Una's VBAC birth

***Slight mention of discomfort, and I decided to use drugs at hour 24****  Pitocin used

After a week's worth of acupuncture and chiropractor appointments, as well as listening to the "Come Out, Baby" CD to get labor going, I woke up at 1am Friday morning thinking I had really bad gas.  By 3am I woke up my husband, at 4am my water broke, and by 5am we were in the hospital.  My Hypnobirthing carried me through drug free for nearly 24 hours - to be honest, I don't think I could listen to another rendition of the Early Birthing Stage track - I think I listened to it over 10 times in a row and all of t he nurses commented how calm I looked while I lay in the bed listening to my iPod.  At about 11:30pm Friday night I was still only 4cm and they cranked the pitocin.  At that point I asked for the epidural because I had been up for over 24 hours and decided getting some rest was more important than my stubbornness about attempting a drug free birth - the pressure waves were still manageable but I didn't want to falter in the pushing stage because I was exhausted.  The epidural kicked in around 1 am Saturday, and my doula went home to get some rest as well.

At 2am the baby had a dip in heart rate and the doctor checked me and we were all shocked to  discover that I was complete - I had dilated 6 cm in an hour.  So we called the doula back in and started preparing to push.  After 2 1/2 hours of pushing the doctor said she'd give me another 1/2 hour or so (until 5 am) to make better progress or she'd recommend a repeat c-section.  She left and our doula Betsy became the most awesome drill sargent, telling me, "Catherine, you need to make the next 1/2 count more than the previous 27 if you want to avoid the c-section."

Fortunately, there were THIRTY FOUR BIRTHS happening that night (it was all the nurses and doctors could talk about - how everyone was staying for a double shift and they were calling in doctors who had already gone home because everyone started birthing at once) and the our doctor couldn't make it back until 6am so I had 1 1/2 hours to try EVERYTHING and had Betsy encouraging me, and when the doctor came  back I had progressed enough that she felt OK with my continuing to push.  After a few more pushes the doctor suggested we use the vacuum and I looked at Betsy for advice.  She said the fact that I was a VBAC and was already over 24 hours since my water broke and they were still giving me latitude made her think I should go the vacuum route and consider myself lucky.

On the next push they got the vacuum in place, the push after the head came out, and the push after that Una Marie was born at 6:40 am November 4th.  All NINE pounds of her.  I made a joke that at least she weighed less than Berch, and the doctor said, "How big was your first baby?"  I told her Berch was 9lb 9 oz with a 15 1/2" head and she stared at me and said, "If I had seen that in your chart I NEVER would have let you continue with a vaginal birth at this point!"

We are all home now - Berch is quite proud of his Baby Una, and we are adjusting to the new world order.  This was everything we wanted - and I could have never made it through 4 1/2 hours of pushing without having the HypnoBabies practice that enabled me to immediately relax between pushes - I feel it was what made the difference and allowed me to continuously recharge and find the strength to help Una out.

Again, thank you to everyone on this board and good luck to everyone.

Catherine