Two weeks have now passed since we were blessed with Titus. I wanted to share my experience.
I woke up Sunday morning (March 22) at about 1:30am and my water had broke. It was just a trickle every once in a while, no big gush. I tried to go back to bed but couldn’t sleep. I knew there was no immediate rush to go to the hospital because I was not yet feeling contractions. I woke Trevor up a while later to let him know that my water broke but told him to go back to sleep. At about 2:30am I began feeling menstraul like cramps. I was not sure if they were contractions or not because when I had Ethan I was induced and those contractions felt different to me. The cramps continued to get stronger and more painful.
I woke Trevor up at about 5am and told him we should call the doctor and see if we should go to the hospital. Our doctor told us to make our way to the hospital. Trevor took a quick shower so he wouldn’t be smelly during labor (thanks Trevor) while I finished packing our bags (one for us, one for Ethan). We woke Ethan up to leave only to find he had thrown up in his bed overnight 😦 I felt so bad leaving him when he was not feeling well, and I couldn’t believe I was up that whole time and didn’t know he had puked!
We then took Ethan to our friends house and checked into the hospital around 6am. I was checked and was 3cm dialated and 90% effaced (the last time I was checked at 38 weeks I was 0cm and 50% effaced). I got a hep-lock put in and continued to labor on a birth ball we brought with us to the hospital. We called our parents to let them know I was in labor. Trevor also called our friend Jenny who was going to help us.
The birth ball worked very well during my contractions and Trevor massaged my back and was so sweet and encouraging. The contractions were getting more painful and we asked the nurse about getting into the shower or tub. Our doctor has told us at an office visit I would be allowed in the shower, but when the nurse called to ask her she said no shower or tub. We were disapointed in that and I was upset.
At that point my contractions were becoming very painful and I had to get into the bed for a check. I labored in bed on my side for a while but I told Trevor I needed an epidural or some kind of drugs (we had wanted to have a natural birth with no medications and had been studying and practicing the Bradley Method of childbirth). He of course tried to talk me out of it because he know how much I wanted to avoid medicine during labor. But I knew the two things to say that would let Trevor know I was serious and I needed and wanted some pain medication. I told him Iwas panicked and I was unable to relax (the whole idea behind the Bradley Method of labor is to relax during contractions so the uterus can work effieciently). Trevor then knew I was serious. We talked about our options with the nurse and decided upon an epidural because it does not cross the placenta. It was about 15 minutes until I was able to get the epidural. We decided that the epidural was the best decsion becaue if I could not relax my uterus could not do it’s work effectively. We were also apprehensive because sometimes an epidural can stall labor, but thankfully it didn’t, it just slowed it down.
At this point it was 9am. The nurse checked me and I was 8cm dialated! That was great becaue I was in transition, the hardest part of labor, no wonder my contractions were so intense. I then was able to rest for a while and by about 11:45am I was 10cm and ready to have a baby.
Pushing was very exhausting, but Trevor and Jenny were so helpful and encouraging. The pushing was by far the hardest for me because besides being tired I was very emotionally exhausted thinking about my last labor and how long I had pushed for that the end result of that labor was a c-section. The clock on the wall was staring me in the face the whole time (I had pushed for about 2 hours with Ethan before my doctor decided to get the opinion of an OBGYN). I was getting nervous that I would be unable to have my VBAC. At that point my epidural was wearing off and I was once again in pain.
We then had a decsion to make. Should I get more medicine or not? We didn’t want to get more medicine because then my pushing could be less effective because I wouldn’t be able to feel it. I could tell from the nurse that we may be in for the long haul. She suggested that we have the doctor come in to acess my progress and see if she thought an episotomy would speed things up.
Our doctor came in and checked on my progress. She said that she believed an episotompy would get the baby out soon or she could try the vacum if I wanted. I was worn out from pushing and we decided to get an episotomy hoping it would move things along. Well, not only did it move things along, but the Titus was born about 3 contractions later at 1:48pm. He weighed 9lbs and was 19 inches long.
I cannot even describe how wonderful it felt when I saw Titus and he was put on my chest immediatly, oh how I ached to have that with Ethan’s birth. Trevor and I are so happy and pleased with how everything went.
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