Sunflower's Birth - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

The bath slowed things down enough that I was able to get a smallish nap in between contractions.  And when Jen came back I felt rested enough to try to get things moving along.  But no matter what we did, contractions stayed where they had been the entire time.  10 minutes apart, 2-2 1/2 minutes long, and incredibly strong and painful.  I was beginning to get emotional, thinking I would never hold my baby, and I was so tired of being watched.  Dh must have felt the same because he went for a run and came back very winded.  ;-)  I decided a walk in the fresh air would do me good, and though Jen and my dh both tried to come with me, I needed to be alone.  I went around the block and that brought the contractions a little closer together, but after about an hour of that, they went back to the same old story.

I remembered my labor with Ladybug, and Michelle's comment to research prodromal labor.  I had done that before-hand and all the recommendations were to rest as much as possible, and labor would happen when it was ready.  But this was so different.  Except when I took a bath, the contractions never really petered out, and they were so long and so painful that I started to get worried something was wrong.  This, combined with my fear that if things were this painful now, how could I ever manage it when it got harder, managed to destroy what little emotional stability I had.  I was exhausted, I was scared, I was tired of being pregnant, and I just wanted to hold my baby.

Jen checked me again and I was still at 4cm and 80% effaced, but now with no bulging bag.  An entire day of contractions had gone by, and there were still no obvious signs of progress.  Jen went home that evening to get some rest, and we asked our friend Mrs. R to keep the kids for another day.  Surely we would have our baby that night sometime?  It was odd, dh and I having the house to ourselves.  We talked about going to a movie, or to dinner, but the contractions were so long and so painful that we decided to just stay home.  I tried to rest, but sleep would not come.  After talking with Jen on the phone, dh decided to run to the store for Tylenol PM to help me sleep.

Thankfully, I managed to get a few hours of sleep, though I still couldn't sleep through contractions, I could fall right back asleep when they were over.  At some point in the night though, the intensity increased and I could feel baby shifting around.  That managed to make things even more intense while keeping things at the same pace.  Around 1am, I called Jen to ask her opinion about different options.  She presented me with the idea of Castor oil, but I was resistant.  I've read horror stories about it and though I wanted something to happen that was different, I also didn't want to be stuck on the toilet for the rest of my labor.

Finally, I decided it was time to let my doctor know how things were going.  I asked her opinion and she told me we should go into the hospital to get an epidural so I could sleep.  That also sounded crazy.  Being stuck on my back would do nothing for baby's position and as Jen warned, could stop my contractions completely.  I decided to weather the rest of the night at home.  The next morning, Wednesday, we decided we would pick up the kids and try to just go about our business.  Obviously, baby was not going to come out any time soon, and we missed our kids.

While dh was gone, I called my doctor again to update her, and she was upset I hadn't gone into the hospital that night.  She felt I had been laboring long enough without baby being monitored (remember, we were trying for another VBAC) and was worried about my scar.  She wanted us to go in and have my water broken.  She said within a few hours of breaking my water, we would have our baby.  As excited as I was to finally be doing something, I was also scared.  What if we broke my water, and baby went into distress?  What if I still didn't progress?  Being a VBAC, most doctor's are hesitant to give pitocin because the strong contractions bring a higher risk of uterine rupture.  Was I setting myself up for a labor full of interventions that would eventually lead me to another C-section?  Should I just wait it out at home until baby was truly ready to come?  Conflicted, I called my dh and told him to leave the kids with Mrs. R and come home.  I told him what the doctor said, and he felt it was a good decision to go in.  With Jen's help we would do our best to avoid too many interventions.

...to be continued...