My sweet baby girl arrived by VBAC at 39+3 on 3/18/18.

My backstory is that I’ve been having contractions since 19 weeks that were non productive. They became uncomfortable around 34 weeks. On Monday 3/5 we went to L&D; at 6am because I’d been having contractions throughout the night about 4-6minutes apart. They ended up sending me home because I was only 1cm and 50% effaced and my contractions tapered off. On Tuesday 3/6 I saw my dr and was still only 1cm. I had a growth scan and the baby was estimated to be 7lbs 3oz. Because I was going for a vbac my dr wasn’t comfortable with inducing (which I’ve known since the beginning) so it was still just wait and see. And I was miserable!! So my dr told me to make an appointment with her on the following Monday. I saw her then and was only barely 2cm and still thick and posterior. She called me that Friday 3/16 and left me a message saying she would see me at my appointment the following Monday but that she would be out Tuesday-Friday. I cried and cried and cried at the thought of possibly being delivered by a dr I didn’t know.

Bring on Labor Day......

Saturday night around 10pm I started having really intense contractions. These were NOTHING like what I had experienced for the past 20 weeks. But they were only 10-15 minutes apart so I still didn’t think that this was the real thing. By 4am they were so bad that I was having to breathe through them and they would stop me in my tracks. They were coming about 4 minutes apart and lasting about 1 min 20 sec. so I woke up my fiancé and told him we had to go. We got to L&D; around 5:15 and went straight into triage. It was the same triage nurses that I had 2 weeks before. At this point I was 3cm and having really bad contractions. They called the on call dr and she said to have me walk around for an hour and to check me again. Walking was terrible but when I got back I was still only 3cm but a little more effaced. At this point my contractions were even worse. The nurse called he on call again and she said tohave me walk some more. That she didn’t think she was sending me home but wanted to call my dr. She told me to go get something to eat because if they admitted me I wouldn’t be allowed anything else. Fast forward to 11am and the on call dr comes to check me. I’m still only 3cm but I’m definitely in labor and because I’m a vbac she doesn’t feel comfortable sending me home so I was moved to a L&D; room and given an IV. About 20 minutes later my dr showed up. I was SOOOOO happy to see her!! She decided that I should get an epidural and she would start some pitocin. She was only going to give me 2 and she wouldn’t increase it. Well I got my epidural and it only worked on my right side. The anesthesiologist tried EVERYTHING he could to get it to work on my left. We tried different positions. We took it out and moved it up a space and it still didn’t work. He tried a different concentration of medicine AND putting fentanyl straight into my epidural catheter. NOTHING WORKED 😩😩😩😩. So around 3:30 my nurse decided enough was enough with trying to make his thing work. I was only 5cm and 75% effaced. She sat me straight up in the bed. At this point my contractions were coming HARD and my water broke on it’s own. At 4:15 I had he strong urge to poop and could not take the pain. The nurse came in and said the baby was dipping with my contractions and she wanted to check me. To EVERYONE’S surprise I was fully complete and it was go time. They called my dr and prepped the room. I started pushing at 4:45 and my beautiful 7lb 12oz surprise gender baby girl was born at 5:30. The last few rounds of pushing were literally the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. But I knew I couldn’t quit. My dr was amazing and I had no episiotomy or tearing. I was able to go home the next day at 7pm and everyone is doing great! We’re adjusting to life with a newborn and loving EVERY MINUTE 😍😍😍😍