Birth story!

I’m going to voice message this instead of typing it so sorry for the grammatical errors or run on sentences. So it was very important for us to get a VBAC but the fact that I was contemplating a homebirth and I had gotten to 41 weeks with very little effacement and no dilation they decided to send me to the hospital to be induced. Our preferred method was a Foley bulb catheter because it’s natural and I would be able to have a natural labor with no Pitocin but when they checked me I was still zero dilated and they cannot get a little foley bulb catheter in if you’re not dilated. So the decision was made to start me on Pitocin at a 6 which is very low to get me to dilate. A few hours later they checked me and I was still not dilated so they decided to let me go for a few more hours. Just as I was drifting off to sleep I felt a gush and they came in to check me I was still not dilated but I had lost my mucous plug. They tested me for amniotic leakage and even though the paper turned blue (indicating amniotic fluid)  the doctor said he did not think that my waters had broken.   We still not sure why he came to that conclusion but it is what it is. So they let me labor for a few more hours and the contractions started getting harder and closer together. I labored all through the night and in the morning Keith decided to go let our dog out and take Bryce for breakfast. I asked them to get me a couple snacks at the store and they were going to run around for a few more things. Boy was that the wrong decision! At some point during the early afternoon  my Doula showed up. She started helping me labor on the ball and walk around and use the restroom when I needed to. Once I got up off the ball I heard an audible pop that really hurt! And my waters burst everywhere. It was kind of like the movies where it’s a dramatic gush. LOL! At that point since my waters had broken we were not allowed to do the Foley bulb anymore. It can cause infection.  They made the decision to up the Pitocin because I was only dilated to a five and I had already been in labor for about 15 hours. I labored through the Pitocin for a very long time although I lost track of time. At some point Keith and Bryce ended up back at the hospital but I was incoherent at that point. According to the nurses and the Doula I was at Pitocin of 20. They told me  that I should be proud of laboring naturally to Pitocin of 20 for several hours because Pitocin puts you into transitional labor much earlier than women who labor naturally. I labored that way for several more hours but contractions were coming every minute and a half at an intensity level that I cannot describe and eventually I decided to get the epidural. I didn’t really feel like a failure… I felt more like a warrior because I did the best that I could. By that point I had been awake for 36 hours  in the pain of transitional labor for five of those hours and I was still only 5 cm dilated. I really needed some rest. I had to scream through the epidural because the contractions were so intense and close together. After the epidural of course the pain was a lot better but apparently my blood pressure dropped to 98/47. When that happened Evie’s heart rate dropped significantly. About a dozen nurses and doctors rushed into the room to flip me over on my side flush fluids into my veins and give me oxygen. They also had to give me medicine to bring my blood pressure up. That was a very scary few minutes for me. I really didn’t know what was going on and I honestly thought I was dying. Everything ended up OK my blood pressure dropped a couple more times and they had to keep giving me medicine to bring it back up. After my body adjusted to the epidural I rested a bit. I still never fell asleep but at least I could rest through the contractions. So day turned in to night and the epidural began to wear off. When it started to wear off I could feel a lot more pressure and I was able to tell when the contractions were coming. Eventually began to feel pain again but I could tell that we were getting close. I had a lot of pressure in different places than I have felt pressure before. I told my Doula and they came in to check me around midnight and determined that I was almost 10 cm. By that point I had been in labor for 26 hours.  I had started pitocin at 10pm the night before and had her at 12:59am the following day. The room filled with nurses and the doctor came in and everyone was excited for us. They said I was naturally good at pushing and it took me about 35 minutes to brush her out. They put her right on my chest and we determined that she was beautiful of course and she was just perfect. They stopped having me push during contractions because unbeknownst to us she  wasn’t handling coming through the birth canal very well. I didn’t know why the doctor told me to just push with no contractions but I did what he said and then she was here! I did have some tearing… A second-degree tear. I didn’t feel it when it happened even though the epidural had all but worn off but I did feel the stitches which was uncomfortable. And afterwards of course was very sore. My blood pressure stayed great  The whole time even though I was concerned about it. I never developed preeclampsia and my blood pressure has returned to normal since I had her. I worked very hard my entire pregnancy to continue to be healthy. We were in the hospital for less than 48 hours And then got to bring our beautiful girl home! My favorite moment of the entire experience besides getting my VBAC was seeing Bryce meet her for the first time :-)