Skyla's (Very LONG) Birth Story

Skyla's (Very LONG) Birth Story

At my 38w1d appt. we found out that Skyla's amniotic fluid level had jumped from 21pts to 31pts a jump of like 50% of water in about 7 days. The dr. said that if I didn't go into labor on my own by 39 weeks that we would need to induce. Being that I wanted a VBAC I was naturally a little alarmed at the prospect of being induced because I know it can increase your chance of having a uterine rupture. My Dr. assured me that they would monitor me and the baby very carefully and make sure that we had no negative out comes. She said "Worst case scenario you end up with another c-section. Best case you end up with the VBAC you want".

I never went into labor on my own, so on Sunday Night (Easter Sunday) at 5 pm we check into Duke University Hospital's Labor and Delivery. The Dr. on call, Dr. Hilton came in and checked Skyla by ultrasound to make sure she was still head down before starting the induction. She was still head down. He proceeded to check me. I still wasn't dialating but I was like 50% effaced and softening. He forced me to dialated about a centimeter and stripped my membranes to try to get things going about 6:15 or so. He said we would see what happens and if nothing happened we would insert a Foley Bulb Catheter to manually dialate my cervix. My heart rate and Skyla's were both elevated and I was dehydrated so they hooked me up to an IV and started pumping me full of fluids. That helped get both me and Skyla's heart rates under control.

Well apparently there was a rush of babies to end up delivering that night, so it was a while before he came back. About 8:45 he came back to do the Foley Bulb catheter. My cervix was still super high and no change since he stripped my membranes. He and the nurse tried to insert the Foley Bulb Catheter. OMG. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. The first time they tried to insert failed. They had to go get a longer speculum and they tried again. This time they succeeded. All combined it took like an hour to get that catheter in me. It was horrible. My lovely husband decided to take a photo during the procedure, don't ask me why, I can't even look at that photo.

About 30 minutes after they got the Foley in, I started contracting. They were rough, and from the beginning were within 2-3 minutes a part. Everything in my instincts were telling me to get out of bed and move and change posistions, so that's what I would do for awhile. It really did help me cope with the pain of the contractions. Only problem was whenever I would move into a different posistion Skyla would fall off the external fetal monitor. So I ended up being forced to stay in bed and indure the contractions laying on my back. Never a good thing. I was only allowed out of bed to go to the bathroom at this point, which was pretty often being 9 months pregnant and all. About 2 am I had to go pee so the nurse came in and helped me to the bathroom. At this point the pain was so bad I couldn't breath through the contractions anymore it was bad. I used the bathroom and stood up. I had just long enough to get the words "I think I'm going to be sick" out of my mouth before I started throwing up in the bathroom sink. I threw up like 4 or 5 times. I was so sick. I hate throwing up and by this point between the contractions and vomitting I had tears running down my cheeks.

Thank God for my night nurse Agnes. She was my angel. She came in the bathroom, got me cleaned up, changed my gown. She got me back to bed. She asked me "are you sure you wouldn't like something for the pain?" At this point .. I would have taken crack if it made me feel better I think. So much for going natural. I said "Yes please!!!" By 2:30 she had me some Stadol and some Fenigrin (for the nausea) put in my IV. Literally within 4 minutes of her putting that stuff in my IV I literally passed out. I woke up 2 hours later with Dr. Hilton pulling out the Foley because it had done it's job and dialated me to like a 3.

After that they started the pitocin it was around 4:30. I decided since there was no way I could get up to labor for fear of Skyla's heartbeat dropping and I had to have the pitocin to get going I might as well go for the epidural. I realized that there was no way I would have been able to handle that pain with being made to labor in bed like I had to. I really hated having the epidural go in. It hurt. The contractions hurt worse though. Not to mention the severe back pain I had been in since about 6:30 the night before. They had it in by 5:30 or 6 in the morning. The relief was pretty instant to both my back and my contractions. I was still able to feel the contractions .. but there wasn't so much pain there, just pressure.

Dr. Branham came on duty about 6 am (Dr. Hilton left saying I'll see you tonight .. I had really hoped he was joking). Dr Branham was worried that Skyla's head wasn't coming down because of all the fluid around her. She took a needle or something and went up in there to poke tiny wholes in my bag of water to hopefully get some of the water to slowly draing out so Skyla could come down farther. She was afraid that if she went ahead and broke my water that Skyla's cord would come down before her head did which would have been very dangerous for Skyla. After several hours of slowly draining the fluid Dr. Branham came back and broke my water completely. The relief of pressure on my uterus was AMAZING. There was ALOT of water, Dr Branham and the nurse were both amazed by how much water came out. I think my uterus actually told them thank you!

They continued to crank up the pitocin for most of the day. I ended up eventually by say 5:30 pm having dialated to a 4 .. but my contractions had begun to be ineffective. Apparently my body had been over saturated with the pitocin and stopped responding. They turned off the pitocin for a while. I continued to contract with out the pitocin but it was spaced very well out. The baby's head was still really high.

Dr. Hilton came back on call. First words out of his mouth "I told you I would see you tonight." Gotta love a Dr. that says I told you so. The Dr. and I had a serious talk. I told him "I don't still want to be pregnant tomorrow. I think if I give it till 10 o'clock tonight that will make 24 hours of labor .. if by then we haven't seen any real progress, I think we should call it quits and go for the c-section." He told me that it was entirely up to me and that we would do this as long as I wanted as long as me and the baby were doing well. He turned the pitocin back on. The contractions started back but they just never became effective again. My body was just not responding to it any more. He came in again at 10 pm and checked me again. I was more effaced slightly .. and had dialated about another half centimeter .. but that was it. I told him that we had just decided to go for the c-section. By 10:30 pm I was in the operating room. We had 3 surgeons delivering Skyla, and 2 anesthetioligists working on me, not to mention countless nurses in there.

The c-section dose of the epidural made me really nausious and gave me a headache. The anesthesioligist who was standing behind me got it straightened out. They had to actually give me stuff to bring up my BP. Charles was finally brought in the room and he held my hand as they started the surgery. I was pleased that Duke doesn't strap your arms down for a c-section. I started to shake violently I thought it was from the meds but the anes. guy told me it was from the labor that alot of laboring women get the shakes badly.

Skyla came into this world at 11:04pm on Easter Monday. Charles of course stood up to see her, just like he did with her big brother. This time the Drs. and nurses didn't yell at him. Her apgars were 8 and 9 just like her older brother's. She was alot quieter and didn't cry as much as Chip did .. which scared us to begin with. Turns out .. She's just a quiet little girl and there was nothing wrong. It was so neat this time because they didn't take Skyla and Charles to a different room. They cleaned her up and weighed her and everything in the operating room. I couldn't see anything .. but I could talk to Charles and he told me what was going on and how she was doing. I asked him who she looks like. Turns out she looked just like me. After the nurses were through they gave her to Charles and he sat down beside my head and held her out for me to look at her. I got to talk to Charles and look at Skyla for about 15 minutes. Charles was scared to let me hold her because I was shaking so bad, so I just looked at her. Turns out she was only 8lbs 3oz at birth and 19 1/4 inches long. She weighed the exact same weight as I did at birth. She was much smaller than the Drs. had been predicting my whole pregnancy. She was so tiny and delicate after having had Chip first. Charles was scared he would break her!

They took Skyla and Charles off to the nursery and finished up my c-section. Apparently I lost quite a bit of blood thanks to having been on pitocin for a whole day as I am now on heavy duty iron pills. I spent 2 hours in recovery after the c-section and then finally got back to my new post partum room at 2 am. They brought Skyla to me about 2:15 .. by 2:20 I had her nursing and she was nursing like a champ. I had been worried that not getting to nurse her for over 3 hours would keep her from nursing well. I was so happy to see her doing so well.

Skyla's birth was an amazing experience for me. I in no way regret going for the VBAC. I hate that I still ended up having to have a c-section but I so enjoyed being able to participate in her birth by laboring. I know that both the Drs. and I did everything we knew how to get her here safely. It didn't work, and we will probably never know exactly why she didn't drop on her own but I have no regrets