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Olivia's Birth

I wanted to share my VBAC birth story.  Its long.  I am not really sorry
though, because I think its a very good read, if I do say so myself ;).  I
hope its encouraging to you ladies.  Just a little bit of background, I had
4 vaginally deliveries and my last baby was born via emergency section due
to an abruption and her being breech, found out during delivery.  I do not
hold a grudge about my section, it was necessary, but I did not want another
one.  My goal was a intervention free birth...

Pepper Baby’s Birth story.

On Monday May 21st, Pepper Baby’s Doctor given due date, I started having
regular, but non painful, just uncomfortable contractions at 5:04 a.m.  They
continued throughout the day.  By 4:00 ish, they were becoming more
uncomfortable and more regular.  That is when I say that labor truly
started.  By 5:00 I was counting down the minutes until Sean got home from
work and trying to figure out if we needed to call someone to watch the
children.

When Sean, my husband, got home at 6:50, I was breathing through a
contraction. He came to kiss me and I told him no.  He asked if I was
“practicing my breathing” as we did not want the children to catch on to
what may or may not be happening with Mommy.  Yes I told him.  I went
upstairs and took a nice long hot bath.  I was up there until after 8:00.
When I came down, I was still contracting and having to work hard to relax
through the contractions.

The children went to bed and I suggested that Sean go upstairs to bed also,
because we were probably going to be heading in during the night and
considering he had been up since 4:45 a.m. he should really get some sleep.
So Sean went to bed around 10:00 after trying to sleep on the couch for an
hour.

My plan was to stay up until my brother got home from work, about 11:15 pm
or so and ask him if he would go to bed early so that if we needed him to
watch the children on Tuesday, he would.  I tried and tried to relax through
the contractions because they were really intense.  Abut 1:00 a.m. I woke
Sean up and I called the Dr. Office.  He said to go in.  Good.  I was
concerned because I did not want to get sent home after only a few hours
because this is my sixth baby and by now, things should be standard
procedure.

One would think that I would know better after Miriam’s birth that nothing
is standard anymore.

So, off we go to the hospital.  It was a dark night.  On the way out to the
van, I had to stop twice for contractions.  I told Sean, when I got to the
van, that this was the plan.  I’d wait and have one more contraction and
then off we’d go, that way, I should only have 2 maybe 3 on our 7-10 minute
slow drive to the hospital.  Of course, I could feel every little bump and
every time we would go around the corner or have to stop or go, I’d be
having a contraction.  Poor guy listening to his whiny wife all the way to
the hospital.  He is such a trooper.

So, we get here and they are pretty dead…it’s the middle of the night after
all.  I get into a triage room and she monitors me for about 20 minutes.
Then she checks me.  I am 3 cm and 70% effaced….ugh…not real active labor.
Although the contractions were real and active, I knew that meant they were
not doing much.  She called the doc and he said, keep her there for an hour
and then check her again.  So we did that.  When she checked me at 3:30is,
same old same old.  She wanted to do another strip and talk to the doctor
about options.
We were given two options, one to stay in an anti-partum room until morning
and get rechecked after shift change or go home.  Because I am a VBAC and
did not want time restraints set upon my labor or any invasive procedures,
Sean thought it best to go home.  So that is what we decided.  We got home
around 4:45a.m, Sean’s normal wake up time.  Sean quickly went up to bed.
He was going to get up with the children at 8:30 and I was going to go
upstairs and work on breathing through contractions.   So at 8:30 we
switched locations, but it did not last long.

At 8:45 I heard AND felt a POP.  I thought for sure that my water had
broken.  I yelled/moaned for Sean and he came running.  He got towels and
even figured out what I was trying to tell him with no words, just motions.
He really is a wonderful, wonderful man.  I went to the bathroom and nothing
came out.  I am sure my water broke.  I could both hear and feel the pop,
but the pop was on the upper left hand side of the bags of water.  So, my
best guess is that the head acted as a plug and nothing came out.

I asked Sean to call our babysitters that we had lined up and he got a hold
of our children’s favorite family and Sean was going to take them over
there.  I asked Sean to get Ted up instead and have him run them over there.
 I was still having some serious contractions and I did not want to be
alone.

We decided to call the dr office at about 9:45, well, Sean called the Dr.
Office and after being on hold twice for over 10 minutes, he finally said to
go in.  Good thing as my legs were starting to shake and I was feeling
pressure with each contraction.  The pressure was not new, I had been
feeling that with every contraction, but the shaking was not a great sign.

By this time, the contractions were rather intense.  Off again to the
hospital.  Its important to note that, by this time, I was (remember I am
miss au natural birth with lots of modesty in there.  No interventions, no
medicine) telling Sean that I was getting the epidural when I got there.  In
the very least, I needed to get some sleep since I had not had any real
sleep in over a day.  I was going to get the epidural and not feel bad about
it.

So, into the van we go for a second trip to the hospital.  I remember
looking at the clock and seeing 10:00.  At 10:03, I could feel some water
from the ruptured membranes come out…and again at 10:05.  I turned to Sean
and said, I knew my water had broken.  I was feeling a ton of pressure down
there, again, nothing new, but probably more intense.  I did not say
anything to Sean. I did not want him to freak out.

We got to the hospital about 10:07ish.  Sean dropped me off, and got me a
wheelchair.  I hate to use them, but I knew that I could not walk with my
water leaking like it was and honestly, it was more painful to walk than to
ride.  He pushed me in and of course, there are no shock absorbers on those
fancy hospital wheelchairs.  He asked where I wanted to be dropped off, I
told him I did not care; just stop pushing me (in a rather loud voice…lol.)
By this time my body was pushing.  I felt like I needed to poop, you know
what that means.  One lady stopped and asked if I wanted her to call someone
to help me.  I kind of pointed out the door and said something like,
“Husband coming, parking van.”  Another man was in the area with his little
girl, maybe 3 (who by the way was waiting for her baby brother or sister to
be born).  He explained that my husband was coming, but parking the truck
(truck/van 220/221 whatever it takes).  About this time I was just
moaning/grunting sounds that only come from deep within.  My body was
literally pushing the baby out and the sounds that were coming from my
mouth, I did not know how to stop them.  I turned to the man and said, “I am
sorry.”  The little girl looked scared, but there was nothing I could do,
the body does what the body does sometimes.

So, Sean makes it into the hospital.  We have to take an elevator to the
sixth floor.  I just say in a loud voice, you need to get me upstairs NOW.
A lady who sees all this transpiring holds the elevator for us.  She gets
off on her floor and we go up to the 6th floor.  As I am in the elevator, I
feel my body pushing still.  Sean pushes me out of the elevator with all our
stuff and I say, “I am pushing the baby out.”  He pushes me to the nurses
station and I say, “I am pushing the baby out right now”…in an
anxious/excited voice.

Two nurses come running to me.  One says, just listen to me breathe.  I say,
“you don’t understand, I am pushing NOW!!!”  She continues to tell me to
breathe and all I can think of is that I have to push, my body is already
doing that and I can’t stop it.  They see how serious I am and decide the
best thing to do is get me to a room so I don’t deliver in the hall.

I have never been moved so fast in my entire life.  I was getting cold they
were pushing me so fast.  (On a side note, this is the opposite of what
happened with Miriam.  With Miriam, I was being rushed from the corner room
to the exact opposite corner for my c-section.  Now I was being whisked from
by the c-section room to the opposite almost corner room.)  I could not even
sit down completely in the wheelchair because I felt like I was sitting on
baby’s head and the urge to push was sooooo great.

We get to room 616.  Ann, the nurse tries so hard to get me onto the bed.  I
just look at her knowing my body is pushing uncontrollably and say no, I am
pushing here.  She and Sean try to get me to move to the bed.  I say, no I
am pushing here.  Ann, the nurse tries to convince me at least 3 times and I
am not budging.  I just cannot imagine climbing onto the bed while I am in
this intense pain.

Ann sends nurses running to get things.  She asks someone to get a Doppler
to check for heart tones.  I laugh inside myself thinking, little late for
that, this baby is coming NOW and by the time you get that Doppler, that
baby will be born.

She then tells me to at least pull down my pants down.  At this point and
time, I agree to that considering my body is pushing my baby out.  So, I
drop my drawers, my favorite pajama pants, down to my ankles.  Ann tries to
get my pants off my ankles.  She tries to lift my feet, I tell her no, I am
pushing.  She tries again, asking Sean to help, I just keep my feet firmly
planted in my Birkenstocks, can’t get my feet out and push baby out at the
same time.

While this is all going on, Ann keeps asking my name.  I wonder why she asks
me my name; I just ignore her, kind of rolling my eyes inside my head.  I
knew she meant well, but come on, the baby is coming NOW.

So, with my pants around my waist, I start pushing.  I ask if the head is
out yet, cuz something came out.  I feel down there but no head just lots of
stuff coming out, big gushes of colored fluid.  So my body keeps pushing,
while I am standing on the floor bending over.  Ann tries to check me for
dilation and says, “Oh baby’s head is right there.”  In my mind I am
thinking, that is what I have been saying all along.  I push one more time
and baby’s head is mostly out.  Ann is trying to guide baby out (while I am
standing/crouching over, she’s good!)  One more push and baby’s head is all
the way out.  Then she asks for a good push to get baby’s body out.  I am
sure I pushed, but I don’t remember feeling any contractions, just pushed
with the body God gave me.  So I had a room full of nurses deliver a baby,
no doctor in sight.  Well, really, Ann delivered the baby.

While this is happening, I am telling Sean to “Get the camera!”  He did not
know where it was.  After baby was born, I said, it’s in my purse, now get a
picture of this.  He got a picture of Pepper Baby lying between my feet on a
chucks pad.  It’s quite the picture.  I looked between my legs and saw the
baby laying there and saw Pepper Baby was a girl.  Yeah, a girl.  “Now we
have to decide on a name.”  I was thinking.

I look at Ann and said, I am glad you delivered the baby; I did not really
want a man delivering.

They quickly whisk her off to the warmer and start working on her.  The
water was mecomium stained and because her delivery was so fast, she had a
lot of liquid in her lungs; it did not get squeezed out during the birthing
process.

Now I was willing to go to the bed.  So, with a clamp hanging off the
umbilical chord, hanging between my legs, I take the three steps to get into
the bed.  OK, maybe it was five steps, I don’t remember.  I lay in the bed
with a huge smile on my face in total shock.  I JUST GAVE BIRTH ON THE
FLOOR.  I am laughing just thinking about it now.  Baby is doing fine, they
are working on her, but she is crying so I know everything is good.  I get
covered up with a warm blanket.

I look at Sean with my goofy grin and say, it’s over already.  I just had a
baby!  That was easy.  I just gave birth by the end of the bed.  I lay in
bed and enjoyed the fruits of my labor.  I listened to baby crying and
watched them work on her.

Ann, the nurse, called Dr. Seiman’s office and asked if he was coming.  I
just laughed.  Why?  ‘Cuz we really did not need him.  We were chatting, all
10 of us in the room and decided that the Dr.s should prorate their costs
and give the rest to the nurses that helped deliver the baby.

About 10:45 Dr. Seiman showed up.  He congratulated me and we talked about
the events of the day.  He asked what time she was born and Ann said, 10:16.
 Sounds good to me.

I was not really having contractions to push the placenta out, but Dr.
Seiman said it was right there, so I pushed and out it slid.  Love seeing
that thing.  He checked me over and I only had minor abrasions and skid
marks from her quick delivery.  Two were more obvious than the rest, but no
repairs were needed.

Now that all my work was done, I started harassing the nurses that were
working on Pepper Baby to finish quickly.  They had been playing with her
longer than I had been.  They tried to explain that they were concerned with
the very quick delivery and the meconium staining so they wanted to be sure
everything was OK.  I just laughed and told them I understood, but I wanted
my baby.  I was serious, but wanted them to do the best for her they could.
Finally, about 11:00 they brought her to me and I held her for awhile.  Then
I handed her off to Sean for a bit and then I took her back, by 11:15, she
was nursing and took to it right away.

Soon we were all alone with Ann, the nurse turned doctor, and we just
visited about the day and the events that happened.  It was so fun talking
to her because she filled in gaps that I missed and we were able to tell her
that we are the perfect couple to have this happen.  It was a neat
experience, one that I hope to not repeat, but so worth it.

Sean looked at me and said, you got everything you wanted…no hep-lock, no
monitoring and no vaginal checks.  It was great.

What a great birth, an adventure and wonderful story to tell.  We are
literally the talk of the floor.  It is entertaining to think of all that
has happened.

We left our home at 10:00 am and she was born at 10:16 am.  16
minutes…amazing.

Olivia Catherine was born at 10:16 a.m. on Tuesday May 22, 2007.  She
weighed in at 8 pounds 4 ounces and is 19.5 inches long.  Her apgars were 8
and 9.