Donovan's VBA2C Birth Story
On my due date, Jan 28th, my Mom and I went to walk around the mall
after Porter got on the bus for school. I was having a few pressure
waves, but they were very mild. As we were walking they became
pretty consistent at 10-15 minutes apart. We kept walking until it
was time to pick up the boys from school, so about 2 ½ hours. I
wanted to keep moving, so we went to the Family Living Center with
the boys, and they got to make rope, and learn how to make candles
while I walked around the building. We went home, and I went to
around 11pm. My pressure waves continued until 3 in the morning and
then they went away completely. After that, I only had about 1
pressure wave an hour for the rest of the week. But, at my
appointment with Sherry that week, I found that I only had about ½ –
1 inch of cervix left. So, while I wasn't in labor, and wasn't
dilated at all, at least all those pressure waves had been doing
something.
On Wednesday, the 6th of February, I decided to try castor oil. So,
at around 3pm, I took 2oz of castor oil in a glass of Coke. It
didn't bother me taste-wise, but it also didn't do anything to my
bowels. However, at 1am the next morning, I woke up to a really
strong pressure waves. They didn't stop, so 2 hours later, I went
into the baby's room (where my Mom was staying). She sat up with me
and kept and eye on the clock. They were pretty regular at 10
minutes apart for another hour, so we decided it might be a good
idea to head up to Sandra's house. I called Sherry to tell her what
was going on. I had practiced my HypnoBabies for about 18 weeks, I
was using it and and listening to my Easy First Stage script on the
car ride. We had to stop about 30 minutes before getting to my
doula's house. We needed gas for the car, and I had to use the
restroom. We walked into the store and a pressure wave hit. I had to
stop and lean against a wall and breath through it. DH thought it
was pretty funny, like I stopped to pray that the bathroom would be
clean. Well, we got back in the car, and my mom started to drive
away. Just before she pulled out, I said, "Ahh, Mom? DH is still
inside the gas station." She almost left him there!
After arriving in Galesburg, we settled in and just kept an eye on
me and the clock. We ate breakfast, took naps, I took a bath. They
were still about 10 minutes apart, but they would come closer to 5,
then stretch out to 20 every now and then. Sandra put my iPod on a
speaker so I could listen to it without needing to wear my
headphones. At one point I had Sandra read my Come Out, Baby script,
and then DH came into the room and did nipple stimulation while we
napped. That made the pressure waves come more regularly. Around
3pm, Mom did an exam on me (that took a while to get straight in my
head!), and found me to be 5-6 centimeters with a bulging bag of
waters. So, we packed up and drove out to the hospital. I called
Sherry to update her again, and she said she would meet us there.
After getting checked in, doing the question and answer session, and
getting hooked up to the monitor, Sherry examined me. Mom was wrong.
I was only 1 centimeter dilated and 90% effaced. That was a bit
disappointing. I'm sure Mom felt real bad about that. Sandra had my
iPod on the speakers again. I would use the relaxation that it
taught me in between each pressure wave, but I was never able to get
into Off during a pressure wave and I was feeling more than just
pressure. Well, my pressure waves started slowing down, so Sherry
brought in the breast pump and had me start doing nipple
stimulation. It did work, but the pressure waves weren't strong or
steady enough to really do anything. I also started to find my doula
to be a distraction. While we were at her house, she did a great job
of just letting me do what I had to, and keeping everyone quiet.
But, as soon as we got to the hospital, she started talking me
through every pressure wave, for the length of the pressure wave.
Around 10pm, we called Sherry in to see if I could just take a
shower and try to sleep, since I was getting so tired. She thought
that just going home would be a good option. Also, she wouldn't be
able to use the Foley catheter on me, since I hardly had any cervix
left, it wouldn't stay in place. So, with Dr. K's approval, I was
discharged. We didn't go home, though. We got a hotel in town. DH
and I in one room, Mom in one, Peggy in one, and Sandra in another.
Sherry also sent me home with some Tylenol and some muscle relaxers
to help me get some sleep.
At that point, I was so tired, and the pressure waves were hurting
me, and I was having a hard time staying on top of them. I was
almost to the point where I just wanted to say forget it, just give
me another cesarean. Through the night, I kept having pressure
waves, and I couldn't sleep through them. I was able to get a little
sleep in between them, so that helped a little. I don't know how
often they were coming, as I was to tired to care. I did notice that
I started to loose bits of my mucus plug.
The next morning, we all got up and had breakfast. While at the
restaurant, I lost the remainder of my mucus plug. I'd never lost
one before, so it was a real surprise to me what it looked like.
Sandra went home after we ate and I was going to call her when I
needed her again. I had an appointment with Sherry at 1pm that
afternoon, so we went to that. The good news was that I was now at a
2, and she was able to stretch me to a 3. I was still having
pressure waves, so she said I was definitely in labor. She advised
me to go back to the hotel, and just try to rest as much as I could
until I felt I needed to come into the hospital, and to give myself
and enema. After getting back to the hotel, Mom took Peggy back
home. Mom was going to play with the boys for a while, and then come
back out that night.
When DH and I got back to the room, I gave myself the enema. It
really worked well. I've never done one before, so I was surprised
at how gentle it was. Then, I got on my bathing suit and went down
to the pool. I just walked around in the pool doing laps for about
30 minutes. But, after a while I decided to go back to my room. Even
though being in the water felt good, I hated it during a pressure
wave. I couldn't get into any position I liked. Back up in the room,
we laid down to try to get some more rest, but my pressure waves
were coming about every 10 minutes again. They were getting much
harder to stay relaxed and focused through. DH was doing a great job
helping me. He would rub or press on my back or squeeze my hips
during pressure waves when I needed him to. At one point, DH asked
me if I was going to call Sandra back. I felt bad, but I realized
then that I didn't want her. She wasn't doing anything for me, and
what she had to offer was the same things my Mom, DH, and my midwife
were giving me. Plus, it made for one less person around watching me.
With Mom gone, we were without transportation. The hotel we were
staying in had a shuttle that was supposed to be able to take us to
and from the hospital. So, DH went down to find out the details, as
I was pretty sure we needed to go pretty soon. He came back and
informed me that they didn't have a shuttle. All they had was a
phone number to a service that would take us there for $10 cash. We
had no cash. We started to freak out a little bit about how we were
going to get there. But, I finally looked up a taxi service in the
phone book and found that they would take credit cards. My pressure
waves at this point were 4-5 minutes apart, and had been for almost
2 hours. In order to get through each pressure wave I would breath
really slow and loudly until it ended. In between I was able to
completely relax, so that helped me. But, I was worried about the
ride to the hospital, so I told DH to call the taxi and have them
come get us. I called Mom to find out how far away she was. She was
about 40 minutes away still, so we told her to go to the hospital
and meet us there. Then we called Sherry to let her know we were on
our way again.
We got to the hospital, and this time I was grateful for the
wheelchair. During the 5-10 minute taxi ride, I had 3 pressure
waves, and then I had several on the ride up to labor and delivery.
Thankfully, this time, I didn't have to do the question and answer
session, since it was all done the day before. Good thing, too,
since I wouldn't have been able to pay attention to any of it. We
were admitted at 7:07pm. Sherry arrived within minutes of us. She
gave me an exam and I was at a 4, and my pressure waves were coming
every 3 minutes. Things were going well, I was sitting on the
birthing ball and leaning over the bed, while DH sat behind me to
give me back/hip pressure. I wasn't having any back labor, but the
counter pressure felt really good. Mom showed up around 7:30. You
could just see that she had been rushing as fast as she could to get
there.
At this point I pretty much zoned out. Sherry was there talking to
me to help me release and relax, and Mom and DH were there to help
hold me up and rub my back. I had forgotten my iPod at the hotel
room, so Sherry put on her HypnoBirthing Rainbow Relaxation CD. But,
I couldn't really hear it through my breathing. I don't think she
played it again after the first time through. During my next exam, I
was at a 5 and had completely effaced. I was moving around trying
different positions. Not one of them was great, but I found several
I didn't like! My favorite was sitting on the birthing ball while
leaning over the bed. However, baby didn't seem to like it very
much. His heart rate starting going really high. It was up in the
180's pretty consistently. Sherry worried a bit about dehydration,
so she wanted me to get IV fluids. I really didn't want to, but if
it would help the baby, I was okay with it. Unfortunately, right
about the same time the telemetry fetal monitor battery died, so I
had to be hooked up again. But, since I was attached to the IV pole
now, I couldn't really move around anyway. Baby's high heart rate
lasted for about an hour, so Sherry made me find a different
position. Turns out the only way to keep his heart rate in the
normal zone was for me to be laying down in the bed on my right
side. Oh my goodness, I HATED that! After the first pressure wave I
started to loose focus, and I got up and turned around and crawled
up the bed. Sherry had to drag me back down. So, DH and Mom ended up
sitting behind/beside me and held me up during every pressure wave.
Around 9:30pm Sherry sent Dr. K the strip so that he could take a
look at it. He ended up coming over to the hospital because he was
very concerned. He examined me and I was at a 6-7. He said that the
heart rate being up was what usually happened before it dropped and
the uterus ruptured. He wanted to do a cesarean. Especially since
his heart rate was positional.
DH asked that we have a few minutes to talk about it. So he and
Sherry went out of the room. I had great confidence that I wouldn't
need the surgery, but how do you convey something like that to a
medical doctor? DH and I decided that we would tell the doctor that
he needed to check me one more time, and that if I was close, that
he needed to let me continue to try. Later he told me that he also
told Sherry that this wasn't just a desire to have a VBAC, but that
my last cesarean was a huge cause for my postpartum depression. So
it wasn't just my physical state that was being threatened, but my
emotional one as well. Sherry seemed to understand. Dr. K wasn't
happy about it, but he grumbled that it would be okay to see. DH was
praying that my body would do what it needed to, since he didn't
know what else he could do. The doctor came back in the room and
examined me during a pressure wave. That was one time I definitely
lost my focus and started to freak out a bit. However, it was worth
it. In just 2 pressure waves I went from a 7 to a 9! He agreed to
let me continue to labor, but he definitely stuck around and kept an
eye on his heart rate.
Almost 5 hours after being admitted to the hospital, I started
feeling the urge to push. I had entered the second stage! Whoo-hoo!
I became quite vocal during this part. My breathing had always been
loud, but now I started grunting with my breathing/moaning.
(Unfortunately DH does a great impersonation of it, but it is funny)
I learned very quickly what it felt like to push "right", but it was
so intense that I didn't want to do it. So, I held back. When a
pressure wave ended, I very quickly stopped pushing, even if I could
have pushed for longer. My bag of waters was still intact this whole
time, and it was bulging like crazy. I heard the nurses rushing to
get towels and stuff laid out for the big splash that was eminent.
But, Sherry asked if she could just prick it so it wouldn't explode.
I agreed. Then the nurse got the mirror set up so that I could see
what was going on. I was able to see a little sliver of his head!
During my next pressure wave I gave in to the urge and really
pushed. His head was out in that one pressure wave! Without a
pressure wave to guide me, I pushed the rest of his body out. It
happened so fast! I pushed just shy of 1 hour, and Donovan Larry was
born on Saturday, February 9th at 12:50am. He weighed 6lbs 15.2oz
and was 19" long. His head was 34cm, and his chest was 32cm. Six
minutes later I delivered the placenta. I can't believe it! I had a
wonderful VBA2C Hypno birth! It's true, the female body is amazing.
They put him on my chest immediately. He was so wonderful. Of
course, following his big brother's footsteps, he peed on me! He
started nursing right away and did an excellent job of it. He's only
2 days old now and my milk has already come in. When he was on my
chest, I was able to see the umbilical cord, it was very long and
skinny. But, that is good, because the reason he has such heart rate
problems was because the cord was wrapped around him 4 times! Once
around the neck, an arm, the chest, and a leg. After the cord
stopped pulsing and was cut, I asked Sherry if I tore. She said yes,
and it was very unusual. I had a tear on my inner labia and vaginal
wall. I guess it was pretty bad. In fact, the tore inside occurred
just as his head started crowning, not as he was coming out, and I
lost a lot of blood from it. After all was done, they asked if I
need to use the restroom. I said I'd like to try to get up to go. So
the nurses helped me into the restroom. But then I got light headed,
and I passed out. DH told me that they needed to give me smelling
salts to come to. I was escorted back to bed and wasn't allowed to
get back up for a while. I later ended up needing to get a blood
transfusion, as it turned out I lost almost half of my blood. Scary,
but I'm so glad that everything worked out so wonderfully.
Wendy