tylerbirth3

Yes.  You read that right.  I had an unmedicated VBAC (a vaginal birth after cesarean) birth with my  son … which I know is not as common as it could be.  I think a lot of doctors are scared of it — and rightfully so, there are *some* risks — but if you have a doctor who trusts a womans’ body to do what we were built to do, then it’s a beautiful experience.  I LOVED my birth experience so much that I wanted to have another baby right away (but sadly, my husband cut me off … that whole it takes 30K to have a baby just didn’t float his boat).  I loved feeling like I could literally conquer anything I tried because delivering a baby without medication isn’t for the weak.  And listen, I don’t care if you walked in the hospital and ordered up your epidural — I don’t think you are weak — you are a mother and therefore, you are awesome.  Your birth choices are all about you.  But this story is all about me — so, let me have an inflated ego for five minutes.  😉  

With my daughter, I went in with a birth plan — the exact same plan I had with Tyler — a completely unmedicated birth and I dug my feet in the ground — and really, that’s a story in and of it self … but then things went south and they had to get her out immediately.  They literally ran us down the hall to give me a spinal and rip her from my body.   After I got over the fact that I had every kind of medical intervention allotted to me — I decided I wanted to have a VBAC with our second kiddo. I wanted that birth experience that I dreamed of!

So — I was a patient of Dr. Seeker in Austin — whom I LOVE.   He is charismatic and kind and a fabulous doctor but he wasn’t a fan of the VBAC.  At all.   He said he’d let me ‘try’ but I knew that deep down, if I stayed with him, I’d end up with another c-section.  So, at 30 weeks, I switched doctors to a practice that had midwives on staff and really believed that I could have a VBAC.   It was the best decision we ever made to switch.  My hubby was pretty darn skeptical — not whether or not I could do it, because he knows me well enough to know that I could do it — but he was skeptical of whether or not it was truly safe.  So, we interviewed Dr. Andrea Campaigne and she was so reassuring and a perfect fit for us!  Was it scary changing doctors that late in the game?  Kind of.  But their staff was so welcoming that in those last few weeks, I felt right at home.

Alright — so, that’s the long backstory — here’s the even longer story of his birth.  It’s long — so settle in with a cup of coffee.   And it’s graphic — because, dude, birth is graphic.  So, don’t eat migas while you read this. 
tylerbirth2

12 days before my due date — I woke up at 3:50am feeling a gush of fluid.  I assumed it was my water breaking.  I went to the bathroom and discovered it wasn’t my bag of waters, but bright red blood.  And a lot of it.   For some reason, I wasn’t panicked by my husband certainly was!  

at 5:00am, we made it to the hospital, but we didn’t know where to go because we never took the tour.  How annoying is that?  I’m literally dripping blood and searching for the L&D floor.   A long time passed with monitoring my blood loss, and waiting for contractions, and getting exams (aren’t those just lovely) … and then we had a decision to make. Which was ‘wait and see’ or ‘break my water’ …  because I wasn’t really having any consistent contractions.   They were there — but they weren’t anything I had to breathe through which means they weren’t doing anything to move the birth along.  I didn’t know what to do — I was afraid of having them break my water and then having no contractions start and that we’d end up on pitocin and a c-section (which would be a repeat of what we went through with Sabrina).   But, the difference was — with Sabrina, I was never dilated and with Tyler, I was already dilated to four.  So — we went for it.  

at 11:53am, they broke my water.  And wow — it hurt like hell.  It’s not the same as if your water breaks at home.  It hurt … and then it was so gross.  All this lovely fluid just going all over the bed.   

12:00P — JT and I start to walk.  We did one lap and I had three fairly strong contractions during that walk.  Strong enough that I had to stop and concentrate.

12:05P-1:00P — Back in the room, sitting on the birth ball (which JT bought on Friday).  I leaned back on JT who was sitting on the couch and he had held on to my thighs or back during contractions.  My midwife, Liane MacPherson, was in the room the entire time and talked to me during the contractions — soft voice with positive reinforcement.   The contractions were quite strong — lasting a full minute and occurring every three minutes.  Each contraction I would drop my head, sink into the ball and talk to the baby about opening up my cervix.  It sounds corny, but I swear, it worked.  

1:00P-1:30P —  The OB and midwife were both in the room with us and were both fabulous.  The midwife kept using soft positive tones.   The birth ball was no longer comfortable and I struggled to find a good laboring position.   I tried sitting on the bed  which was horrible.  Then I tried sitting on one foot while the other dangled off the bed and that wasn’t much better but it worked for a few minutes.  JT sat behind me and I asked him to count for me.  The counting helped because once we got to 30, I knew the pain was going to start decreasing and I was going to get a break.   The best part about laboring without the aide of drugs is that I got a break where I could stretch, think about the process,   etc.  At this point, my breaks started getting shorter and shorter — maybe 30-45 seconds.   We changed positions to standing and leaning with forearms on the bed.  I started shaking a bit, feeling stomach cramps and no position felt comfortable at all. 

1:30P — The OB suggests getting into the shower.  She knew that the shower helped during Sabrina’s labor and thought it might be a good time to try the shower and get under the warmth of the water.  It took a few minutes as contractions were coming quickly and I had to stop undressing to focus.  It was very very very very hard to focus but JT was amazing and kept me going. 

1:35P — The OB suggests to JT that he go to the car to get music so that in between the contractions we would have relaxing music in the background.  We forgot our player but JT had his laptop, so he ran to the car to get it while me and the OB worked our way to the shower.   As it turns out, we forgot the classical CD anyway, so, running to get the laptop was pointless.  He was gone less than five minutes.

1:40P — In the shower … warm water felt okay but it certainly didn’t melt away the contractions.  The OB wanted me to sit on the birth chair but I wanted to throw it out the window.  It wasn’t comfortable at all and it was too hard for me to concentrate on that chair.  She held the water on my lower back and lower abdomen but it wasn’t helping.  I decided standing was a  better option and then I had the urge to push so — I pushed.  JT is back in the room and the OB said something along the lines of,  “James … I don’t want the baby to come out on the shower floor so I need your help.”   JT actually thought she was kidding since he was only gone five minutes.

1:50P — The OB hits the call button and gets the nurses in the room.  She checks me and I’m at 10cm and  ready to go.   Before I know it,  we’re pushing.  The pushing was intense — I couldn’t use low tones to concentrate — it was a flat out high-pitched scream.  The interesting thing was, for the first two rounds of pushes, I got a good two minute break in between each one.  I’d lay my head back, relax and even smile.  Our birth photographer (Michele Anderson of Pinkletoes Photography) arrived just at that point — I remember smiling at her and then it got so intense there were no more smiles … not until our baby came out!  The OB needed me to slow down the pushing because it was so fast and furious that if we kept going at the same rapid rate of speed, I’d likely tear from head to well, you know.  She also had me push when I was supposed to be on a break so that she could control how long/fast/intensity of the push.  She was a perfect OB for me — telling me exactly what to do.  She was positive and loving but in a Nazi-eske kind of way.  I remember shouting that I couldn’t do it.  They were all wonderful and positive and really, there was no choice in the matter because he was coming and there was no turning back!  The burning was intense (I know I’m using that word a lot but there just isn’t a better word for it) but as soon as his head came out it was one of the best feelings in the world.  

2:06P — Our baby was born!!   He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long.    He came out so fast that he didn’t have a cone head!  

tylersbirth1

PS:  I know I’m a photographer, but you should hire a photographer for your next birth.  BEST decision I’ve ever made!!

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