Stalled
We get to the hospital in twenty five minutes. The one time I look at the speedometer Ben is going seventy five. 🙂 We check in and then head up to triage, where Jordan meets us. Things slow down now. A lot. This is why….we have a new nurse who is working her second shift at this hospital. As soon as she sees that Seth was born via c-section she immediately wants to go start getting things ready for a RCS. I tell her that I am refusing the c-section. She looks at the other nurse in triage and says “She can’t do that can she? Don’t we have to send her somewhere else? I mean, she isn’t at a nine with a baby hanging out of her crotch…..” The room goes silent. I look at Ben, freaking out, and then breathe a sigh of relief as the other nurse says that they can’t make me have surgery, it is my right to refuse and they have to treat me, because they can’t turn a laboring mother away. Yay! However right after this they decide to take my blood pressure and are concerned when it is one sixty over?? (I don’t remember the bottom number). I get checked and I am at a five but could be stretched to a six, they decide to call me a six. I get hooked up to the monitor’s, I have to have these all of labor because I’m attempting a VBAC. It’s annoying, but I’m willing to put up with them to get the birth I’m hoping for. I’m still having contractions but they have stretched out to between seven to eight minutes apart. I’m sure though that once we get to our room things will get started up again quickly. Or not. We get to the room around five, finish filling out the patient profile and watch time go by. It was seven or eight in the morning and shift change, we meet our new nurse who was amazing. She encourages us by saying right away that the hospital she worked at previously had done many VBAC’s and she was going to support us as much as possible. We dim the lights, put on some music and grab some essential oils that the hospital provides. It helps a little, contractions are back to five minutes apart but still not very hard. My blood pressure is down now so I can get out of the bed and start moving. We get a birth ball. Jordan encourages us to go walk and try something different to start things going again.
Walking does help, but not much.At some point Jordan leaves to get breakfast and coffee and sneak me in some protein drinks. I’m getting frustrated, Ben is getting bored. I discover it is possible to sleep between contractions. Around noon my doctor comes in to check on me and see how things are going. I’m now at seven. Only seven. So frustrated!! Contractions are strong enough now that I do have to breathe through them and start concentrating more, but still I tell Jordan nothing like what I was thinking labor was going to be like. I try the tub to see if that will help to speed things up. Not really.
We walk some more. Ben says he feels like he is walking a dog, because he has to carry around the monitor for me. 🙂 Around two thirty Jordan leaves to go feed her daughter. My doctor comes in again at three and we decide to break my water.
Real Labor
Within a couple of minutes of breaking my water contractions start that are more what I have been thinking labor would be like. The first couple I don’t want to move. These actually hurt. Jordan comes back after just a couple of these. I’m having a little back labor so we decide it is time to get in the shower. Ben holds the shower head to direct the water where I want it. I start to think an epidural is sounding really good, but as soon as my water broke they said I was at an eight, it is pretty much to late, and I feel okay once the contraction is done. The fetal heart monitor can’t keep the baby’s heart beat because of trying the hands and knees position. We have to get out. 🙁 The water felt so good. I labor on the toilet for a long time, I guess it was long anyways, for me time was measured by contractions and small breaks in between.
Later I was surprised to learn that between breaking my water and the actual birth was four hours, I didn’t think it had been that long at all.
I start to vocalize during contractions, I need Ben’s hands, squeezing them helps. Jordan reminds me to keep my voice low. I try standing up for one contraction, hurts to much. I try the birth stool. Hurts to much. I squat for a while with Ben behind me supporting me under my arms. I’m getting tired. At this point I have been up since eleven thirty-ish the night before with a few catnaps between contractions. I try laying on my side on the bed. I get checked again and I have a small lip left. Someone tries to hold it out of the way so I can push, but I tell her it hurts to much and to leave it. A few more contractions laying on the bed and I start to push spontaneously. It freaks me out the first couple of times because I wasn’t expecting it. Once I realized that pushing felt better than not I started pushing through contractions. I end up pushing on my knees next to the bed. Ben sat on the bed and I would squeeze his hands as hard as possible (he ended up taking his ring off, because it was hurting 🙂 he said I could have beat him arm wrestling.) and pull while pushing at the same time. A few times he thought he might fall over on top of me. 🙂 I thought I was screaming like a crazy woman, but Jordan said to tell you I was roaring. I was told to get mad at the pain, that helped a lot. I was mad. This baby was taking way to long to come out. He was hurting me. I was told to stop pushing for a minute, but I couldn’t, he was coming out and he was coming now. And there the was relief. And a baby. Our baby. I did it. It was possible. It was a little after seven PM on March 15, Cameron’s EDD if you went by my LMP. We had been at the hospital for almost seventeen hours. Cameron was eight pounds, seven and a half ounces, twenty inches long.
Afterwards
I am fuzzy about all of this, because I ended up passing out. I remember getting on the bed and holding Cameron for a minute, then while waiting for the placenta I start to feel very sleepy. I’m so tired and going to sleep is so easy. I had hemorrhaged and ended up losing an amount of blood comparable to a c-section, which is two to three times the amount of a vaginal birth. My hemoglobin level went down to six point six. I had three second degree tears.
A VBAC is an incredible experience. Bonding with Cameron has been so much easier than with Seth. It hurt, yes. I felt like a crazy woman, yes. I tore and hemorrhaged, yes. But it was a beautiful, healing experience and one I will never regret.
This is one of my favorite pictures. I love the look on Seth’s face when he met baby Cameron for the first time.
What was your VBAC experience like? Do you have any questions about having a VBAC? Leave a comment below, I would love to encourage you and get you some answers if possible.
Other posts you may like:
Part 1 of Cameron’s Birth Story
The BEST Workout DVDs for Pregnancy
What a beautiful story. All of the detail is amazing!
I love how you said it had been four hours, and that it didn’t even feel like it. It was the same for me. It’s unreal how fast time flies during that!
Beautiful baby! I will be posting on my blog soon about a lot of my birth experience too!
Thank you! I tried to write everything down as soon as possible after Cameron’s birth, so that I wouldn’t forget. I can’t wait to read your story!
I am impressed with your details. So happy you had the birth you desired. Beautifully written, maybe you should send this to a pregnancy or parenting magazine?
I hadn’t thought of that Brandi, I might pursue that. 🙂 Thanks for the idea.
I think it’s great you wrote all of this down so you could remember the experience so well! Awesome!
Your son was born on one of my son’s birthdays which happened to also be his expected due date! What a beautiful story you have, and so wonderful that you felt it was a healing experience.
That is cool! It is so rare to hear of babies being born on the EDD and now I know two. 🙂
A beautifully written post. You have a beautiful family!
Thank you! I have to agree with you, I might be just a little biased thought. 🙂
Congrats on doing it without pain medicine. I too had really long labors and ended up getting epidurals. But I was in extreme pain when only dilated to 3/4! Oh, well, they all came and are healthy!
Oh my goodness, there were so many times I thought about it, in the middle of hard contractions, but then when I got to the rest, I figured I could make it. 🙂
Awwww, love the picture of brothers meeting for the first time! There is nothing quite like the bond of two brothers!
They will be partners in crime for sure. 🙂
Wow, that’s an amazing journey. Amazing you had the strength of will to say, no, I don’t want that. The first nurse sounds rather frustrating, the second one – who had been at a hospital where VBACs were done – sounds much much better. Thank you for sharing this story!
Patient and parent rights are something that I am definitely passionate about. In fact all my personal freedoms are things I hold dear, I will fight to keep my rights and trying to dictate my birthing choice is not something that I could allow. The second nurse was so amazing! I have friends who ask specifically for her when they go in, I may have to do the same thing next time.
That was a great story. I’m so happy you were able to have a VBAC. I have a friend who loved that she was able to have one as well.
Thanks, it was a choice I’m so glad I made and I’m so thankful that everything went smoothly. Birth rights are things I wish more women were aware of and would fight for.
So beatiful story described in detail. Way to go…. Love it
What a great story! I am so proud of you that you stuck through it and did it! Loved reading about this. Thank you for sharing !!!!!
That is such a great picture at the end! I love when people share their stories and inspire others! I’m not sure if I would be brave enough to try for a VBAC!