My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Be forewarned, this is long! But I know that everyone usually wants to hear ALL the details, gory or otherwise, so here goes!

I have known since I gave birth to my son in September 2008 that I wanted to VBAC. My OB estimated that he would be 10 lbs. at birth if I went to 40 weeks, and I was told “horror” stories of stalled labor and shoulder dystocia and failure to descend. As a first time mommy I was scared and went ahead with the scheduled c-section… which I ended up not needing at all.

For this pregnancy, my “official” due date was March 7th. Well that date came and went and since I was a VBAC patient my OB was allowing me to go 10 days past my due date. That would have been March 17th, and since that date wasn’t available at the hospital, I scheduled my repeat c-section for March 16th.

When I went to bed the night of March 14th, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned for hours, getting up to pee every ½ hour. I had no cramping, no Braxton Hicks, nothing… I just felt off. I don’t know if I was just restless because I was so overdue or if I subconsciously knew something was up.

Well, just as Jen (Jen2999) predicted, 8 days late, on March 15th at 2:00am on the nose, I felt my first contraction. Finally! And I was so surprised at what it felt like – it was nothing that I had imagined, which was strong, painful BH contractions. Instead, it felt more like a really bad AF cramp. I waited until I had a few more before getting up to time them. They were anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart but were coming fairly consistently. This was surprising to me as well since I figured I would start contracting far apart and they would get closer together.

At 2:45 I called the OB and then I called my mother to come stay with DS. She arrived at around 3:45, and about 20 minutes later DH and I headed to the hospital. I was just too afraid of not being able to handle the 20 minute drive to Stony Brook if the contractions got worse.

I got checked into triage at around 5:30am, and after a quick internal the RN on duty basically told me that I was only 1-2cm and she didn’t think the OB on call would admit me. At this point I was having very painful back labor, and I could not imagine having to go home.

At 6:40am, a resident checked me again, and I was 2-3cm. I told the RN that I needed to get up and walk around, the back labor was just too painful, but she told me that I needed to sit and stay hooked up to the monitors. I cannot even begin to describe the pain I was in at this point. The RN was still telling me that she didn’t know if the OB would let me be admitted but I wasn’t allowed to walk around because they needed to watch the baby’s heart rate. I thought I was going to kill someone but I bit my tongue. Luckily, I was allowed to stand up around 7:30am and was told that the OB on call was letting me be admitted. They did a quick sono to make sure DD was still head down, which she was, and I was admitted to L&D around 8am.

After approximately 20 minutes, the on-call doctor came in and I fell in love with her instantly because she said I could get the epi right away without even checking me! The anesthesiologist came in soon after, went over what would/could happen, and then started setting up. I was SO afraid that I wouldn’t be able to sit still the way he wanted and needed me to because of the bad back labor. However, for some reason as soon as he started injecting me with the local anesthetic, the back labor began to be more tolerable, and I was able to breathe through the contractions and stay still.

*** I want to say at this point that I am beyond amazed at ANYONE who is able to labor without an epidural, especially those mommies who experienced back labor – if you’ve had it, you know that it is way worse than any contraction you’ll ever feel. Many and to those women!! ***

At this point, it was after 9am and I was able to relax comfortably. DH had a very nice comfy lounge chair to sit in, we turned on the TV and attempted to nap. The OB actually didn’t come back until almost 12pm to check me. I was afraid that the epi had stopped my progress but I was happy to hear that I was already at 5cm. This being my first “trial of labor” I fully expected to either have a stalled labor or very slow progress. Things were looking up! She also broke my water at that time to make sure that things continued to progress. May I just say what an anti-climactic moment that was I expected a huge gush of fluid and barely felt a thing – although I did feel gushes later on during strong contractions. She also told me at the time that I had a very nice sized pelvis and she didn’t think the baby would be big at all (I think she said 7.5 lbs). This made me feel better about being so overdue.

My regular OB, who had to go to a funeral that morning, arrived at the hospital shortly before 2pm and checked me, told me I was at 7 cm, and that I had my bloody show. He was following the contractions on the monitor and saw that some were not as strong as the others and so he decided to insert an internal monitor to see how strong they were. He told me that he would allow a small amount of pitocin to augment labor contractions if my progress did stall, as he did not feel that would be any danger to me as a VBAC patient. Yet another one of the reasons I loved him so much – he really never made a big deal about me going for the VBAC, he treated me as if I was any other regular patient (with the appropriate precautions of course) and I appreciated that so much.

At some point, the epi began to wear off on my right side. That was very painful for me since I hadn’t felt anything in a while and it happened very suddenly. The anesthesiologist told me it was normal and it was fixed within 10 minutes. Whew!

At 4:30pm, my OB came back to check me. I nearly fell off the bed when he told me I was fully dilated. I never needed the pitocin! I was ecstatic and also shocked. This whole time I guess I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and be told that I needed another c-section, but things were progressing better and faster than I ever dreamed.

I told my OB that I wasn’t really feeling the urge to push so they sat me up completely upright in the bed and also had the anesthesiologist come in to turn the epi down. They allowed me to wait about a half an hour, and by the time the nurse came back in I was feeling some pressure, although still no urges. She said that was fine and that we would do some practice pushes so I could get the hang of things.

Pushing is seriously HARD work! I had no idea what I was doing, but the nurse was very encouraging and I think I got the hang of it after a few minutes. I officially began pushing at 5:13pm. My OB had to go do a c-section but thought that he would be back in time since, in the nurse’s words, first time trials of labor often push for one to one and a half hours, sometimes two. Well after 20 minutes she realized that my OB was not going to be back in time, so a different on-call OB came in for the end.

Pushing towards the end was hardest for me because they wanted me to wait for a contraction to push and I felt like she was sitting right there and I had to get her out. The waiting and the pressure was SO uncomfortable for me and I will admit I whined and complained a lot but DH said I wasn’t that bad.

At the very end the nurse made DH come over to my side and hold back one of my legs because the OB needed to catch the baby. DH never planned on being that close – he was standing kind of in the corner of the room the whole time because he was afraid of what he would see. Well, he pretty much saw everything, and said that it wasn’t that bad, or what he had expected, and he didn’t mind it at all, which really surprised me (in a good way). I am glad he got to experience that.

My last push was a serious one – I wanted her OUT – but I was still shocked when they told me to stop because her head was out! I honestly couldn’t tell. One more push and the nurse told me to grab her – OMG – my daughter! I pulled her up and they started cleaning her off while I was holding her. I totally got teary-eyed and that is not like me at all. What an amazing, emotional experience. It’s still hard for me to put that moment into words. It was also more powerful for me, I think, because I didn’t have that moment with my son and I was so overjoyed to get to finally experience giving birth the way I wanted to.

She barely cried but was SO alert right away and DH and I were able to hold her the entire time I was getting stitched up. I tore in three places on the inside and only a teensy bit on the outside, but holy cow those stitches hurt! I needed several doses of lidocaine for that

I was able to BF her once before she went to the nursery and after 2.5 hours I was finally allowed to go to my room. My recovery has been great, although I am sore, and that makes it hard to sit, but otherwise I would take this over a c-section recovery any day!

For all mommies who want to try for a VBAC… this is not something I would go into half-heartedly. I only felt comfortable attempting it after a TON of research and reading many, many VBAC birth stories – both good and very bad. I also found a great practice that supported my decision, and if at any time I felt like an OB in that practice was going to try and sway me from my decision I made sure to advocate for myself and my baby. (For example, one of the OBs wanted me to schedule my repeat c-section for 40 weeks. I asked to be allowed to go to at least 41 weeks and eventually learned that “my” OB, the one I saw most, was willing to allow me to go to 41.5 weeks, which was a huge relief and made me feel that much better about my decision to VBAC.)

I also want to say to ALL mommies – have caution when going in for a growth sonogram (otherwise known as a biophysical). They can sometimes be incredibly inaccurate. The reason for my first c-section was that I had a sono for my son at 38.5 weeks and his weight was estimated at that time to be 8 lbs 12 oz. It was felt that after another week and a half or more he would be 10 lbs. so my OB said I could have a c-section if I chose. Not knowing enough about my body or my options, I did so and he was born at 39.5 weeks at only 7 lbs 10 oz.

I had another growth sono for DD at 36 weeks and her estimated weight at the time was 6 lbs. 8 oz. She was born a FULL 5 weeks later at 7 lbs 12 oz., so obviously the sono was way off!

I feel so very lucky and blessed to have had this birth experience. It meant the world to me and I will always cherish the memory of every second I spent in labor – even the bad ones. Because in the end, they led me to my daughter, Isadora Rilee:

Born at 5:42pm weighing 7 lbs 12 oz.

Message edited 3/21/2010 6:15:38 PM.

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Great story LB! I actually read it all.I am glad you had the opportunity to deliver the way you wanted to. Oh and maybe NEXT time, you will have a kid that looks like YOU!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Great story! Be proud! I know you are! FTR, I had back labor all 4 times. The key to back labor is laboring at home as long as you can. Once you're at the hospital the nurses don't like you walking around / getting up! I know exactly how you felt.

Again, great story and I wish you all the best!






eta: You look beautiful! I love the picture of you looking at her. She's a doll too!

Message edited 3/18/2010 9:57:38 PM.

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

What a wonderful and inspirational story! You are my hero and give me so much hope that I will be able to have the V-bac I want for my next child.

Your daughter is stunning. Congrats to you and your family!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

I am soo happy that you got the birth you wanted! Way to go and congratulations!!!!!

btw, I had back labor with Amelia and I was begging for them to take me to the hospital for an epi. I don't know how I survived that

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

what a birth story!! just incredible!
i am so happy for you and your family!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Great story! Congrats!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Posted by MetsGirl07

what a birth story!! just incredible!
i am so happy for you and your family!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Great story, thanks for sharing and Congratulations!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

What a beautiful baby!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

That was a great birth story LB. I am so glad that you got the delivery you wanted and was able to experience a V birth and how emotional it can be after all that hard work.

Congratulations, I cannot wait to meet your daughter!!!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

What an amazing story LB.. Im in tears!!! BTW: I had back labor for over 12 hours before an epi!!! It HURTS!!!! Lots of hugs and kisses to you and your family!!! Love ya!!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Thanks for sharing your story with us. Congrats, she's beautiful!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Amazing!! You are def my inspiration to hopefully have a VBAC when the time comes!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

What an amazing story LB!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in tears reading it... the moment when she came out seems just incredible!

I'm so happy for you!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

LB, I am so proud of you and so happy you got the amazing birth experience you wanted! Izzie is gorgeous and she looks just like Luca! I cannot wait to meet her, hold her, and put her in something PINK!

Congrats mama!

(and PS-holy boobies! )

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Congrats--what a great story!!!

I really admire you for going for the VBAC--I don't think it's for me, since I have ongoing back issues, but I commend you for researching it and making the best decision for you!!!

She is adorable!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

You are an amazing woman!!!!!!!!! I am sure it takes a lot of courage to do a vbac! congratulations on your beautiful daughter and your amazing accomplishment! You should eb proud of yourself!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Congratulations on the birth of your gorgeous little girl! I am so happy for you that you got the VBAC delivery you had always wanted

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

Congrats on the VBAC! Beautiful baby!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

<~~~~~~ crying

Congratulations again!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

YAY.. I made an appearance in the birth story and everything hahahaha!!!

Awesome job LB!!!

I am so glad my prediction was right

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

awesome story! she is too cute!!!
congrats to you and DH!!!!

Re: My VBAC Birth Story - Isadora Rilee - 3/15/10

I'm soo soo soo inspired by you, I hope to have a VBAC for #2 (whenever that is) for the exact same reasons as you with #1.

Wonderful story, congratulations!!