Sunday, January 13, 2013

Annabelle's Birth


Disclaimer: this is long and will probably bore most people.  But, I definitely don't want to forget it!   

          At the beginning of this pregnancy I knew one thing for sure: I wanted a second VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian).  Trey had been a VBAC, and the experience had been a very smooth one, other than a massive tear that caused a recovery nearly as painful as my c-section.  As we had moved since Trey was born, I was not going to be able to use the same Dr. or hospital as my other two births.  I decided to use a Midwife and after meeting her, learned she was extremely supportive of a VBAC attempt and never seemed to question that I would be able to have one.
            With Trey’s pregnancy, I was stressed a lot because my Dr. had originally told me that I had to go into labor on my own before 40 weeks for a VBAC to be possible.  I did not have a lot of confidence that this would happen.  I was induced with Evangeline at 40 weeks, 1 day and was sure I would have gone two weeks past if not for the induction.  My Dr. allowed me to be induced anyway at 40 weeks 1 day by breaking my water and giving me a low dose of pitocin, and four hours later he was born. 
            This pregnancy was a lot different from my first two.  At around 30 weeks, Annabelle started measuring small.  At 25 weeks she was measuring 26, at 28 she was measuring 28, and at 30 she was still measuring 28.  She remained two weeks behind until the last two weeks of my pregnancy, at which point she held steady at 33 weeks.  After an ultrasound concluded her growth was okay, my Midwife determined she was just in a different position.  Turns out the position she was in was LOW. (My unprofessional opinion is that she still was a little small anyway, given her eventual birth weight).
            At my 35 ½ week appointment I was already 1 cm dilated, still thick, and she was at a -1 station, which was pretty low for that early.  It was exciting because with Trey I was never anything and knew I needed to be something for an induction attempt. 
            The next week (36 ½ weeks) I was 1 ½ cm, 70 % effaced, and baby was at zero station.  Then, my Midwife said the words I wished I had never heard: “I think you’ll deliver in the next two weeks.”  I laughed and told her I didn’t believe her.  But, that was enough to absolute start driving me crazy.  Every night from that point on, I was on pins and needles wondering if I was in labor or not.  I was anxious, nervous, bored and didn’t feel like doing anything but going to the hospital and having a baby.  And I felt guilty for thinking that since it was still so early!  I was only 37 weeks, barely full term.  It was more than just her telling me that, though, that gave me the crazy thoughts.  I could tell something was up with my body.  Something I had never experienced before.  She also just felt really low, though it was never particularly painful. 
            Sunday night (Jan. 6th) at 36 weeks, 6 days I started having contractions in church.  Something about sitting down, especially in cars or church pews, always caused me to have contractions with all three pregnancies.  With Evangeline and Trey, they were simply Braxton Hicks.  These hurt somewhat!  They were coming so much that I even downloaded a contraction app during the middle of Drew’s lesson and started timing them.
            The contractions went away after I got up and started walking around.  I had a few more sporadically throughout the evening.  My strategy on figuring out whether or not I was in actual labor was to go to sleep and if I woke up the next morning, I probably hadn’t been in labor. 
            Monday I only had a few contractions, but Tuesday they started again: a few here or there all day.  Tuesday evening I had some almost consistent ones, but they faded away.  I had so much nervous energy I didn’t know what to do!  Tuesday started off wonderfully with a surprise baby shower at my Bible study, but by that afternoon I was going crazy!  I was in pain from contractions that weren’t consistent enough to do anything with and beginning to feel depressed and like I didn’t feel like doing anything.  One thing I did want to do was walk and I made a pledge to myself that I would walk every day until the baby was born.  I managed to walk Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and had every intention of going walking in the rain Thursday when I opened the door and heard the tornado siren going off and decided against it! When people would ask how I was doing I wanted so badly to tell them that I thought I was going to be having the baby soon, but then I felt so silly. What if I didn’t?  I do remembering saying that I was “ready” a whole lot to people.  It felt weird saying that even because I was still early.  And with the others I was definitely NOT feeling ready at 37 weeks!  I had made a plan with my Midwife that we would induce on the 25th, (Evangeline’s birthday!) mainly because that was a Friday and Friday felt like the perfect day to have a baby with my babysitting situation. 
            Wednesday was a lot better of a day than Tuesday because I stayed busy.  There’s nothing like a trip to Winn Dixie with two little ones to take your focus off of impending labor.  Plus, it was Drew’s birthday, and we enjoyed a family birthday lunch with Poppy at La Pinata.  I also decided it’d be nice to make cupcakes for the kids at church in honor of Drew’s birthday and barely managed to pull those off in time before running over and teaching choir and TeamKid.  Wednesday evening I had more of the same: painful contractions happening here and there.  Went to bed and woke up with no baby and no more contractions. 
            Thursday morning was a fun day at MOPS, and I was looking forward to my Dr.’s appointment that afternoon and hoping my Midwife would have something to say that would help my nerves.  I was 2 cm, 80 % effaced, and baby was now at +1 station.  I was also still measuring 33 weeks, which was 4 ½ weeks behind!  She offered to strip my membranes since I was so close to labor, and I let her.  I had always heard that that hurt really bad, but it didn’t hurt me at all, likely because of how much progress my cervix had already made.  I was not optimistic that it would do too much, though.  I had begun to prepare myself for another two weeks of pregnancy and was trying to get energized to make it through.
            Drew had told me that morning that he thought I would go into labor that day because there was a low pressure system coming through.  And, he was right (about both!).  Not sure if it was the storm or not, but I started having strong contractions around 4:00 that afternoon.  I would have a strong contraction then about three others every 8-10 minutes afterwards and then about a thirty minute break before another strong contraction.  This went on from 4-11.  Sometime around 11:30 I finally fell asleep and then woke up at 12:11 with a super strong contraction.  I had three more about 8 minutes apart, my same pattern so I thought.  Since they kept coming and I didn’t want to wake Drew up, I decided to change positions.  I walked around the house and had another.  Then I thought a bath would be nice.  In the tub they started coming about every 4-6 minutes.  Hmmmmm.  My original goal was to wait it out til morning (5 or 6) and then wake up Drew and call my mom.  Then I decided if I could make it to 3:00 before bothering anybody, that’d be really good.  I made it to 1:20 because as soon as I got out of the tub, they started coming every two minutes.  And they hurt A LOT. I was definitely having to breathe through them and focus on other things.  I stink at relaxing while my body is in pain! 
            I woke up Drew and told him I was having strong contractions every two minutes.  He said, “okay,” put his arm around me, and went back to sleep.  One minute later I had another contraction and it was that that woke him up enough to go ahead and take a shower and get ready.  I called my mom, though at this point I still wasn’t 100% certain I wanted to go to Labor and Delivery.  If they stopped, or decreased, I was gonna wait it out.  They kept on every 2 ½ to 3 minutes until we FINALLY left for the hospital at 2:00.  I was so thankful for my mom’s quick response and that she (nor Drew) never questioned me about if I was REALLY in labor.  My mom said she never doubted that it wasn’t the real thing, especially after she saw me pacing around the kitchen moaning.  It’s not a good thing to be dreaming of an epidural while you’re still at home and realizing it’s going to be a while before relief will come!  The only person doubting if I was actually in labor was myself.  Looking back on that I think “you had to be crazy to not know that was really labor!).
            I told Drew on the drive to the hospital (between contractions) that even if they said I wasn’t in labor they better give me something for the pain!  Also, if this wasn’t labor I didn’t think I could do it again and I just wanted to sign up for a c-section. 
            The question over whether or not I was really in labor was quickly answered as my water broke as I was literally walking through the doors of Labor and Delivery.  It was a relief to know that it wasn’t a false alarm and I would really be staying to have the baby.  I think that relief helped me to calm down and my contractions honestly weren’t as bad.  The worst part of my labor was the time spent pacing the floors of my house! 
            I asked for something, anything for the pain as soon as I could get it and just knowing meds were coming helped me, too.  My water breaking turned out to be a huge blessing because it was immediately apparent that I was, in fact, in labor and the nurses could then start an IV soon and request a dose of stadol for me, which I happily accepted.  I discovered that singing was a good coping method for the contractions and Drew and I sang selections from Mary Poppins in honor of Evangeline.  Our nurse even sang along some.  The singing helped with my breathing and also gave me something to focus on since I don’t know the words that well.
            The stadol cut the pain in half and made me fell super loopy.  I was very pleased with how quickly the anesthesiologist arrived to place my epidural.  I had briefly considered trying to labor with only stadol, but then decided I’d had enough pain.  Getting the epidural this time around was much more pleasant than with my other two (especially Trey) because the anesthesiologist was so calm.  Definitely won’t mind paying him his bill!  I think the stadol helped that experience, as well.
            When I was first admitted I was 4 cm.  The second time she checked me I was already 9 cm.  It took a while for me to make it to a 10, though.  I stayed at 9 ½ for about an hour.  It turns out that I still had a bag of water in front of her head that was preventing me from dilating the rest of the way.  The bag of water was a relief, because my nurse had originally felt her head and said she was bald.  The baldness turned out to be a water sack. 
            Even with the water intact, I still was able to push.  She came out super quickly (after about 5 minutes) and on the second to last push the rest of my water broke.  My initial thought was that my baby had exploded, but then I told myself babies don’t explode and I felt okay! 
            Annabelle Margaret Dabbs was born Friday, Januray 11th at 6:45 a.m. and is super tiny (5 lbs 13 oz and 18 ½ inches), but perfectly healthy!  She is so much smaller than my other two 8 pounders, but it’s fun having such a little one!  My mind is still blown by the fact that she was 2 ½ weeks early and I went into labor on my own and my water even broke on its own!  With each child’s birth I feel as though I’ve had a new life experience.  With Evangeline I first became a mother.  Trey gave me the experience of a vaginal birth that I thought I’d never have.  And, Annabelle gave me going into labor naturally.  I told Drew that if there’s a fourth, I don’t think I want to add the experience of a natural delivery.  I’m so very very thankful for a beautiful baby girl and delivery.  Other than running a fever Friday evening and having a pretty yucky night, my recovery has been wonderful!  No stitches at all, and I haven’t even had to have any pain medication!  God has been so good to us!  I wish I could’ve seen the end result during all this week of worry!  He definitely had things under control- I even got my wish for a Friday baby!