Started with contractions on 4/16 at 4am every 3-5 minutes. I thought my water broke at about 8am. Not a big fish, just a little one. So I took a shower, got my things together, and had my husband do the same. I then called my doctored office to see if they wanted me to wait til 1, and see them for my appointment or go to L&D. They sent me to L&D since I was 38+5.

I get to L&D with my husband and they let us both in the hospital building. We go upstairs to L&D. After I am all checked in they tell my husband that he has to leave. He is not allowed in triage, but If I am admitted, they will call him and allow him back.

I head to my triage room and change into my hospital gown, pee in a cup, and take a seat on the bed. The midwife comes in to swab me and my underwear. She announces that one is positive and one is negative so she will be taking a ‘deep’ swab and sending to the lab. 

So as I am waiting for the lab work to come back, I notice the monitor on the baby is reading 59. I assume it’s not her heartbeat as these monitors slip off easily. A nurse comes in and starts moving the monitor all over. She calls for a second set of hands. She asks me to flip into my side. I obliged. She calls all available to join her. She asks me to get on my hands and knees. I am at this point crying because aside from a low heart rate I have no idea what’s going on. 

I ask for someone to call my husband  I am told that we can’t get him because they are focused on me and baby. I immediately ask again to which I was told: you do not have an epidural so if we cannot get your baby’s heart rate to rise we will put you under anesthesia. I cry more. 

The anesthesiologist asks me to set an IV. A lab tech comes and draws blood. They get the heartbeat back and I get to sit up and call Stephen. 

At this point the midwife tells me that it doesn’t matter what the lab result is, we will be admitted due to the deceleration. 

Stephen has no idea any of this has happened. I am informed that the maternity ward is filled to the brim and I will remain in the triage room until someone gives birth and a room opens. I call Stephen and let him know everything that has happened the past 1.5 hours. We wait another 3 hours to get a room. Lucky room #7. 

Almost immediately after getting the room (3:45pm) we start pitocin as I am already 4.5cm dialated. 20 minutes into the pitocin the contractions are already excruciating. And I think to myself, great, this baby is sunny side up. I get a dose of IV pain meds and then get my epidural ordered. The epidural numbs my stomach, the main area for the contractions but for the first time ever I have complete feeling in my legs and my vagina. And my vagina is aching constantly. 

At 10pm (after one other cervix check earlier at a 5) I am at 8cm dialated and my nurse mentions that she thinks the baby maybe sunny side up. I tell the nurse point blank if this baby is sunny side up, I need a c section. That the baby absolutely will not come out if she’s sunny side up. The nurse “reassures” me that I can still have this VBAC and babies come out sunny side up all the time and we still have all the time in the world to birth this baby. I tell her again that I will not be birthing a sunny side up baby and we continue on the same track with pitocin. 

2am rolls up and the midwife comes in to explain that the baby is sunny side up and has now had some decelerations in her heart rate. I tell her that I, my body, cannot deliver a sunny side up baby. She explains that they will be putting a tube into my uterus that will put fluids back in to help the baby reposition and enter the birth canal (I assure them that if she is not in the birth canal that she’s stuck and won’t be able to enter it at this his point). They explain that we won’t know anything for 4-6 hours and I repeatedly tell them I’m not doing this for another 6 hours. I decide in my head that we will do a check at 5am and if no change then I’m calling it. 

They insert the tube. It hurts really bad. And as mentioned earlier I can feel my vagina. This pain keeps escalating and I request the anesthesiologists to fix whatever is going wrong. They eventually up the dosage, and give me IV meds until it kicks in but I wait a good 45 minutes for them to show up and do this. 

At this point it’s almost 5am and I request my cervix check. My nurse says I must wait for the midwife to do the check and she’s delivering right now. She eventually makes it to me and does a check. No change. At this point Stephen and I are requesting a c section. We are done, and ready. The midwife takes 45 minutes trying to try to convince us to wait the whole 6 hours of the water tube effort since “there is no medical reason to “give up” yet”. Let’s reiterate that there has been zero change since 10pm and it is now about 5:30am. 

We finally have her convinced (which is absurd because the mother attempting a VBAC Is supposedly allowed to call it at any point) that we aren’t doing this and the doctor needs to come in to deliver this baby. So We start do the prep for a c section, turn off pitocin, move over to the OR, etc. 

I’ve received some “prep” medications that often cause nausea, and am also freezing. So I have a bag next to my head just in case. Once the “curtain” went up I start freaking out and can’t control my breathing so the nurses are talking to me to get me to calm down. Stephen arrives in his scrubs and has a seat. My numbness levels get checked and we are ready to go! 

I start vomiting. And I’m sleeping between vomits. Probably 6-7 times I vomit. And then they pull Edelen out. By pull I mean rip her out, I am crying (and vomiting and sleeping all at once). I hear the nurse say here’s your baby girl! That’s all I remember. I wake up post surgery ask for Stephen a few times and they tell me he’s in the recovery room with Edelen. They finish cleaning me up and take me to recovery. 

At this point the anesthesiologist leans over and tells me I need to talk to my husband about the surgery, that the doctor already spoke to him. 

Once the doctor opened me up, he sees Edelen’s arm and shoulder protruding through my uterus and in my abdomen. She has punched through the old c section scar. This is most likely the reason for my uncontrollable pain. The doctor has never seen this before and tells Stephen there will be no VBACs in my future - scheduled c sections only. 

Edelen is healthy.

 4/17/2020 6:31am 

 8lb 1oz and 20.5in