Annabelle Grace Wells' Birth Story- a successful VBAC!

**WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LOTS OF TMI- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK**


Annabelle’s Birth Story- a successful VBAC!


On Tuesday; June 16th, I got acupuncture done to induce labor. Several contractions occurred during the 1 hour long session.

On Wednesday; June 17th, Dr. Halderman said I was barely a 1cm and 80% effaced. She went ahead and stripped and stretched me alittle to try to get things going. We also canceled the Csection for Monday and agreed to take it one day/week at a time as long as my AFL (amniotic fluid level) stayed up and Annie stayed OK.

Thursday night, June 18th, about 8pm contractions started. By about 1am (Friday morning) they were about 5 mins apart and bloody show with each one. I woke up Jake and we called our parents at about 2am. The contractions were about 3-5 mins apart at that time. Jake got the house ready while I continued keeping time.

My mom and Jake’s mom arrived and we waited, continuing to keep time. By about 8am the contractions had started to slow down to 7 mins apart. My mom and I walked around the block a few times, but still they didn’t pick up. By afternoon the contractions were about 10 mins apart. Jake and I went to Target to try to stir things up, but to no avail. Parents then left for home.

At about 5pm the contractions started up again really fast and hard. I started throwing up. Jake threw all of our things and Maddie in the car and we went to the hospital. We called our parents to meet us at the hospital. At the hospital they said I was a good 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. So we went home to try to walk and get some advancement. Jake’s mom and dad took Maddie for lunch at Mcdonalds, and then met us at the house. My mom met us at the hospital, then bought lunch for everyone and met us at the house.

All evening and night the contractions would go from 5mins apart to 7mins apart. My mom and Jake’s mom and dad slept over. My mom and I walked around the block a few more times that night. And we used the rolling pin for back pain (it really does help!)

At 5am Saturday morning my water broke. At first I thought I peed on myself because it was just a slow leak; but then when I went to the bathroom and realized it would not stop leaking I realized my water had broke. About 10 mins after, the contractions started up really hard and fast again and I started throwing up again. I woke Jake up and we went to the hospital again with my mom while Jake’s parents stayed to watch Maddie.

At the hospital they said I was 3cm dilated and still about 80% effaced. I continued walking and tried using the birthing ball (now called a birthing egg) and I had to stay on the monitors (huge pain in the A.) They switched the baby monitoring to internal monitors which I didn’t want at first, but then glad afterwards because with the monitors internal I didn’t have to worry about them slipping around and being unable to get an accurate reading.

At about 10am I was so tired I was falling asleep on my feet in between contractions. In order to have any energy for pushing I decided to get one dose of Nubain (sp?), a pain medication. It lasts for about 4hrs, and after it wears off I can walk around again. While it helped to take the edge off, the contractions were still really hard; but I was able to get alittle rest before the hardest part came.

At about 1pm I was feeling alittle rested and back to walking and was still 3cm dilated, but 100% effaced.

At about this time, the anesthesiologist comes and places an epidural line just for emergencies- no medication was given through it. We agreed to this because of the emergency c-section we had to have with Madelynn. If something happened I did not want to be placed under general anesthesia- so a line placed just for emergencies seemed like a good idea. If I had known that everything would work out- no line would have been placed (I’ll refuse next time…..) ;)

At about 3pm the contractions became more like my body was trying to push Annie out. The nurse came to check me and I was 7cm dilated and 100% effaced. I couldn’t push yet until 10cm dilated, so I was trying to get the nurse to check me as often as possible (without risking infection). Went like this:

3:15pm
Nurse: try turning on your stomach, with butt in air- might help get to 10cm
(I did that for about 15mins)
Me: What am I at now?
Nurse: Still 7cm- I’ll be back in 30 mins
(I turned back to my back- stomach made it worse)
3:45pm
Me: Where is the nurse- I think it’s been 30 mins
(Mom and Jake are giving me water in between, cool rags, and turning the fan off and on: on during a contraction, then off when the violent chills would kick in afterwards)
4pm
Nurse: OK, your 10 cm and fully effaced- I’ll go get the doctor. You can start pushing now.

So I start pushing. During this time Dr. Chin was on call for my midwife so she comes in and tries this “massage to help”. When I yelled at her to stop the very painful tugging she says “oops, I forgot you don’t have an epidural and can feel everything.” DUH!!!
So then she gets called on an emergency and Dr. Halderman comes in- for like 30 mins.
MD: “lets do an in and out cath. to see if emptying the bladder helps speed up the pushing”
MD: “wow, bone dry- I’ve never seen that before”
Then Dr. Chin comes back in because the emergency was over.
God intervened at this time and my midwife, Jeaneane Carter CNM, calls from the airport.
“Has Corrie Wells given birth yet?”
“She’s pushing now”
“I’m on my way”
Yay!!! My midwife arrives just in time to save me! She takes off the internal monitors, starts applying warm rags, and massages my legs. All the time the nurse is fanning me nonstop (she has amazing biceps.)
So I push from about 4pm to 6:12pm when Annabelle Grace is born.
They said it took longer to push because not only was Annie my first vaginal delivery, but also my contractions were about 5-7mins apart instead of most peoples are about 2-3mins apart at pushing time.
After the head was out, I got to pull her the rest of the way out. Jake got to cut the umbilical cord. It was very cool! ;)

Annabelle Grace Wells
Born Saturday; June 20th, 2009
6:12pm
8lbs. 9oz
20 in long

So far, Annie is a very laid back baby. She sleeps a lot, and hardly cries. She is very tolerable of Maddie’s loud voice and ‘gentle’ pats.

While I’m very, very grateful to God that everything worked out……I just have a few more specific requests for God for the next delivery ;)

Thank you again everyone for the wonderful prayers and support!!!! Jake and I are so grateful to have such wonderful friends and family!