Mace Wayne entered the world on 8/31 at 1:22 am and was 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long and I am proud to say was a successful VBAC!!!
I started into labor the evening of the 29th and was every 5 minutes lasting a minute…I listened to my birthing affirmations and the rainbow relaxations by myself until I couldn’t be by myself anymore and woke my hubby early the 30th. My doula showed up shortly there after and then my world went spiraling out of control…
I attempted to take a bath and suddenly had contractions one right after another so that I had NO time to relax inbetween. We made it to the hospital…barely (I had to ride facing backwards on my knees…couldn’t even get my pants on…had just a “sexy” thin robe on and that was it…very flattering…oh and dirt roads hurt…all those bumps…ugh!)…and once we got to the hospital, was dissappointed to find I was only a 1!
I labored like that for another few hours with no progression so we all decided an epidural would probably allow me to relax enough to start progressing (it was either that or go in for a c-section). Wow, the epidural helped…hated my legs numb, but it did help me sleep and relax.
After steady progression, the epidural was starting to wear off a bit, so they bolused it a little bit when I hit a 7…then my doula turned on my birthing affirmations track…and I slept through the rest of transition…how wonderful that was!
I woke when my OB entered the room, said I was complete and that we could take an hour or so and work on breathing the baby down! My doula took turns with my mom…alternating gentle pushes and breathing the baby down…all the while birthing affirmations were playing in the background! It was VERY peaceful. When I started pushing, I had to keep being turned from side to side because they kept losing baby’s heart rate…finally, she decided to try the suction cup but at the last minute decided to let me try pushing on my back with the idea that I had about 20 minutes to get him out…or there would be more interventions (glad she didn’t do the suction cup…never would have stuck as he has inch long blond hair!!!).
Sure enough, that was all it took. My son came out as he was turning…he started face up and with each push turned a bit more until he was face down. The nurses were very surprised at my control and peace in pushing him out that way as my epidural was pretty much gone again! I was able to control the speed of his head coming out very well…once his head was out, the OB told me to stop pushing, but my son had other ideas…despite my panting, he came spinning out and the OB playing “juggle the baby”. I ended up with a second degree rip from his shoulders, but that was it! I got to have the birth I wanted…had him on my chest and got to breastfeed right away…even got to do some HypnoBirthing even though at the start, I didn’t think I was going to get the chance! Thank you to all whole helped me out and responded to my questions! I will definitely use hypnobirth next time again! (Sheridan, you have my permission to do whatever you need to with my birth story.)
