I was due on Dec 10 but after going to my appointment on the 8th, I was 80% effaced and locked up tight. My doctor was pretty sure that he'd see me the following week and that we'd end up with a scheduled repeat c-section on the 16th. I was really hoping for a VBAC so I was pretty bummed.
We were doing lots and lots of walking and trying to naturally induce labor. Saturday night (12/11), we wandered over to Walmart to walk around. I started having some pretty gnarly Braxton Hicks contractions while we were there but they stopped after I got home.
Fast forward to Saturday morning (12/12), I get up at 6:24am (yes I remember the exact time) to use the bathroom and when I laid back down I felt a contraction. I had been having a hard time distinguishing a real contraction from a false one, but when they say you'll know, it's really true. About 10 minutes later, I had another one. So I let B know while he was getting Bubbie out of bed. I got up around 7 and started to time them. Around 7:30, I called my mom to give her a heads up and told her that if my contractions kept up for an hour, we were heading.
8:30am rolls around and we decide to head in. The hospital was an hour away, so I wanted to hit the road before they got too painful. My parents showed up and my dad took DS to his house and my mom followed us in her car. The drive in was okay to start with but by the time we got there, the contractions were pretty rough.
We checked into triage, where I started moaning through the pain. The triage nurse checked me and I was only 1.5 cm. I about cried. She asked if I could walk around even though I was in so much pain because they couldn't give me pitocin. I begged her to let me stay because of the drive and as she looked at my stats my water broke. I was stoked because I knew I would be admitted but scared because I knew the contractions were only going to get stronger. At one point, I was moaning so loud that I joked that I was ghost. B was cracking up but being super supportive while I basically tried to break his thumb.
By the time we got to the L/D room, we had been in triage for 2 hours. I got an epidural and finally began to feel better. The nurse checked my progress and I had already gotten to 5cm! The next few hours passed somewhat slowly but my mom and B kept me entertained. Around 3:30, I was feeling pressure and was about to ask B to get the nurse to check me. Right before he went out, the on-call OB came in to check and shocked me by saying I was fully dialated.
I started pushing at around 4pm and was able to feel pressure but no pain with my epidural. I pushed and pushed and pushed for 2 hours when the nurse asked if I wanted to use the mirror to help me focus my pushing. I wasn't sure, but decided to give it a try. The mirror completely helped and after another 30 minutes of pushing, Z entered the world at 6:25pm. Seeing him come out in the mirror was the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I am sooooo thankful that I was able to get my VBAC.
He had a lot of fluid and mucous in his lungs that they got out and he has a hydrocele that will eventually drain on its own. Once he was suctioned, they gave him to me for skin-to-skin time for at least 2 hours. It was awesome.
By 1:30 the next day, he was in the NICU for some rapid breathing and a possible infection, but he is doing fantastic now and will be coming home on Monday. My recovery has been awesome, especially compared to my previous c-section.
