Oh frabjous day: Gwendolyn's birth (VBA2C) (long)

It's possible that labor started somewhere before 8pm on the 28th at 39
weeks 1 day - I began having short (shorter than 30 seconds) contractions
that got my attention enough that I began writing them down, and they were
between 4-6 minutes apart. Between 10 and 11pm I had 14 contractions, and I
told Ryan I was going to go lie down and see if that made them go away,
because it had done so on other days when the same happened. So I went up,
got ready for bed, laid down, and the contractions did go away. But I couldn
't get to sleep very well, just dozing.

At 1am I got up to go to the toilet, and while I was sitting there, there
was a great Whoosh! and a whole bunch of fluid released. I knew my bladder
was empty, so it had to be my membranes rupturing. I'd never experienced
that in my other pregnancies. My most recent GBS test had come back
positive, so we called our neighbor to come over and stay at the house, as
we had arranged, called my parents to head up in their motorhome, and
grabbed our stuff on the way to the hospital. We also called the doula.

At the hospital, I was installed in a room, and my contractions became very
strong very fast. I got an IV for my antibiotics and put on continual
external monitoring. These were things I'd agreed to as a prospective
candidate for VBA2C, and I had no problem with them. We called the doula
again, leaving the hospital number.

Soon, and I mean too soon, I began having irresistable, uncontrollable urges
to push. Once on the bed, and once on the toilet. So I told my nurse (a
lovely young lady with the unusual name of Teke) and she did an internal
exam. Nope, I was only at 5cm, please try not to push, try to breathe hee
hee hee hoo, and so on. Ryan would lean over the bed and do the breathing
in my ear while I clung to him, so I could try to pattern my breathing after
his. The nurse helped too, and said many encouraging things that I needed to
hear. Within a few more contractions I was pushing again, and she said, no,
wait...and did another exam. 8cm. Another few - I was doing fine, you know,
just with relaxation and breathing - and I was at 10 with a rim. We called
my own OB, who was not on call, but who had promised to attend my birth if
she could, regardless. She came in, bless her.

I totally lost track of time. I'm told I pushed (seriously) for about 2
hours. But I thought I dilated in an hour and a half, and my entire labor,
pushing included, lasted just 6 ¼ hours from the time we arrived at the
hospital. So if things seem skewed, they probably are. And a word about the
urges to push - I've always heard about them, and they really were primal. I
could no more resist them than I could stop breathing. And I vocalised a
lot, but was able to keep a part of my mind objective enough that I could
remember to keep the tones low.

All this while, my husband was the most wonderful support I could have hoped
for (and the doula did not show up, so it was up to him and the nurse).
Between contractions he fanned me with a file folder; during contractions,
he held my hand, helped me by breathing in my ear, murmured words of
encouragement. I say I handled contractions all right, and that's true, as
long as he or the nurse was with me. If one hit when they were distracted,
I was immediately overwhelmed. But they were very responsive to and focused
on my labor, so I was never left alone through a contraction.

I was pushing upright with the squat bar for a while, and also on my side
for a while, and making no progress, but my thigh muscles began to cramp up
horribly with each contraction. At some points I had Ryan, Teke and my OB
massaging, pounding and otherwise trying to get the muscles to relax during
the contractions, and all while I was trying to push. My OB suggested an
epidural, which if done right would stop the cramping up, while still
allowing me to feel the urges to push. The anesthesiologist took a number of
contractions to arrive, and I admit that I was honestly on the verge of
giving up at that time. I could deal with the contractions themselves, which
hurt but weren't sheer agony, but the cramps in my thighs were absolutely
intolerable. And I was discouraged because there was no progress (as
happened with Emmaline) despite better ergonomics and no epidural yet.

It took 4 attempts (done between contractions where I pushed on my side) to
get the epidural in correctly, because the catheter kept hitting a blood
vessel. However, the 4th try worked, and worked as well as I could have
hoped: the cramping in my thighs stopped, and the urge to push continued. I
rested for a while, about a half hour, dozing between contractions and
pushing during them, because I couldn't not, though it was not accomplishing
anything. And I was a little more encouraged by this time, though very
tired, because I thought I'd be able to push better without the cramping in
my legs. But I was tired. Getting to the point of not being able to do it
anymore. Also after the epidural was in, they began thinking they were
seeing heart decels during contractions, so I agreed to a scalp monitor
(which, fortunately, disproved the idea of decels).

My doctor suggested a vacuum assist, eventually. She said if it didn't work
in 5 or 6 attempts, we'd go with a cesarean. It sounded pretty good to me by
then! My husband agreed with me that we'd tried our best, and it would
certainly be no failure if we tried this, and wound up in surgery.
Thankfully, the epidural made the insertion of the vacuum apparatus a matter
of pressure rather than pain. The doctor said that when I held my own knee
up to push (Ryan helped hold up my head so I could curl around my huge
tummy, and one hip was propped on a pillow so I was not 'flat on my back') I
wasn't getting my pelvis opened up optimally, so even though by now it was
time for the shift change, and a new nurse came in, Teke stayed on, holding
one knee up and out, while the other nurse held the other knee. So I
pushed, and the doctor pulled, but we couldn't coordinate our efforts. My
pushes were coming in surges of anywhere from 2-5 efforts per contraction,
but they weren't lasting very long and they could not be predicted, so they
asked me to do what I would otherwise have not done: valsalva pushing,
holding my breath to push for a very quiet count of ten, repeated 3 times
per contraction. Thus coordinated, I pushed, she pulled, and the first such
effort showed some progress! Then I rested, and we did it again the next
time, and the next, and on the sixth push I felt tremendous pressure, and
the doctor's hands working baby's head free of the perineum. Then she
pulled, and I pushed, and out came (The doctor said "It's a...!" and waited
for Ryan to look down and finish the sentence "...a girl!") So she was put
on my chest, squeaking, fine and healthy. It was 7:16am, July 29th.

There was a lot of stitching to be done to me after, as I had torn very
badly. We think Gwendolyn's head was engaged and descending in an
asynclitic, or slightly tilted, presentation, and this is what slowed her
down. Her head is still a bit misshapen that way, and the vacuum mark is
not in the center of her head, but off to the side a bit. She latched right
on (we're working on technique!) and has been nursing like a champ. I even
came home the next day, which still amazes me after my experiences with 2
cesarean surgeries. As an end note, about 5 minutes after the birth, the
doula finally called - evidently she'd left her pager at home when she went
to another birth, and only got the pages (5 or 6 of them in the first 2
hours, after which we simply got too involved to bother trying anymore) when
she got home. She has sent flowers. She'll get her money for the hours and
hours she spent with me during my pregnancy. That's a percentage of what the
total would have been, and it's fair.

And, all is well that ends well. A very satisfactory ending to our very long
ordeal.

--angela

Wow Angela!!! I admire you so much! You are such an amazing woman! How
awesome to have a VBA2C!

CONGRATULATIONS on the beautiful girl with the beautiful name!

Snuggle with your little angel and get lots of rest. ((((hugs))))

-Kara

Congratulations, Angela and family!! What a fabulous end to a long
journey!!

Sue

"Chotii" wrote in message
snip
There was a lot of stitching to be done to me after, as I had torn very
badly. We think Gwendolyn's head was engaged and descending in an
asynclitic, or slightly tilted, presentation, and this is what slowed her
down. Her head is still a bit misshapen that way, and the vacuum mark is
not in the center of her head, but off to the side a bit. She latched
right
on (we're working on technique!) and has been nursing like a champ. I even
came home the next day, which still amazes me after my experiences with 2
cesarean surgeries. As an end note, about 5 minutes after the birth, the
doula finally called - evidently she'd left her pager at home when she
went
to another birth, and only got the pages (5 or 6 of them in the first 2
hours, after which we simply got too involved to bother trying anymore)
when
she got home. She has sent flowers. She'll get her money for the hours
and
hours she spent with me during my pregnancy. That's a percentage of what
the
total would have been, and it's fair.

And, all is well that ends well. A very satisfactory ending to our very
long
ordeal.

Thanks for sharing the whole birth story, Angela! Congratulations again!
Sorry about the tear--sounds bad--and also that the doula didn't show, but
it sounds like overall things worked out for you. Good job!

--
Em
edd 9/23/03

"Chotii" wrote in message . ..

snip


And, all is well that ends well. A very satisfactory ending to our very long
ordeal.

--angela

Callooh! Callay!

Welcome, Gwendolyn!

Grandma Katie

Andrea, thank you for sharing your story with us. I always love reading
people's experiences. : ) It sounds like you did pretty well, not too many
interventions which is great considering it was a VBA2C. Too bad the
epidural took so many tries, I hear about that a lot. : P I hope you'll
post some pics of your little one at some point. Congratulations to you for
getting through all of this so successfully and still smiling! You have
faced so many challenges, it must feel wonderful to finally have your
reward. Take care, Alicia : )

Angela, congratulations, and welcome Gwendolyn!! What a long road
you've had. Enjoy your sweet newborn, and good luck perfecting that
latching technique.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 17 months