It took me a while to come to terms with Violet's birth and I blogged about it eventually. Now here is baby brother's story of entering the world.
I woke up at 3:30 am on February 27. I had had acupuncture and my membranes swept on the 25th, his due date. I had cramping that day but then nothing on the 26th. Well then we had bad mexican food that night and I woke up early the 27th. I woke Bob up at 4 when the contractions seemed regular, painful and too hard for me to keep track of on my own. I showered in between painfull moments while he woke my parents, and called the midwives and then he showered and I ate part of a banana while trying to relax between stabbing pains that were coming very quickly. I could barely get my shoes on, as if that wasn't hard enough before contractions! My dad drove us to the hospital and we called our doula. It was now around 5:30 and it was maybe 20degrees out. I couldn't walk to the door of the hospital, my contractions were super close, so Bob found a giant wheelchair in the lobby and we headed inside. We checked in and I was struggling to change my clothes. I was 8cm!! I had been 4cm at my last appointment. So yes, I was in labor. They admitted me and moved me to a delivery room, it was now 6:30 or so. I could barely move, the contractions were fast and hard and I wasn't getting a break between them. With Violet I blamed it on the pitocin, but now I'm not sure but that might be how my body deals with a pushing a baby out. At 7, our doula arrived and the midwife left to catch another baby while the midwife intern stayed with us. I was now at 10cm and they were telling me I could start pushing. I pushed and I pushed. Liam was past any point Violet ever got to. I pushed 3-5 times with each contraction. I tried different positions, I made noises I had never heard myself make before. Bob stayed by my head, always reassuring me and offering water, chapstick or other small comforts. My doula was on the other side encouraging and cheering me on and then when Liam's heartrate dropped, handed me the oxygen mask between contractions. After 2 hours of pushing, close to the max allowed for a VBAC, they brought in a doctor and discussed using a vacuum, he couldn't decide how to turn his head, this was also discussed with Violet and was seeming a bit too familiar. After each push a baby retracts slightly, 2 steps forward then one back. The vacuum would prevent the back step. Although this time, a vacuum might help. The doc tried a local numbing procedure that I do not think worked (he doubted it would because of Liam's position). It was incredibly uncomfortable. I could see things in the mirror above me, almost like an out of body experience, some things I may not want to remember. By now it is almost 10, a c-section has was mentioned once and I had mentioned an epidural once before the vacuum, but we decided against it. The vacuum was a like a suction cup on a hand pump and it started to help. Soon you could tell what color hair Liam had! near 10:30 I began pushing almost continuously after an episiotomy and finally his head was out. The relief was incredible, the second push for the shoulders was almost too easy! He didn't cry at first, he had a lot of mucus, but then we heard him. The placenta was also easy to deliver compared to the giant head. I had a second degree tear that needed stitches, Bob was so relieved he started to cry. There may have been a bit more blood than what was expected, by him. There were around 10 people in our room for the last half hour, some for the baby, but most for me. I think everyone wanted a VBAC that morning.
The healing over the next week was rough. I didn't expect that much discomfort in standing or walking, sitting I understood, but no one mentions walking! My c-section was so emotional that I forget how hard the physical recovery was. Liam's birth was almost all physical, I can type this and talk about it without crying, something I'm only just recently able to do about Violet's. I am thankful for both experiences and thankful to not go through either of them again.
Just FYI, It turns out Liam's head was in the 97%.
