Birth Story, Kinda Rambling ON and ON

Zachary Brian Metcalf
Born March 12, 2009
16:31
9lbs 5oz 22 inches


On Tuesday, March 10, I went to my Dr. appt and was checked at found to be about 3cm dilated and she stripped my membranes. The stripping didn’t do much that I could tell. Wednesday morning I woke up not feeling well and thought I might have food poisoning. I was having contractions on and off but nothing hard or too close together.
In the afternoon we went to Costco to walk around but that trip was cut short due to Kalista having an accident on the floor haha. We got home around 6:00. I went potty and came out to the couch to sulk about not having any contractions from the walk. As I was sitting down I felt my water and JUMPED back up and ran to the bathroom and said, “MY WATER JUST BROKE!!!” and Gavin said “are you sure?” I was 100% sure. So, we got things together and put Kalista in her pajamas and headed off to the hospital. It was so cute Kalista kept saying, “Your water broke mom? You gonna fix it?” We had to try and explain that her baby brother was taking a “bath” and that it was time to get out so he pulled the plug haha.
We got to the hospital and I was having some contractions but nothing too bad. We got checked in and as I told people I would like to avoid an epidural they all just looked at me and laughed. It was very discouraging and annoying to say the least. My doctor was not on call, her partner was. The nurse came in and said that the doctor want me to know that she strongly advises me to get an epidural due to the fact that I was attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section), just in case they had to do an emergency section they wanted me numb. I still refused the epidural and went on laboring every 2 min. The contractions felt like menstrel cramps that got progressively worse and worse.
It was Wednesday, which means Gavin has a hockey game at 10, since not much was happening and I was still at a 3 I told him to go ahead and go to his game and then go home and clean up a bit and come back. So, around 9:45 he left and went to his game and got back at the hospital around 12:45. They had started 1cc of pitocin an hour to get my contractions stronger and more regular because at that point they were not changing anything. I was very nervous to use any altering drugs as it can increase the chance for uterin rupture in a VBAC but they assured me I would be very closely monitored.
Gavin got there and I told him to go to sleep, so he did and didn’t wake up till around 9am. While he was sleeping I labored in the halls and on my birthing ball. It was VERY hard to achieve any type of concentration because I had the belts on me and 2 IV’s and water gushing out with every move I made. Not to mention the constant interruptions to check my cervix and blood pressure. So, finally at 5:30am after laboring more than 10 hours and only making 1 cm progress my doctor said we had to turn up the pitocin and try and break any more water bag up there. I said STOP I’m getting an epidural for sure let me get that first. I got the epidural and HATED the way it made me feel. It wore off 4 times and I couldn’t move my lets at all. BUT, it was better than the contractions.
FINALLY at I believe 1pm they checked me and said I was complete and I asked if I could labor a while to bring him down and let my epidural wear off a little as I could not move anything below my chest. That may have been a bad idea, I’m really not sure. So I started pushing once the epi wore off and 50 min later my big baby boy was born. The pushing was very intense and a feeling I can only describe as having the “runs” really really bad worse than anyone has ever had and when you feel the urge to push and they tell you not to there is no controlling it. Once his head came out I was still pushing and nothing was happening and all of a sudden the room became in a panic. They were yelling at me to push even though I wasn’t contracting because the baby couldn’t breath and he was stuck. And when nothing was happening the doc said OK and reached both of her arms in and had to get his shoulders unstuck. She finally did and he came out and she plopped this huge bloody ball on my tummy, I remember thinking what’s this really heavy thing she just set on me not even realizing it was my baby… They called the INCU unit in and checked him out, it took about 30 seconds for him to purk up but he did great.
I had a fever so he was born with one that spiked to 102!! So he was in the nursery for about 3 hours with an IV but nothing in it. Finally his blood work came back fine and his fever went down on it’s own. Just as I was going down to see him they were wheeling him to my room so we got to spend time together.
He’s an amazing baby and we love him SO MUCH!!
Having a VBAC was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I’m so grateful to all those that were praying for me while I was in labor, I know it made such a difference in how things went.