Heather shares her amazing, and beautiful birth stories of her VBAC births. It is wonderful to see the difference between her first and second VBAC, and the wonderful courage and strength this mama shows. Her first birth is a whirlwind birth, the kind you see in the movies, so fast paced! Her second birth is not quite as fast, but it is inspiring to hear how this mama stood up for what she wanted in her birth and her body just took over for itself. Read her wonderful stories, and find encouragement!
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| home from the hospital |
After 24 hours before of cramping and just feeling miserable, my contractions started at 2 am about 9 minutes apart. By 5 am they were getting closer together but still not the 5 minutes apart the nurse said to use as my guide to come in. I called my parents who are 2 hours a way to have them come to take care of Colin knowing we could call Jon's parents as a backup if they weren't there when we needed to leave. About 6:45 I woke Jon up and told him to call his parents that I wanted to leave for the hospital--they were finally about 5 minutes apart and I was getting uncomfortable and really starting to think I was going to go back on my "no drugs" thought and take an epidural. So we called Jon's parents and left as soon as they arrived. We got to the hospital about 10 after 8, did the registration and walked into L&D triage—stopping along the way to deal with some bad contractions. Got settled in. Had one NASTY contraction that was longer and much stronger than the rest and I told the nurse I DEFINITELY now wanted drugs. She started entering data into the computer then did a check. I was dilated to 8 already! :eek: In the process she broke my water and I had the immediate urge to push. Needless to say I've never seen drs and nurses move so fast! They got me down the hall into a "real" room and didn't even have time to introduce anyone before I was pushing. I pushed for less than ten minutes and tore somewhat badly because it all happened so fast. But Jon got his wish to not spend all day in the hospital--I had Alex in less than an hour. I hear I really made some other women mad who were in the labor wing and heard me screaming (yes I screamed although I'm happy to say I only swore twice!) ;) and their nurses told them I'd literally WALKED into the hospital less than an hour earlier. If there is a 3rd we'll be getting to the hospital a LOT sooner. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VBAC #2- And I must have felt more like writing after my 2nd. The birth story is WAY longer. LOL. Sabrina Brianna, September 15, 2007, 11:43pm 7 lb 10 oz 20 ¼” long
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| nursing in the hospital shortly after she was born |
. Sept 13th--I got woken up a few times that night with lower back pain--the beginnings of labor. It was erratic so I blew it off. I had a drs appt Friday morning the 14th so I just figured we'd see if it was accomplishing anything. Sept 14th--I woke up Friday morning and just felt like garbage. I had a drs appt at 8:20. She checked me and said I was dilated to 3-3.5 and about 50% effaced. She said she figured with the contractions I was still having (even though they were erratic) she felt I would probably deliver during the weekend unless the contractions stopped. I went home and worked from home the rest of the afternoon because I just couldn't make myself dress nice and go to work. My back hurt most of the day and I just felt crappy. Around 6 pm when Jon was at work I realized I was having contractions about 15 minutes apart. I hadn't had any soft stools yet so I was pretty sure this wasn't "the" labor. I called my friend Mindy who had had 3 kids and asked if she had soft stools with every birth and she said yes so I figured I was still not in labor labor. She insisted on coming over though. I hadn't seen her yet since she moved to town so her and her husband and their three kids came over to keep me company until Jon got home from work. I called my parents and left a message that I was having contractions 15 minutes apart and I might or might not have the baby this weekend. Their call if/when they wanted to come up. They called back and said they'd come up yet that night since it was only 7:30 pm. They showed up around 9:30pm. I went to bed and the contractions stopped during the night. Sept 15th--I still felt kind of bad. Around 11 as I was getting ready to go run some errands the contractions started back up again. I went to Cub and got groceries and to Super Target to pick up a few things. Went home and kind of just tried to relax. The contractions were mostly crampy back pain which was different from Alex. I tried to take a nap at one point but I couldn't relax enough. The contractions sat around 10 minutes apart most of the day. Around 7pm they had moved to around 6-7 minutes apart so I figured we should head to the hospital with how quickly things had went with Alex. I finished packing up the hospital bag and told the boys goodnight and that daddy would be there in the morning but I wouldn't but that grandma and grandpa would bring them to the hospital to see me and to meet their new little sister. We got to the hospital and got registered and they sent me back to triage. I put on the lovely gown and got hooked up to the monitors. They entered my info in and did a check. I was only dilated to about a 5 which was a bit depressing. I really thought I'd be 6 or 7. They admitted me and found me a room. The nurse put in the IV and I started walking the halls with my portable IV thing. The nurse found me after about 10 minutes and told me the dr wanted me back in bed for continuous monitoring since I was a VBAC patient. I was surprised--I hadn't checked if policies had changed but I knew for a fact with Alex I was told I did not have to be on continuous monitoring. I told the nurse I refused. I told her I would NOT be confined to a bed when I was trying to make my labor progress. She said she agreed with me and that at her old hospital they didn't put VBAC's on continuous monitoring. I told her I would consent to monitoring at time intervals but not continuous. She went and found the dr and argued my case and came back and told me I had to be monitored for 5 minutes every 15 minutes. I agreed to that. I know they were short staffed that night and I just made my nurse's night even harder but I was NOT going to be told I was stuck in bed. If I CHOSE to stay in bed fine but I would not be told I would without a fight. She got me back in bed for monitoring and noticed she had bungled my IV and my arm was swelling up (I noticed it hurt but hadn't noticed it was swelling). So I had to endure her redoing the IV but that time she got it right. I walked the halls or just walked around the room for a few hours until the contractions were getting worse. The dr came in and checked me and I was 7-7.5. At that point I was getting tired of walking and the contractions were getting harder to talk through. The nurse suggested a birthing ball and went and found one. I spent the next hour or so (I really wasn't watching the clock) sitting on the birthing ball and breathing through contractions. Jon sat and played his PSP and talked to me. That is about what I wanted out of him--moral support more than backrubs or counting contractions from me so that was fine. He did come over during a few really bad contractions and rubbed my back and held my hand. The nurse suggested having the dr break my water to speed things up but I wasn't sure I wanted to go there. I knew I didn't really have to worry about the 24 hour clock thing but she said it would make the contractions more intense and they were already pretty bad (I was doing this unmedicated) and I wasn't sure I was ready for that. I decided to hold out another hour and see how my labor progressed without breaking my water. a little bit later I got up to use the bathroom and my contractions got a lot worse. When I got back I decided the birthing ball wasn't what I wanted anymore and figured I'd better get into bed before I couldn't. The contractions started coming pretty fast and the nurse did another check and said I was pretty much complete other than a small anterior lip. The dr came in and they got the bed ready to deliver and asked me to slide down the bed. I remember snapping something at them about "why do you people NEVER want me to move until I can't?". When I delivered Alex I was having contraction upon contraction and they asked me to scoot from the triage bed to the delivery bed and I couldn't because my legs were shaking. Jon helped me slide down the bed. The contractions were very intense at this point and I remember saying I couldn't do it and Jon telling me it was almost over. I had a couple really bad contractions and the dr told me the head was almost there. I hadn't even pushed up to this point--my body was just forcing the baby out. I pushed a bit with the next contraction and the head was out. When I delivered Alex I had nurses coaching me to push and counting to ten. This time no one coached me on anything. The nurse and the dr just told me what was going on ("the head is almost out". "okay just the shoulders left" etc). I actually preferred that. I was able to mentally calm down at that point even though it hurt and I knew a few more pushes and it would be over. It only took one push to get the shoulders out and next thing I knew there was a bloody screaming purple baby on my chest flailing her arms around. The dr clamped the cord and Jon cut it while she was laying on my chest screaming. They took her after a few minutes to clean her up and I delivered the placenta. Jon asked the dr if I had torn at all (I'd needed stitches with Alex) and she said I had one tiny tear that wouldn't need stitches. They weighted Sabrina and said she was 7 pounds 10 oz. I thought I heard them wrong. I did NOT expect that she was that large. I was thinking around 6 1/2 pounds actually. The size would account for how much worse the contractions were at the end than they were with Alex I would guess. Jon had guessed I'd have the baby 9/16. He missed it by 17 minutes with her being born at 11:43 pm. :) After they got her cleaned up they gave her back to me and I just looked at her for a bit then tried to nurse her. She latched right on and nursed on both sides before Jon decided to go home (he can't sleep in those lousy hospital pull out beds because of his back) and the nurse gave her a proper bath and they moved me to my recovery room. Before Jon left we decided on Sabrina for her first name but decided we'd figure out her middle name the next day. It was around 2:30 am when I finally got to go to sleep but of course they had nurses in all night long to check on me and Sabrina. I still slept better than I figured--probably the relief of having it done and knowing unless there is an oops I never had to endure pregnancy or labor and birth again. It was a miraculous experience I'm glad I was able to experience 3 times in my life and my last pregnancy and labor were actually as uneventful as they could have been which was a nice close to this phase of my life for me.
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