So, last week I was stuck in a slow, painful limbo of “Early Labor”, and trying to decide whether to even attempt a VBAC, given the disaster of my first L+D experience. That all ended up being much worse than the actual labor and delivery!
My contractions had started last Sunday evening, and were bad enough to keep me awake but not so bad as to be productive. I was checked twice- and I was 1 cm both times. By Wednesday afternoon I was fairly desperate to either get my repeat C-section, or get a natural labor going for an attempted VBAC.
I knew that My Own Obstetrician was on call that Wednesday evening, and I really wanted her to deliver the baby…
So we made a drastic move, especially given the time of year.
We went to the Mall.
Yup, Wednesday late afternoon, 3 days before Christmas, Hubby and I drove to the mall, and walked. It was a gross cold rainy day. The mall was a nightmare. From the clogged parking lot crawling with aggressive drivers stalking shoppers to their cars, to the stressed shoppers, and dissonant Christmas music, it was a Bright Lights/ Big Cesspool of consumerist activity, and the last place either of us really wanted to be.
And after an hour and a half of walking around, the q20 minute annoying contractions escalated. Oh, did they ever escalate. We were able to drop Babyboy at my mother’s, get my stuff, and get to the hospital. I howled in the triage area every 3 minutes as My Own OB determined I was 6 cm dilated. Hallelulah!
The angelic Anesthesia resident got an epidural in, really fast. It was The Best Epidural Ever. I got to 10 cm and pushed for a little while, and felt pretty much nothing. My Own OB, who is awesome, was awesome for the delivery as well. We had got there just at the beginning of the night shift, and we had a crack team- amazing nurse, resident and OB, and that was it, except for the angel/ anesthesia resident. Hubby had the amazing experience of being my Coach and also of seeing his Babygirl born, and he says it was the most amazing experience of his life.
Babygirl arrived at 2:30 am, squalling and kicking. She’s gorgeous. (No, really, she is—everyone days so!)
I got to spend 2 brief days inpatient, and we were home for Christmas.
Fantastic!
Now I’m once again learning the whole breastfeeding thing- and once again my nipples are ravaged and blistered. (This is a topic for another post- yes, we have seen numerous lactation consultants and tried everything, and I plan to rave about APNO cream in the next post.)
So, conclusions:
-Mall-walking really does get labor going. That and a desperation to have Your Own OB attend your birth.
-VBAC rocks
-Epidurals rock
-Being home for Christmas with your healthy newborn rocks.
Hallelujah!