Lexi's Birth Story

Lexi’s Amazing Birth Story!

Approximately 4 months or so into my pregnancy, I decided that I was going to need a Doula during this labor and delivery to have the extra support since I was going for a VBAC. Since this time around I would be attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Ceserean), I think it added to the emotions as I really wanted to be successful with my VBAC. A Doula is a woman experienced in childbirth who provides advice, information, emotional support, and physical comfort to a mother before, during, and just after childbirth. I also switched OB’s at 20 weeks of my pregnancy as I didn’t feel as my OB of 11 years was providing me the support that I needed to have a VBAC! Changing OB’s was the best decision ever, I absolutely loved my new OB and the overall experience of every appointment was such a different experience, everything from when I walked in and was greeted to when I was walking out the door to leave!

As the days were leading up to my estimated due date, I had such mixed feelings. I was getting so excited to meet her, but also knew that this would be my last pregnancy as we only wanted to have two. Therefore, I was trying to cherish every last minute of the pregnancy. Each check up from 36 weeks on, my OB would check and there was only a finger tip of dialation and while my cervix was softening, Lexi was really not showing any sign that she was ready to make her debut. However, it was also something that I expected as this is how things went with my first pregnancy for my son, Austin. I also was 7 days overdue with Austin so was anticipating that I would be overdue with Lexi as well. I just knew that this was how my body works. My babies don’t like to show any sign they are coming and then just boom, they decide they are ready and come full force!

Since we have a 5 year old son, Austin, we had made arrangements for him to stay with a family friend when the time came for me to go to the hospital. We had been at their house visiting on a Thursday, which was two days past my due date and when we were leaving Austin said to them, “See you on Saturday”, I replied with, “Saturday, we don’t have any plans with them on Saturday.” He said, “Well I do, because baby Lexi is coming.” Low and behold on Saturday morning, I was woke up at about 5:30 AM with some strong cramps (like really strong menstrual cramps), so I got out of bed walked around a little and then decided I wanted to go back to sleep. I fell back to sleep pretty easily, but was woke up again at about 7:15 with the same type of cramps, so strong that I really couldn’t even roll over in the bed because the pain was so intense. Once they subsided, I rolled over and was just lying there awake. A few minutes later I felt a weird sensation, almost like a popping feeling and thought to myself, hmm…wonder if my water just broke. Nothing was coming out, I am guessing since I was lying down. At this point I needed to use the restroom, so I got up and walked to the bathroom, just as I was entering into the bathroom, I felt the water running down my leg…oh my goodness, my water had broken! I went to the bathroom and then called my Doula. The plan was for me to do most of my laboring at home. I left her a message and then went ahead and took a shower. She called me back and said she was going to come over to monitor the baby’s heart rate. She is going to school to be a mid wife so she has training, tools and the ability to do things above and beyond what most doula’s are able to offer. She came over and baby’s heart rate was great, so we decided I would just hang out until the contractions started and then I could call her to come back. We took Austin to our family friend’s house at about 10 AM and then decided that my husband and I would go and enjoy a breakfast date. As we were finishing with breakfast, I was starting to have some mild contractions. Once we returned home, I took a nap for about an hour or so, then the contractions started to get stronger, but they were still about 15 minutes apart. I just walked around the house, used my birthing ball, sitting down on the couch occasionally going back to lay down. Around 4 PM we called Jen our Doula to go ahead and come over and my contractions were pretty regular around 6 minutes apart and things were getting pretty uncomfortable. Jen arrived and we did a variety of position changes, used the birthing ball, acupressure etc. by 5 PM my contractions started to be every two minutes apart and were lasting about a minute to minute and 15 seconds and continued that way until 7 PM at which time I really felt it necessary to head to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, they checked to confirm my water had broke and checked to see what I was dialated too, I figured I would be about a 5, but NO, only a 1….I thought how could this be, my contractions have been so intense and so consistant, why was I only a 1? They went ahead and admitted me and shortly after I was in my room, I started vomiting. We continued to change the positions and use the birthing ball to help progress things along and low and behold, within about 2.5 hours, I was at a 4, which was surprising to progress that quickly, but at the same time I was thinking, It is about time, darn it!!!! We had decided I would use the hospitals Japanese Spa tub and see if that would help bring me some relief. I hung out in the tub for about a half an hour and then decided things were continuing to be intense and I was exhausted and needed some rest, so I let my Doula know I was going to need the epidural after all in effort to get some sleep and rest to ensure I had the rest I needed to be successful with the VBAC. So once I was back in my room from the Spa tub, they called for the anesthesiologist to administer my epidural…I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would NOT slow things down since it is known for that. However, my body was on a roll and things continued to progress pretty well…didn’t slow down, thankfully. However about 1.5 hours later something went wrong and the epidural was no longer working and it was back to feeling as though I didn’t have an epidural at all. So I called my nurse and she called for the anesthesiologist to come in and check things out, he made some adjustments to the machine and viola, all was working again….however, in the meantime I was only able to catch about 45 min. to an hour of some sleep. I continued to progress and at about 4 AM or so, I started to show signs of a fever, they took my temperature and I had a slight one of about 100.2, she said as long as it was below a 100.4, all was fine. One hour later, she took my temperature again and it had gone to a 101.7, so they started me on antibiotics as a preventative in case it was due to an infection. She checked me again to see what I was dialated at around 5:15 AM and I was at a 10, so we did some practice pushes before she had my dr. come in and she said I did good and we will go ahead and start the real pushing. I had requested to be able to do some practice pushes to ensure that I was pushing the right way as the hospital has a 3 hour pushing limit meaning if I push for 3 hours and no baby yet, then I go in for a C section. I started pushing as soon as I felt the urge, pushed a good solid three times, then would take a break until I would get the urge again. I would have pretty long breaks in between the pushing and finally pushed her out at 6:17 AM. It was such an amazing experience. Once she was close to being all the way out, my dr. told me to go ahead and reach down and grab her, I did and brought her up to my chest, it was great. Justin and I were completely over joyed and in tears. Her apgars were 8 and 9, she weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz. and was 21.5 inches in length with a full head of hair and adorable chubby cheeks!

Thanks to Jen, my doula and all her experience and amazing support, I was able to have the birth experience I wanted for Lexi. Without her I would not have been successful with a VBAC. The support she provided to myself and Justin was amazing. The guidance she provided Justin helped him to feel confident in his support for me.