Baby
"Truth" was born on August 25, 2015 at 3:53 am, only 10 days past our
due date!
Truth was my second
successful VBAC after a C-section with L in 2010 and a VBAC with J in 2013. J's
pregnancy and birth was a crazy journey. Read about it here. Even though it was THE HARDEST thing I have ever done,
I had no regrets about having a natural (drug free) birth. The idea of another
natural birth was completely daunting, but I also knew I'd probably regret it
if I didn't try.
After the first
child, the next babies tend to come sooner and with faster labor, so we were
prepared to act quickly, but when my due date and then 41 weeks came and went,
I was not surprised at all. My doctor had been on vacation until I was 40
weeks, 2 days, so it was actually a blessing that I didn't have to deliver with
someone else. Still, each time I felt contractions that didn't progress, I was
disappointed. It wasn't until Monday (41+2) when I went to the chiropractor,
that my 2 an hour contractions (I'd been having them mostly since Friday)
jumped to about every 10-15 minutes and continued throughout the day. I'd
experienced early labor coming and going with J, so I hoped but didn't expect
to actually make any real progress. We had a church leadership dinner in the
evening, and as I suspected, my contractions spaced out significantly while we
were there. They went back to 30-45 minutes apart. (I did have one oddly strong
one that lasted more than three minutes with a double peak--the kind you
usually only get very shortly before pushing.) Thanks to all my classes and
studies, I knew that labor can stall or stop when you change settings early on,
so I kind of assumed that would be the end of it for the night. However, as
soon as we got back into the car to drive home, I jumped right back to 10-15
minute contractions!
We got home, I
decided I should just go right to bed "in case." But I never slept.
After an hour of 10 minute, very uncomfortable contractions, I remembered that
when I had J, contractions in bed were harder to deal with and that being up
and moving helped me manage the pain. Again, I assumed they would stop since
every other night when I woke up with contractions, they'd quit once I got out
of bed. But I kept tracking. D went to sleep and I just roamed around trying
different things and tracking the changes. I ended up Facebook messaging with a
good friend throughout that time. We joked about her being my doula from afar!
Talking (typing/texting) is a great distraction for me, and S also helped me
think through how soon I should call my mom to come get the boys. She lives 30
minutes north of us, and the hospital is 35 minutes south, so I couldn't wait
too long, but I also didn't want to call her only to have labor quit again. By
11:00, my contractions were 3-6 minutes apart, so I made the call and woke
D. It was the middle of the night, so we had no traffic to be concerned
about, and I felt very confident that we had at least a few hours of labor
ahead of us. My mom got there at around 11:45. She stayed with me while D switched car seats, loaded her car and ours and put the boys in. They barely
woke up. I waited out a couple more contractions before getting down to the
car.
Even though I didn't
have back labor with Truth, this labor had a lot in common with my labor with
J. When we got into the car, contractions slowed back down. They'd definitely
been under 4 minutes, which is the typical time to head to the hospital, but in
the car, they went back up to around 6 minutes. That worked for me. Being
strapped into a seat for half an hour does not make for the best pain
management. Thanks to new speed limits and almost zero traffic, we made it to
the hospital even faster than usual. I decided I did not want D to drop me
off, so I went with him to the parking garage and probably had at least three
contractions just walking to the entrance. We met a nurse at emergency since it
was after hours, and she walked us to labor and delivery. When J was born, we'd
been planning an induction that morning, so we went straight to our room. This
time, we had the new experience of going first to triage. In triage, they
connected me to a fetal heart rate and contraction monitor to make sure
everything looked good. A resident came in to check my progress, but she got
called out and ended up delivering two babies before she got back to me. It was
about two hours later that she came back and found that I was 6 cm dilated.
I was officially
admitted, and we walked to what I was told was the very last labor and delivery
room. It didn't even register, but the lights were very dim, as per my birth
plan request. It was about 3 am by then. The movement seemed to be enough to
pick up labor, and I started having very close contractions. I needed to be
back in bed for my VBAC requirements of continuous fetal monitoring and a
capped IV just in case of an emergency. My doctor arrived and just joined the
team. I was immediately aware of why we are so willing to drive 35 minutes each
way to stay in her practice. Even though she clearly had medical authority once
she came in the room, she put gentle pressure on my back and just helped
quietly talk me through each contraction.
And this is where my
nemesis began to come back into the equation: fear. It was clear that pushing
was around the corner, and I just started to fall apart at the idea of going
through that and feeling every ounce of pain that was coming with it. I knew there
was no chance of any pain medication at that point, but I really had it in my
head that it was going to be too much for me to handle. I needed to hear, it's
too late, and by the time we'd get anything in your IV, your baby will be here!
I still said over and over again that I didn't want to push. Dr. K told me,
"You'll push three times and she will be here." But I didn't want to
do it. Now that I'm thinking back, self-doubt is common in transition, so I
guess I was right on track!
I tried a few
positions again, but I was just so tired that I ended up choosing to be back on
my back. Dr. K suggested that she break my water to help me get through faster,
and I agreed. (My water has never broken on its own!) I pushed for three
contractions--as my doctor predicted. Why do I never believe her? Crowning was
awful, as I remembered, but I didn't have to
deal with the last minute head rotation J did that really hurt me. Her
head came out, and where J basically came out in one push, only Truth's head
was out. I could tell her shoulders were a little caught, but one more push got
her out and she was on my chest. I still had to push the placenta, which I
don't remember at all with J, and I had two tiny tears to be stitched up.
The excitement began again when I had a lot of clots and needed a Pitocin drip
to help make sure I wouldn't hemorrhage.
Truth is not a shy
baby. No cute little newborn cries came that night; it was more of a "How
could you do this to me!" wail that she brought out even when I
repositioned her to help with nursing. She did get the latch pretty much
immediately and has been a great eater. She has the darkest hair of all the
kids, and she's three out of three with my nose! Even though I gained the least
weight this pregnancy, at 9lbs 5oz, she tied L for heaviest, and at 20 inches,
she's the shortest.
Truth's real name
means truth and grace. John 1:17 says that grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ. Our family's verse is Micah 6:8: "And what does the Lord require
of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
We hope that our daughter will grow to care about truth and justice, but treat
those around her with grace and compassion.
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