LONG- To the csection mommas

To those of you mommas that had a cesarean and are struggling. One week ago I had a successful VBAC!!! I highly recommend attempting to VBAC for your next child if you choose to have more kids. I was so discouraged after my cesarean that I might have to endure that pain again if I wanted more kids. I entered an amazing VBAC support group on Facebook and although I have many different views as they do, there was a lot of great insight on there that encouraged me to try for a vaginal birth. So... here is my birth story.

At 38 weeks I was closed, thick, and high... they were supposed to strip my membranes that day but obviously couldn’t since I wasn’t dilated. So for the next week I walked like no ones business and played with my 22month old at the park since there was finally some nice weather. I pulled out all the stops: sex, yoga ball, red raspberry tea, pineapple, and dates. Then the day before my 39 week appointment came along and my husband had some tractor work to do so I asked to tag along, figured it would do better then the yoga ball 😂. That night I noticed some contractions here and there, extremely spaced out and inconsistent... I actually didn’t even give them much thought. When I woke up the next morning, I made my routine visit to the bathroom and noticed my bloody show... that’s when I realized that the discomfort I was having during the night was contractions not pee pains 😂. I decided to get some house work done before my appointment at 11 am and noticed some more of those pains, I didn’t time them but I probably could have! The pains became a little worse by the time I got to the doctor... they checked me and I was 1-1.5 30% and they stripped my membrane. Left my appointment, went to lunch, came home and noticed these contractions were still hanging around and getting worse. When timing them I would get a bunch that were consistent then they would slow down, so I wasn’t sure if it was time to go in or not. After a couple hours of them not stopping around 4:30 pm I called the hospital near me (they don’t do VBACs) to see if they could monitor me and advise if it was time for me to head to my VBAC hospital that is 1.5 hrs away. After spending about 3 hours there they said it wouldn’t hurt to head that way due to my contractions, leaving there I was 1.5 cm 50%. I rounded up my husband and we made the 1.5 hr drive, got to the hospital at about 11pm and was already at 3cm 80%. They decided to admit me since I lived so far and I had progressed in just a couple hours. By 3am I was 5cm and I was needing to use the gas, helped some but not much so I decided to get up and start walking again as I felt that helped more with the pain. Contractions got worse so I asked for iv pain meds, that helped for maybe an hour so I decided to get the epidural. Got the epidural and they checked me again around 7am and I was 7cm and 90%. Shortly after this the baby’s heart rate dropped, they decided to break my water to get a more accurate heart rate monitor on the baby’s head. Heart rate leveled out and when they broke my water I went from 7cm to 9cm. I stayed there until about 11-12ish when they checked me and I was complete, but they wanted me to labor down before pushing. I did that for about an hour, I think. This is when I really lost track of time lol. Anyhow, I would say I pushed for about 30 min give or take. Got a 2nd degree tear but a lot of stitches they said.

My sweet boy did such a good job throughout everything, he is just perfect! I feel sooooo good! I hated recovering from my cesarean, I had a fear that I would feel the same kind of pain but just in my vagina instead of my lower abdomen but with less recovery time.... not true at all! I would say my pain level has not gotten above 2 and I can move around in a way that I would have never been able to after surgery. Such a healing experience!

Sorry to make this seem like it’s all about me, but just wanted to inform about my VBAC story.

Here is Mr. Colt Allen Quint born on 3/17/2020 at 1:24pm weighing 6lb 6oz 19.5 in long.

Proud big brother!