last birth the tub felt wonderful! I was able to relax competely between contactions and the contractions were never "too much" for me to handle. PLUS this time there really were breaks between contractions!
However, I kept expecting things to get as bad as they did in my first birth, so I asked for drugs a lot. I knew it would take about an hour for any meds to arrive and I was "planning ahead". But DH, my doula, and the nursing staff were perfect! They kept saying things like "how about trying a contraction in this position?" or encouraging things like "you're so strong and you're really doing this!". And talking about how clear I'd been in my birth plan and how much they knew this vbac meant to me and...well...the support was just perfect. I should add that I was pretty up front with everyone...I told them that I didn't feel like I "needed" the drugs, I just WANTED the drugs! I never felt like I couldn't handle the intense pressure from the contractions, and the tub helped me relax between them. But poor DH apologized for a whole day for his constant "lets wait" mantra even though I told him it had been the perfect support!
I was amazed when I asked to be checked (I didn't even have to get out of the tub) and I was at 8cm! I'd passed transition without noticing it and for the first time I really believed my vbac was really really going to happen! I could do this! I WAS doing this! My body was working!
Although I blasted through the first stage (3cm to 10cm in under 4 hours), my OB wanted me to push on "dry land" since the tub room at our hospital is located in what was once a supply closet. A very small room with no medical equipment and no electrical outlets for equipment...just a tub and a chair and room for about three people max. Since I was a VBAC mama moving through labor really fast my ob planned on being with me the whole time and wanted to have a little more room in case we needed to try different positions or needed more support...plus they like to monitor a VBAC mama (blood pressure and a doppler reading) every 15 minutes during pushing so we needed to be someplace where you could have more people.
Anyway, we got back to my room and I pushed in all sorts of positions. I had two obs (an amazing husband-wife team) and one or both of them stayed with me the whole time. I pushed for a long time on the toilet, holding onto DH and sipping water my doula brought between contractions. I remember being surprised at how "grunty" the noises were that I was making.
After an hour Rowan's head was visible but I just wasn't getting further. We moved to the bed and we tried all sorts of positions...squatting with the bar, squatting on the floor, dangling, hands/knees, a sort of "frog on belly" position, semi-reclined with my feet against the squat bar or being held by DH and doula or held by me, on my side, etc! I think anywhere else they would have forced a c/s since I was progressing so slowly. But Dr Heidi was back with me at this point and she was, again, totally amazing. She and Dr. Rudy just kept checking me and the babe and staying so positive and strong and supportive! She had the nurses and my doula and DH "lending" me energy...she had everyone stroke me and tell me how amazing I was and basically do hands on and verbal support during each contraction and soothing support between pushes. But still no progress (and I'd already been pushing for 3 hours). Apparently Rowan's head was impacted on the pubic bone. We talked about it and I agreed to a small episiotomy so she could use the vacuum.
Well, that seemed to work since the episiotomy gave her enough room to get the vacuum in and Rowan's head under the bone. And we were all ready to welcome Roro when I birthed her head on the very next push. But then things got very focused and a bit loud...Rowan's shoulders got stuck and she was without oxygen for ~4 minutes as Heidi tried to get Rowan unstuck.
The nurses helped me flip every which way (I was in a squat and we flipped to the gaskin manuever, then to my back and to my side), everyone was very calm, and we obviously got Rowan out. But I have a 4th degree tear (it didn't follow the episiotomy line oddly enough) and it took both of my ob's ~40 minutes to reconstruct everthing and suture me up. I really appreciate all the effort on everyone's part...by the end I had 4 nurses as well as DH and my doula and the two obs helping me move into positions, and doing the pelvic push to open things up (Dr Heidi trained on the Farm and was using all the "tricks" she knew!), and then during the "emergency" everyone was still calm and really kept me going. There wasn't time to tell me what was happening but they helped me focus and push and get every last bit of strength behind my birthing pushes...no panic no yelling no scare tactics...just very calmly telling me to push push push as hard and a smooth as possible with or without a contraction. Again, amazing support.
Rowan was right on my chest the whole time they worked on her, and her apgars were good (7 and 8), and they were able to get her breathing on her own without the extra oxygen pretty quickly...we even had delayed cord cutting as we wanted since they were having me breath for her too. Then on top of the whole tear my placenta didn't detach properly...AND the local they used for suturing didn't cover the whole vaginal area. OUCH!!!!!!! So after the entire labor and birth without meds or an IV, I had fentanyl and pitocin and an IV while they worked on patching me up. Actually, we cut the cord after ~10 minutes so they could hook up my heplock to an IV to give me the drugs without affecting Rowan. Testing showed no nerve damage or fractures for Rowan and there shouldn't be any long term problems for me either...apparently in a sever shoulder dystocia a fourth degree tear and a breathing baby is sort of the "best case scenario". So that worked out well. And my OB actually teaches a class for midwives in how to repair extensive tears, so even though it was amazingly painful here and there and I'm still pretty darn sore I'm confident it was done right!
My DH, my OBs, my doula, the nursing staff and everyone at the hospital kept telling me how strong I'd been and how impressed they were (and are) and my recovery is going really well...mostly motrin and colace and sitz baths and milk of magnesia and the "now and then" lortab when chasing my 2yo causes some suture pain. But I feel like I owe them all so much for helping me make this VBAC happen! Seriously, I doubt there is another hospital or OB team that would have worked soooo hard to support me in my VBAC birth and trusted me and supported me in so many ways to bring my baby out safe and whole.
It wasn't exactly what I had dreamed (who dreams of a 4th degree tear?) but compared to my first birth (42+weeks, SPROM, 32 hours of unmedicated labor with 19 hours "stuck" at 7cm with never ending back to back no breaks at all transition style contractions ending in a c/s due to 9lb 5oz 17 inch head circumfrence dd being posterior and asynclitic) my VBAC was amazing and I am so proud of myself!
You can see pictures of my babe on our family website:
http://notfarfromthetree.com/Rorohome.html
Rowan Sophia, my 9lb 21 inch VBAC baby, was born at 12:35 in the afternoon on Friday June 8th 2007. Since my contractions seemed to become regular around midnight I guess that means my labor was ~12 hours long! And if you count from my water breaking at 3:30am that morning that makes it only 9 hours...not too bad when you compare it to my first birth which took 32 hours and ended in a c/s.
However, Rowan decided to "one up" her older sister and while the birth began beautifully we wound up with a LOT of drama at the end. And ouchies.
Thursday I had an appointment and asked to be checked...I was 2cm and 60% effaced. I asked for a membrane sweep (I was past 40 weeks). That evening DH, DD, and I went to a yummy Mexican place and then off to the mall for some last minute baby shopping and some walking. I didn't go to bed till around midnight, but I noticed I was having painless contractions that were getting more regular so I put on my hypnobabies "easy first stage" cd and fell asleep. I woke up every hour and those contractions were still there. Then at 3:30am my water broke with a POP (and I was glad I'd put a pad on the bed "just in case")
I woke DH and asked him to call our doctor and doula to let them know, and call my mom so she could come watch dd1. I cleaned up in the bathroom, put on my comfy "labor skirt", and went downstairs to sit on my birth ball. I logged into mdc and sent emails to friends...the contractions were regular and DH timed them as lasting a minute and having 2-3 minutes between them but they weren't even all that uncomfortable. I did need to focus during them, but that was all.
I had planned to stay home till I felt like pushing but once my mom arrived to care for dd I decided I'd rather be at the hospital (my mom is not the calm/peaceful sort). Also I wasn't feeling the babe move much and with her water broken I wanted some outside reassurance that she was doing okay.
We left for the hospital around 5am Friday morning. Everthing was still very comfy, the dawn was breaking, the birds were singing and we stood in the hospital parking lot for a while just enjoying the breeze and the sun coming up. When we went in the nurse hooked me up for the "15 minute strip" (the only required monitoring) and did a check...I was only 3cm dilated so DH and I (and our doula, who arrived a few minutes after we did) discussed going home but my OB asked me to stay. A very good call since things picked up FAST and I was pushing 4 hours later!
The hypnobabies helped a lot, but mostly as a focus...every contraction I started chanting "just pressure, just pressure, just pressure" over and over. And eventually it became "just just just just" during them. I spent a lot of time in the jacuzzi and unlike my last birth the tub felt wonderful! I was able to relax competely between contactions and the contractions were never "too much" for me to handle. PLUS this time there really were breaks between contractions!
However, I kept expecting things to get as bad as they did in my first birth, so I asked for drugs a lot. I knew it would take about an hour for any meds to arrive and I was "planning ahead". But DH, my doula, and the nursing staff were perfect! They kept saying things like "how about trying a contraction in this position?" or encouraging things like "you're so strong and you're really doing this!". And talking about how clear I'd been in my birth plan and how much they knew this vbac meant to me and...well...the support was just perfect. I should add that I was pretty up front with everyone...I told them that I didn't feel like I "needed" the drugs, I just WANTED the drugs! I never felt like I couldn't handle the intense pressure from the contractions, and the tub helped me relax between them. But poor DH apologized for a whole day for his constant "lets wait" mantra even though I told him it had been the perfect support!
I was amazed when I asked to be checked (I didn't even have to get out of the tub) and I was at 8cm! I'd passed transition without noticing it and for the first time I really believed my vbac was really really going to happen! I could do this! I WAS doing this! My body was working!
Although I blasted through the first stage (3cm to 10cm in under 4 hours), my OB wanted me to push on "dry land" since the tub room at our hospital is located in what was once a supply closet. A very small room with no medical equipment and no electrical outlets for equipment...just a tub and a chair and room for about three people max. Since I was a VBAC mama moving through labor really fast my ob planned on being with me the whole time and wanted to have a little more room in case we needed to try different positions or needed more support...plus they like to monitor a VBAC mama (blood pressure and a doppler reading) every 15 minutes during pushing so we needed to be someplace where you could have more people.
Anyway, we got back to my room and I pushed in all sorts of positions. I had two obs (an amazing husband-wife team) and one or both of them stayed with me the whole time. I pushed for a long time on the toilet, holding onto DH and sipping water my doula brought between contractions. I remember being surprised at how "grunty" the noises were that I was making.
After an hour Rowan's head was visible but I just wasn't getting further. We moved to the bed and we tried all sorts of positions...squatting with the bar, squatting on the floor, dangling, hands/knees, a sort of "frog on belly" position, semi-reclined with my feet against the squat bar or being held by DH and doula or held by me, on my side, etc! I think anywhere else they would have forced a c/s since I was progressing so slowly. But Dr Heidi was back with me at this point and she was, again, totally amazing. She and Dr. Rudy just kept checking me and the babe and staying so positive and strong and supportive! She had the nurses and my doula and DH "lending" me energy...she had everyone stroke me and tell me how amazing I was and basically do hands on and verbal support during each contraction and soothing support between pushes. But still no progress (and I'd already been pushing for 3 hours). Apparently Rowan's head was impacted on the pubic bone. We talked about it and I agreed to a small episiotomy so she could use the vacuum.
Well, that seemed to work since the episiotomy gave her enough room to get the vacuum in and Rowan's head under the bone. And we were all ready to welcome Roro when I birthed her head on the very next push. But then things got very focused and a bit loud...Rowan's shoulders got stuck and she was without oxygen for ~4 minutes as Heidi tried to get Rowan unstuck.
The nurses helped me flip every which way (I was in a squat and we flipped to the gaskin manuever, then to my back and to my side), everyone was very calm, and we obviously got Rowan out. But I have a 4th degree tear (it didn't follow the episiotomy line oddly enough) and it took both of my ob's ~40 minutes to reconstruct everthing and suture me up. I really appreciate all the effort on everyone's part...by the end I had 4 nurses as well as DH and my doula and the two obs helping me move into positions, and doing the pelvic push to open things up (Dr Heidi trained on the Farm and was using all the "tricks" she knew!), and then during the "emergency" everyone was still calm and really kept me going. There wasn't time to tell me what was happening but they helped me focus and push and get every last bit of strength behind my birthing pushes...no panic no yelling no scare tactics...just very calmly telling me to push push push as hard and a smooth as possible with or without a contraction. Again, amazing support.
Rowan was right on my chest the whole time they worked on her, and her apgars were good (7 and 8), and they were able to get her breathing on her own without the extra oxygen pretty quickly...we even had delayed cord cutting as we wanted since they were having me breath for her too. Then on top of the whole tear my placenta didn't detach properly...AND the local they used for suturing didn't cover the whole vaginal area. OUCH!!!!!!! So after the entire labor and birth without meds or an IV, I had fentanyl and pitocin and an IV while they worked on patching me up. Actually, we cut the cord after ~10 minutes so they could hook up my heplock to an IV to give me the drugs without affecting Rowan. Testing showed no nerve damage or fractures for Rowan and there shouldn't be any long term problems for me either...apparently in a sever shoulder dystocia a fourth degree tear and a breathing baby is sort of the "best case scenario". So that worked out well. And my OB actually teaches a class for midwives in how to repair extensive tears, so even though it was amazingly painful here and there and I'm still pretty darn sore I'm confident it was done right!
My DH, my OBs, my doula, the nursing staff and everyone at the hospital kept telling me how strong I'd been and how impressed they were (and are) and my recovery is going really well...mostly motrin and colace and sitz baths and milk of magnesia and the "now and then" lortab when chasing my 2yo causes some suture pain. But I feel like I owe them all so much for helping me make this VBAC happen! Seriously, I doubt there is another hospital or OB team that would have worked soooo hard to support me in my VBAC birth and trusted me and supported me in so many ways to bring my baby out safe and whole.
It wasn't exactly what I had dreamed (who dreams of a 4th degree tear?) but compared to my first birth (42+weeks, SPROM, 32 hours of unmedicated labor with 19 hours "stuck" at 7cm with never ending back to back no breaks at all transition style contractions ending in a c/s due to 9lb 5oz 17 inch head circumfrence dd being posterior and asynclitic) my VBAC was amazing and I am so proud of myself!
You can see pictures of my babe on our family website:
http://notfarfromthetree.com/Rorohome.html
)
