Sadie was due Saturday, September 15th. The week before her due date, I had lots of random contractions. I found myself having anxiety over who would watch the kids when I went into labour. I had arranged for my Mom to come visit on the 14th and stay until Sadie arrived, and I was hoping I wouldn't go early to avoid the hassle of having to call one of my friends to come over in the middle of the night.
My Mom came on the 14th, and by the 15th there was no sign that Sadie was on her way. That morning, I got a call from my midwife to tell me she'd just discovered that there were no midwives I knew on call the next day. She offered to come by to see if I'd had any progress, and she said if I was dilated enough she'd break my water and get things started for me. She checked my cervix and had nothing much to report – I was 1-2cm and my cervix was still posterior-facing. This made me very depressed. Now my anxiety was directed at how long my Mom was going to have to stay with us. She had put her whole life on hold to be here, and I was worried Sadie was going to come a week or more late.
Sunday morning at 5am I woke up with very strong menstrual-like cramps. I decided to get out of bed, and within an hour or two, they had turned into slightly painful contractions. Throughout the day they ranged from every 10-20 minutes, and lasted all day. That night I lost some of my mucus plug in a blood-streaked chunk. I somehow managed to sleep, albeit fitfully, that night.
The next day the contractions slowed down a bit – enough for me to get DS3 off to preschool and to go for a walk with my Mom. When the contractions came back, though, they were all 10-15 minutes apart. The strongest ones took my breath away and I couldn't talk through them. I called my midwife and she said it sounded like things were going to happen soon. She told me she'd check on me in the morning but thought I'd probably go into labour that night.
It turned into a long night. The contractions were about every 6-10 minutes apart and quite painful all night. I think maybe I got one hour sleep. My midwife called me in the morning, and said she'd meet me at the hospital for a non-stress test. When I got there, she checked my cervix, and I was still only 1-2cm and only 50% or so effaced. This really brought me down. Over 24 hours of contractions and I'd barely shown any progress at all. I spent about half an hour on the monitor, and some of my contractions were very strong. She did two stretch and sweeps and said she hoped she'd see me in labour that night.
The contractions continued to get more intense as the evening wore on. Many were so strong they had me in tears. It was getting so bad I was considering asking for a c-section instead of continuing to go through this for several more days (since they won't induce a VBAC). My midwife had offered me morphine to help me sleep, but I was too scared to take it because it had made me sick after my c-section 6 years before. Instead she suggested Benedryl. So that night I took both Tylenol and Benedryl, had a long shower, and tried to go to sleep. I slept for maybe 1 hour again. I tossed and turned in bed for a few hours, then decided to take more Benedryl and Tylenol, take another shower and try to sleep a little more. I did all of this, got back into bed, but the contractions were just too painful to ignore. After about an hour I realised the contractions had gotten closer together, so I decided I should get up and start timing them. When I got downstairs, I discovered they were now 3-5 minutes apart. I lay on my exercise ball and timed them for a full hour, then decided it was time to call my midwife. After I described them to her, she agreed I should go to the hospital. We decided to meet there at 3. I woke DH up and told him we had to leave in 10 minutes.
When we got to the hospital, my midwife told me I was 3cm dilated and definitely showing progress. She said that normally she would have me walk the halls, but since I was so tired I could just stay in triage until I showed more progress. I lay down for a while on the bed, but eventually couldn't take that anymore and ended up standing up beside the bed and rocking back and forth while breathing through the contractions. After maybe an hour or so, my midwife said I could move into a room. She gave me an IV (standard for a VBAC), had them take some bloodwork, then we moved into the birthing suite.
At first I stayed in my clothes and I tried several positions: standing beside the bed, lying on the bed, and sitting on the birthing ball while leaning over the bed. The birthing ball was the best position, but my midwife wanted me to keep moving and changing position to try to make things progress. As I moved into transition, the contractions started to get very intense and I started to doubt I could do it. They also started to be mostly in my back, suggesting maybe I was having another posterior birth and back labour. I told my midwife several times I didn't think I had it in me to continue. She convinced me to try the tub and we could talk about it again after that. I did find the tub better, but I was still in intense pain, and cried through most of my contractions. I told her I could do maybe another hour of labour, but I didn't think I'd have the energy to push after having only 2 hours sleep over 3 days. She talked me through the process of getting an epidural and said that although she'd have to transfer care temporarily to an OB she would stay the whole time and would take over again as soon as the baby was born. By that point I was 7cm.
Things moved pretty fast after that. A team of nurses and the anesthetist came in and gave me the epidural. I had a lot of trouble staying still through the contractions, but we managed. By then the pressure was getting terrible, and I couldn't even sit on my bum during a contraction – I felt like she was pushing her way out. The epidural took maybe 5 minutes to start working, but once it did, relief was immediate. I went from screaming one minute to snoozing the next. It was glorious! I felt high and euphoric, chatting away and joking with the nurse. It was an amazing feeling to suddenly not be dreading the pushing stage.
It was 7:30am when they gave me the epidural, and the OB on call came to check me and break my water. He said I was at 8cm, and that the baby was definitely posterior. He felt it could be an hour or two until she was ready to come. My midwife immediately said I'd made the right decision to get the epidural since it sounded like this wasn't going to be a straightforward and easy birth, and I was so exhausted.
Although I was in no pain with the epidural, I still felt pressure. The pressure eventually got so intense it was painful. I could physically feel Sadie pushing her way down the birth canal, and it felt like she was just going to push her way right out. At one point when I said this they checked me and I was almost complete – just a lip of cervix left. I was finding it progressively hard not to push, and after maybe 10 more minutes asked them to check again, and they determined I was complete. They paged the OB, but had me start pushing right away anyway. I had one big push, and they told me the head was right there. A new OB and the resident came in – the OB was a middle aged woman who wasn't particularly friendly, but the resident was a lovely young woman who was very friendly with me. The OB took one look at me and saw that I'd had an episiotomy in the past and told me I'd probably need another one. I only found this out later, but it was the young resident who said she thought she could get the baby out without an episiotomy. Another big push and I could feel her head coming out. The resident was physically stretching and manipulating me to help ease Sadie out, which hurt like HELL, but was sooo worth it in the end since it meant I avoided another episiotomy. Another push and her head was mostly out. They let me feel it with my hands, which was amazing. Waiting in between pushes was excruciating with her head half in, half out – the ring of fire was still intense even with the epidural. One more push and the head was all the way out, and the relief was amazing. All I had to do after that was a half push, and the resident eased her shoulders out, then told me to reach down and grab her while giving another little push. I was able to pull Sadie out of me myself and put her on my chest. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life - something I hadn't been able to do in any of my other births - even my completely natural birth with DS3. I was holding my daughter! It was over!!!!! My midwife then took over her care and did most of the checks while I was holding her. She then commented that she looked quite big and asked if she could take her and weigh her. She was born at 8:50am on September 19th, weighed 8lbs 3oz, had a full head of almost black hair, and big, kissable, chubby cheeks. I managed to get through the birth with only one small microtear, which required only one stitch.
Three days after Sadie was born, my midwife asked me if I was happy about the birth experience. I told her I really, really was - it was a peaceful and beautiful experience for me since I wasn't overwhelmed by pain. She said she feels strongly that epidurals have their place and that she absolutely thinks I made the right decision for my situation. She agreed with my assessment that had I not had relaxed muscles from the epidural, Sadie might not have flipped, which would have meant a longer, more painful labour and long pushing stage. It might have also meant another episiotomy. The epidural helped to speed things along by relaxing me and also make the birth itself less traumatic. I've now experienced all 3 types of birth: c-section, natural, and epidural.
My recovery has been so speedy even my midwife can't believe it. I took Tylenol and Advil for maybe 24 hours after birth, but I really had almost no soreness at all - even when using the bathroom. I also had very little bleeding - by the time Sadie was a week old, the bleeding was done. With DS3 I bled for 6 whole weeks after birth! I also regained my normal energy levels almost immediately - my Mom and I took Sadie out shopping when she was only 2 days old!
Sadie is proving to be a dream baby. She latched on right from the start and now that my milk is in is a fully content, sleepy baby. She hardly ever lost any weight at all, and was above her birthweight by 5 days old. At night she goes 4-5 hours between nursings, and she hardly ever cries. The boys are in love with her, as are we all. I still can't believe I have a daughter! :HH:
