VBAC Labor Story

My water broke Sunday, April 26th. It was around 3:00pm and so we took our time, finished getting ready to go, called everyone, said goodbye to David :( and headed for Yuba City around 6pm. The drive went well, I cried most of the way to Yuba City because I missed David sooooo much. (He stayed home with one of my girlfriends, and my parents came and helped with him) We arrived at Fremont Medical Center around 7:45pm. We got all checked in and I was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and an IV so then we waited...

and waited....

Daddy getting a little nap in

playing cards to pass the time

About 3am I was checked and found to be dilated to 3cm, at that point my nurse decided to do a process called cervical stretching. (It didn't hurt) She was able to stretch my cervix to 4cm, and it was supposed to help increase contractions. At this point in labor we were told that the baby had been so low my entire pregnancy that my pelvis had already stretched and accommodated for the baby being that low. So the normal pressure from the baby lowering into the pelvis that causes contractions was not there. I was having some contractions but they weren't regular enough to get us very far. So we waited some more, hoping the cervical stretching would regulate my contractions.

Hospital Jello... YUM!!

7am rolled around and nothing had changed. So they decided that they were going to induce my labor with Pitocin. (It's a nasty little IV drug that can throw you into hard labor fast, but it works) The doctor ordered me to start out on the lowest dosage so I wouldn't end up in hard labor right away.

me & my IV "buddy" w/ pitocin headed in

Listening to music trying to stay relaxed

Around 11am the contractions started to get really fast and hard. I was having a contraction every minute and they were lasting 40 seconds each. I was in so much pain and getting worn out really fast. I finally gave in and was given a shot of pain medication through the IV "buddy". Since I was doing a VBAC I was not able to have an epidural (I didn't want one anyway!) They gave me a drug called Phentynol, it was just something to let me rest between contractions and stay relaxed. Unfortunately it only worked for about 30 minutes and could only be given once an hour.

Good Pain Medicine! Bad Contractions

At around 12:30pm the contractions had gotten so intense that the only way I could tolerate them was to lean forward. However when I would lean forward the monitors wouldn't pick up my contractions or the baby's heartbeat. Since I was in so much pain the pressure from the monitors were making the pain even worse, I begged them to take the monitors off! Finally the Doctor and nurses agreed and put in an internal monitoring device instead of having the monitors strapped to my belly. At that point I was at 6cm.

I was really trying to hang in there and tough it out but there did come a point - around 1:30 or so that I was saying "OK, I'm Done!" I was so tired and weak that I didn't think I could handle anymore pain, so I did consider a c-section. Thanks to my wonderful coach and the wonderful nurses they talked me through it and helped me hang on a little longer.

2:10 or so I was even more tired and even more ready to just give up. I was at my breaking point and I think everyone knew it. The nurse wanted to check me one more time before they started prepping me for a c-section. When she did, she realized that I was 9cm dilated, so on my next contraction she stretched my cervix to 10cm.

The nurse had me do a couple "test pushes" and then told me to stop because they could see the head. My doctor came in just in time to get scrubs on and get sat down. I only pushed probably a total of 5 times before the baby was born. I have to say, the pushing was the easiest part! I had to have 1 stitch but only because the internal monitor rubbed off a little skin when I was pushing. The doctor called it "rug burn" but it was bleeding a little so he went ahead and put in a stitch. Other than that I didn't tear or have to have an episiotomy!