On Friday, September 27th, 2013, I started having
contractions about every 20 minutes apart.
This continued through the weekend.
Sunday evening I started to get them every 15 minutes apart. Sunday night I didn’t sleep well at all. I kept waking up and sitting there and
waiting for the next contraction. Monday
they continued with every 12 - 15 minutes apart and I could tell some of them
were a lot stronger than others. I would
say I was uncomfortable on Monday. When
walking around I was feeling a lot of pressure.
I just felt different.
Monday, September 30th in the evening was like
any other. I was sitting on the couch
with Liam watching Sprout. I was
definitely just feeling uncomfortable.
Liam got up off the couch for a second and I felt the need to go to the
bathroom. At about 6:05pm I went to the
bathroom and as I was coming out, I felt like I had peed myself. And it happened again so I went right back to
the bathroom. Sure enough my water had
broke. I called out to my husband
saying, “I think my water just broke” as he was starting to get dinner
going. I thought when you water broke it
was just a gush and that was it, well it kept coming.
I went out on the porch to call my mom (she had been on call
for a while!). I said to her, “Can you
pack a bag and come over because my water just broke.” This was said with tears of excitement and
anticipation of what was going to happen next!
My husband made a call to the doctor and they said to come to the hospital. There wasn’t a need to rush but don’t take
all day. They want you in active labor
at least 24 hours after your water breaks.
My husband finished packing his bags while I made Liam his
favorite meal for dinner. It was time
for me to pack last minute items. At
that point my mom had arrived. We kissed
Liam goodbye and got in the car. I hated
leaving Liam like that in such a rush but thankfully he loves my mom so did
just fine with us leaving. He waved to
us in the window as we drove off.
My husband and I were talking, wondering what the night was
going to bring. And I so remember that
the contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes.
My water breaking got things moving.
I kept saying, “Here’s another one.”
We got to the hospital and I was still feeling good so
thought I would just walk up to labor and delivery myself. Well as I stood up in the parking garage
another huge gush of water came out. I
have never experienced anything like that.
I told him to get a wheel chair as I wasn’t walking around like
that! Thankfully he did have me sit on a
towel in the car so we used that to clean me up a bit!
He wheeled me up to labor and delivery and they got us right
into a room. Thankfully we got there
just in time as it was the last room available.
It was surreal walking into the room and thinking hopefully in a few
hours I would get to meet precious Sweetpea!
I changed and got into bed. They
checked me and I was 3 cm dilated. The
contractions were definitely coming on more frequently and a bit more
intense. They said it would only get
worse. I had thought of walking the
halls (this is what I had always envisioned when I was in labor) but with water
still coming out I didn’t want to do that.
The night wore on and the contractions got bad. It felt like seriously painful menstrual
cramps. Some contractions were definitely
worse than others. My husband helped me
breathe through them but some just hurt so bad all I could say is, “it hurts so
bad” when I know I should have been breathing.
I tried different positions. I
sat on the ball for a bit and leaned onto the bed. That was the most comfortable.
During this, Logan’s heart rate dropped every now and then
so I continued trying different positions to see what he liked better. His heart rate dropping scared me and was
tough to deal with those thoughts when I was in such pain.
After 5 ½ hours of labor, at 11:30, I got my epidural. In those 5 ½ hours I endured the most pain I
ever have in my life. But I’m so glad I
felt what it was like to be in labor for a while. Yes it hurt, but I would do it again. The epidural made me feel so much
better. I know most people are concerned
about getting it but it wasn’t bad. My
biggest concern was her sticking the needle in when I was having a contraction
but she communicated with me enough to ensure that didn’t happen.
After the epidural I had to stay in bed. My legs felt funky like they were
sleeping. I could feel contractions
every now and then but it wasn’t like before.
It allowed me to rest though I never fell asleep. I was too anxious and excited so my mind
wouldn’t stop racing.
They checked me awhile later (3am) and I was at 5-6cm. At that point I believe they gave me some
Pitocin (the time is a little blurry!).
They ended up not giving me too much as again Logan’s heart rate was all
over the place. Thankfully my body did
most of the work on its own.
Around 6:30am, they checked me again and I was 8-9cm. We did discover earlier on that he was sunny
side up meaning his head was facing up instead of facing down. I could still push him out but it would be
longer and he would probably have a conehead.
Around 8ish I was 10cm dilated and they said I could start
pushing and see how I did. Thankfully
I’ve been mentally prepping myself for pushing.
I did a few pushes and she was quite impressed with how I was
doing. Again we were monitoring Logan’s
heart rate. So many times there was talk
of a c-section if he didn’t cooperate.
Also Logan’s head wasn’t centered as he was getting his shoulder in the
canal as well. Thankfully with some
pushing, my doctor was able to push the shoulder out and get him centered. I pushed for a bit and she said that one side
of my cervix was starting to swell and we needed to stop for a bit. She suggested getting back on Pitocin to
dilate me back to 10cm.
Around 1pm she checked and I was still only 8-9cm and still
had some swelling. We then talked about
possible c-sections. That was the last
thing I wanted and she was aware of it.
I wanted to have this baby vaginally.
I cried. They said if he
continues to drop we would need to have an emergency c-section which is more
dangerous since I’ve had another one.
They would have 4-6 minutes to get him out. I was frustrated. I was tired.
We decided to stay on Pitocin a bit longer and see what
happens. I wasn’t ready to give up. I
couldn’t give up yet. My body was tired
but I had to keep moving forward.
Around 2:15 I started having this bad burning sensation
where my c-section incision was. It hurt
so badly. I was in tears at this point
from pain and from just being tired. At
that point, I just felt like giving up.
They worked fast to get my doctor back in as they were afraid my
incision might be tearing. She did
another check and honestly a miracle had happened. I was 10cm dilated, Logan had flipped to the
right direction and he had dropped a lot.
It was time to push.
I have never pushed with all my might. I gave it all I had despite my
exhaustion. We were still concerned
about his heart rate so she told me that we could put a “vacuum” on his
head. This would help with keeping him
in place after pushing and if need be they could get him out.
I will never forget that first real push. Chad was holding my back up so I would get in
the curled up position to push. He was
counting and in his voice I could sense tears in his eyes. This was it.
It was show time.
I push for maybe 45 minutes.
I pushed hard. I honestly don’t
remember it hurting that much, maybe because of the epidural or maybe because I
was so determined to get him out. I was
so focused on the end result of getting him out quickly. I will never forget this one push and
feeling his head coming out a good amount.
When Logan Michael finally came out they took him right now
to be checked out due to his heart rate dropping so much. I cried when he came out. I had done it. I had accomplished something I so wanted to
do, do have a VBAC. I told Chad to go
over and check on him and take photos. I
wanted to see his face. He was there a
good 5 minutes before they brought him over to me.
He was perfect. Very
small but perfect! He weighed 6lbs 12.5
ozs and 20.5 inches long. Chad and I
were estimating 8lbs or so! I couldn’t
believe how fragile he looked compared to when Liam was born. Thankfully he was healthy. The reason his heart rate was dropping was
because there was a knot in his umbilical cord.
We were able to see the knot which was very tight. I’m so thankful he came out when he did.
Holding him was a special moment. I was able to nurse him right away and he
latched on like a champ. We called
family, sent messages to friends that he was finally here. It was time to head downstairs and I hated
letting him go for a minute so I could clean up and get in a wheelchair. He was nursing so well I didn’t want to break
that closeness between us.
They brought us to the mother/baby floor and of all the
rooms; we were put in the room where we were with Liam. How special that was.
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