We were in the hospital for less than 48 hours. I am not a fan of being a patient and having people coming in every few hours to wake me up and get my vitals when I am feeling pretty good. The recovery was so much easier with a VBAC than a c-section so I saw no need to stay.
Our plans almost changed though when Katherine had her bilirubin test. They scanned her forehead for color and it came up that her bilirubin level was at the 95% level. so, our pediatrician said she could not go home and had to spend the night under the billi blanket and light therapy. She also said that after every time she nursed I needed to follow it up with a bottle of formula. That was not exactly what this mom wanted to hear but I was willing to go with it to get her out as soon as I could.
We met with the lactation consultant to help with our nursing since eating is the best way to reduce her bilirubin level. Since Caroline came out so fast the amniotic fluid was not all squeezed out of her stomach. So, she was not eating well since her tummy was full and it would cause her to spit up the amniotic fluid.
About an hour or two later the nurse came back in and the blood test came back that Caroline was only in the 40% bilirubin level so the pediatrician said we could go home. So, we left the hospital at about 8:30 that night.
We dressed Caroline up in her cute outfit and took our photos putting her in the car. She is soooo tiny. We were not sure if we were going to be able to get the straps small enough. I remember the same thing with Katherine.
We stopped to pick up dinner at Dickey's on the way home because we were starving. Luckily Caroline slept long enough to eat before wanting to eat herself and head to bed. She was such a sleepy head that we could not wake her up later to eat again so we decided to all sleep through the night. Hopefully that will continue!
Here is part 2 of my birth story. Warning - it is long with lots of photos.
By the time Amy and Jesse left at 8:30, some contractions were pretty intense and I kept feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom. We decided to go ahead and take Katherine to Madi’s house so that I could relax without worrying about her and if this were the real deal she would already be taken care of. We were so glad we took care of that early in the evening.
At about 9 I started calling my birth team and family. I told them that I *thought* I was in labor. I started timing contractions at about 8:45 and at that point they were all over the place. They were anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes long and they were coming anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes apart. I then decided to take a bath to see if the contractions would increase or decrease. I needed to be able to relax and do my hypnobabies as well. I thought that a bath would slow things down or at least allow me to relax. It was excruciating and I was in a lot of pain. The contractions were coming strong and frequently enough that I was not able to concentrate on my hypnobabies or relax at all.
At about 9:30, while still taking a bath, I threw up. I knew I was truly in labor. I moved to our room and labored between our bedroom and bathroom as I was trying to finish packing up our stuff. I had imagined this long drawn out labor with lots of time between contractions at the beginning so it was a bit of a rush to finish getting toiletries and stuff packed up.
At 10 I still did not have a consistent pattern to my contractions but I decided it was time to call my midwife, Lindsay to let her know what was going on. I had called everyone but her because I knew she would have to tell the OB and then I would officially be on the clock and pressured to come in. My plan had been to labor at home as long as possible. Little did I know how short of a time that would be. She had just finished another birth and since my pattern of contractions was still not regular she was going to go home for a little while to rest. She told me to call when I was ready to go to the hospital.
I continued to labor at home, never being able to relax enough to do my hypnobabies and never finding a comfortable position. I tried the birth ball but it literally felt like I was sitting on the baby’s head. I tried all fours and sitting on the toilet. That was actually the most comfortable. In hindsight, it was because I was already in transition and the baby’s head really was right there. At 11 I threw up again and told Sam that it was time to go to the hospital. We called Lindsay to tell her to meet us there. When I told her I threw up again, I asked her if that meant I was in transition. She said that it could happen at any time so it is hard to know where I was in my labor. I told Sam that I felt like I needed to push. He said he was scared that I was right and we were not going to make it and skeptical that I was wrong and would be disappointed when we got there. The last contraction that was at home I remember thinking that if I was not at least dilated to 7cm that I was going to get an epidural ASAP because I could not imagine it getting worse.
In the car I had 3-4 big contractions. For all of them I knew that I felt the head and felt like I needed to push. We have a friend in our community group who works in ER at the hospital and lives in our neighborhood. I remember thinking that I wish we had called him to ride with us to the hospital in case I had to deliver by the side of the road. Little did I know how close we were to that happening.
I felt like we were going to the hospital so slowly and would never get there. I tried to listen to my hypnobabies scripts but after about 5 minutes I decided that it was the most annoying thing I had ever heard and took off my headphones. When we arrived at the hospital (probably in only 15-20 minutes) I was having a contraction and had to stay in the car. We realized that I had no shoes. I told Sam to get them and he thought he heard me say I put them on. So, I walked into L&D “barefoot and pregnant”. I had another contraction in the foyer of the building on the way to L&D (only about 30 feet away from the car). I dropped to all fours because that was the most comfortable position. I told Sam to go ahead and run to the desk to tell them we were here. When the nurse came with the wheel chair I think she was a little surprised by what she saw. It was obvious that I was truly in labor so I got to skip the observation stage. She wheeled me straight to a delivery room. The wheelchair was so uncomfortable and at this point contractions were right on top of one another with almost no break between.
Because I was a VBAC and tested positive for Group B Strep, they wanted to hook me up to an IV to start antibiotic treatments. They also wanted to put the monitors on my to chart my contractions and the baby’s heartbeat. This usually takes at least 20 minutes. The nurse told me to go to the bathroom since it would be my last chance for a while and to put on the gown while I was there. When in the bathroom I knew there was no way I could put on the gown or the clothes I had brought to labor in either. That is why I am seen laboring in my A&M Football shirt. It is not that I am a big fan; it was one of the t-shirts that was still big enough to fit and what I had on when I left for the hospital. I told the nurse that I could not change and that I wanted them to check me because I felt ready to push. She looked at me with surprise and told me to get on the bed.
I was checked and the nurse told me that I was complete with no cervix and 2 station. This means that I was in fact ready to deliver a baby and start pushing. Because I was ready there was no need to give me the IV for antibiotics. They did hook up the fetal monitors but that was no big deal. She told me to try to wait until Lindsay arrived, as she was still about 5 minutes away. We arrived at the hospital at 11:45. At this point no one else on my birth team had arrived. They also did not have any of my pre-admittance on file so Sam had to fill out papers and give them information so that I could be in the system before I gave birth. Sundee, my photographer was the first to arrive followed by Lindsey who arrived shortly after midnight.
Faces of Labor
Lindsey checked me at 12:15 and my water had not broken yet so we decided to break it at the next contraction. At this point my contractions were every 1-3 minutes and were 30-60 seconds long. Lindsey said that as soon as she arrived she could tell that I was doing hypnobabies pushing which is a different style of pushing than most moms do during labor. So, when I asked her how long I pushed it was hard to define. It really helped me to relax through the contractions and move her down without actually “pushing”. At 12:35 my OB arrived, shortly after that my sister-in-law Shannon. Lindsay finally told me that she was crowning and I could really start to push. It is funny that one thing I was looking forward to was being able to push in any position I wanted. I imagined squatting or being on all fours. When it came to it, the contractions were so intense and close that there was no way I could imagine changing positions so I pushed and delivered in the classic OB friendly position of being on my back with my legs up. At least they were not in stirrups. They brought in a mirror so I could see her head. I had been “hypnobabies exhale pushing” but this is when I really started pushing in the traditional sense. I pushed through 4 very intense contractions and she was born! The time of birth was 12:42 am, just 42 minutes after her official due date.
She was immediately brought to my chest and was placed there skin to skin. She cried pretty well but was very purple at first. We rubbed her down to get her color pinker and they put an oxygen mask on for a few minutes. Her Apgar scores were 8 and 9 due to her color. The cord quit pulsing pretty quickly and Sam cut the cord.
It was such a different experience from Katherine’s birth where they showed her to me quickly and then took her out of sight for evaluation. The placenta was delivered pretty quickly and easily. We were all interested in it so Lindsey spent about 5 minutes showing us all of the characteristics of the placenta. It is pretty amazing how God designed our bodies to support the life of our baby in the womb. After a few minutes I thought to ask if anyone had actually checked that the baby was a girl. No one had so we checked and sure enough, we had a baby girl. She nursed pretty quickly and easily, which was fun.
I did not have an episiotomy but I had a second-degree natural tear. This is the depth of if they had done an episiotomy but since it was a natural tear it should heal better and quicker. After I was stitched up, my parents came in and then we announced the name, Caroline Marie. Both are family names. Caroline is the name of Sam’s great grandmother and Marie is my middle name, my grandmother’s middle name and my great grandmother’s first name.
So, from the first sign of labor until the time of delivery was exactly 12 hours. I had about 4 hours of active labor and 15 minutes of active pushing. This was surprising that my labor was so fast because even though I have another child, in the medical sense I was a first time mom since I did not labor at all with Katherine. There is actually a term for those with such quick labors – precipitous labor. A fast labor may be over quickly but it is very intense as you make the same amount to progress in a shorter amount of time. Luckily I had no idea that was what was happening and I have a pretty high pain threshold.
This delivery was everything I had hoped for in a VBAC. I was able to labor at home for as long as possible. I had a natural, drug free birth. Caroline was able to be on my chest immediately to nurse and bond. There were no antibiotics or IV’s required due to the speed. I had no unnecessary interventions. I was able to labor and deliver in any position.
Everyone on my birth team was present though my doula arrived right as Caroline was born. After delivery I commented to those there that I cannot believe that I could have easily signed up for a repeat c-section when it was such a non-event to have a vaginal delivery. After things calmed down and people went home, we were in the recovery room for quite awhile. They measured Caroline. She weighed 7 pounds and was 19 inches long, one pound heavier and ½ inch longer than her sister was. They had to take blood from her to test for Group B Strep since I was not able to have any of the antibiotics. If she were positive she would have antibiotics. If she were negative then we would do nothing. The blood draw was horrible. They could not get a vein and it took quite awhile. We were pretty sure she would not have it since my water did not break until about 30 minutes before delivery and she was only being pushed for 3-4 contractions.
It took forever for us to get into our room that night. Due to the fact that they had not processed my pre-admission (even though I turned it in last February) we had to fill out all kinds of papers after the fact. It is pretty humorous to fill out consent forms for the risks of a VBAC when you are holding your 3-hour-old baby on your chest. At about 4am the nurse told us that we had a flat tire. On the way to the hospital we both remember hitting something. Apparently over time it caused our tire to be flat. Luckily it had not been a blow out or I really would have delivered by the side of the road.
At this time last week I was in pretty much pain, in the throes of labor, about to leave for the hospital. My project for the week has been to write out my birth story. It has taken longer than I thought to process the event and write it out. I promise it will be posted by the end of the weekend. I almost have it written and now I am going through photos. Sundee took 512 photos at the hospital and has been busy editing and uploading all week. I now have 225 of the best to sort through and decide what to post on the blog. They are all so precious to me but I know that some are more of me than many of you will want to see plus only a few of you would want to look through all of them.
Since I have so many photos and such a long birth story, I thought I would post a "cliff notes" highlight version tonight. Later this weekend I will post the full story with pictures.
Looking pretty miserable during a contraction.
Friday July 18th - my due date 1:00 pm - My first sign of labor being in the near future was losing my mucous plug and having "bloody show" (sorry if that is TMI) 4:50 pm - First contraction that was strong, painful, and obviously not Braxton Hicks in nature. It woke me up from a nap. 6:00 - 8:30 pm - Jesse, Amy and kids came over for dinner. During this time the contractions got stronger. I was still able to be social but decreasingly so as the evening went on. 8:30-9:15 pm - I began timing contractions with no pattern established. I called my birth team to alert them that I was pretty sure I was in labor. 9:15 pm - I took a bath to try to see if labor would slow down. Instead it increased and I threw up. 9:45-11 pm - I labored in our bedroom and bathroom while trying to finish packing hospital bags. Still no steady pattern as far as length of contractions or time between them. I could not get comfortable in any position and felt like the head was very low. I called my midwife at 10. 11 pm - I threw up again. I start to feel the urge to push and tell Sam that we really need to go to the hospital. We pack up the car, make calls and drive to the hospital. 11:45 pm - Arrive at the hospital. Have one contraction on all fours in the foyer of the hospital. I am sure that looked pretty funny, especially since I forgot to put on shoes when we left the house. 11:50 pm - I am checked by the nurse and found to be complete - 10 cm dilated, 100% effaced, 2 station. They tell me to wait to push if possible so that my midwife can arrive. Saturday, July 19th 12:04 am - My midwife arrives. 12:18 am - They break my water. 12:35 am - My OB arrives followed by my sister in law. I push through 3-4 contractions. 12:42 am - Caroline is born. 12:44 am - My doula arrives.
Feeling much better, holding Caroline!
So, from the first sign of possible labor to the birth was almost exactly 12 hours. From first contraction to birth was 8 hours. What I would call "active" labor was about 4 hours and I pushed only 3-4 times. Not technically defined as "precipitous labor" but almost. Pretty quick for someone who was considered a first time mom by the medical community due to my first birth being a c-section with no labor.
Because it was so fast, I had none of the interventions that I was trying to avoid. I had no IV antibiotics, not even a Hep Lock. I had no drugs at all. I am so glad that I decided not to have a repeat c-section but to have a VBAC. The experience was so different and the recovery has been so easy compared to last time.
During our two day stay at the hospital we had a nice steady stream of visitors. The room at the hospital was pretty small and it got crowded at times but it was fun. Caroline slept through most of the visitors. In fact, during one nap she was held by 7 different people including at least one toddler.
Sam and Caroline with Joshua and Annalise (almost 5 weeks)
John, Anna and Pam with Caroline
Janna holding Caroline
Ethan enjoys holding Caroline.
Caleb was very enamored.
Of course Nana came to visit a few times.
Cousin Emily
Aunt Shannon was excited to hold Caroline after witnessing her birth.
Uncle George
Pops and Katherine with Roger, Jacob, Ellie and Jenn
Somehow we did not get a photo with Nick, Bri and Brady and our photo of the Walkers was pretty pathetic but we remember that you all came to visit as well.
In an effort to make sure Katherine did not feel left out by all of the attention that her baby sister would be getting we planned several things for the hospital to make it fun for Katherine. When we took her to Madi's house on Friday night I explained to her that she would be spending the night with Ben while mommy went to the hospital so that baby sister would come out of her tummy. Madi said that when she woke up Saturday morning she was so excited to go meet her baby sister.
When they got to the hospital I cannot tell you how excited I was to see Katherine. The look on her face when she came through that door showed pure joy. She ran over to my bed excited to see mommy and excited to meet baby sister. She climbed up onto the bed and was enamored by Caroline. She looked at her hands and face and tickled her feet. All she wanted to do was hold her. It was so precious.
Katherine is showing Ben Caroline's toes.
We planned a birthday party for Caroline, complete with balloons, presents and a cake. This was mainly for Katherine. She loves Birthday parties and she knew that it was Caroline's birthday. The girls exchanged gifts. Katherine gave Caroline a small baby doll and a stuffed bunny, just like in the book that we read about having a baby.
Caroline gave Katherine a "bitty baby" from the American Girl store. Now Katherine can take care of her own baby when mommy is taking care of Caroline.
