Family of 4

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A week before

Well lil'k made her appearance before the end of February.. Barely.

During reading bedtime stories to lil'c I felt a pop, similar to sitting on a balloon. I stopped and waited a second thinking she had either head-butted my pelvis or my water had broken, when nothing happened for a second I figured it was a head butt and went back to reading.

Then someone peed in my pants..


I called my hubby.. Twice.. And when he came in he said "WHAT!?" .. "my water just broke". I wish I had a picture to the expression that crossed his face! His eyes got the size of saucers, a feat for someone whose eyes disappear when they have the slightest smile :)

He immediately started running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He called my mom to come get lil'c by informing her that I was "leaking" to which she responded with "Oh, crap", he then called my sister and informed her the same way.. But had to explain leaking was my water had broken.. Her response? "Oh, crap"! My family is consistent :D
I was giddy. I have yet to find another woman in my family whose water had broken at home or anywhere out of a hospital for that matter.
I was having very few light contractions, more like Braxton hicks.
When my parents came we loaded up DH, myself, Lil'c, my sister, mom, dad and my sister's youngest daughter in cars and headed to the hospital 45 minutes away.
I had had a discussion with my OB many weeks before that if I had shown up at the hospital 6-7cm dilated that I could VBAC, since I would be past the danger point. Since I had been 1cm dilated at the last appt and wasn't having strong contractions we tried to take out time. My family was laughing the whole time that they had never seen DH drive that slow, seriously he has gotten tickets for over 100... And once got a ticket for 75mph on rollerblades. We were getting passed on the interstate.

I was timing contractions and they were pretty far apart. I had a few strong ones and Lil'c was fussing in the back seat.
When we got to the hospital hubby and I got out and my mom took the car with lil'c to park. We stood in the ER for a bit and my water was steadily leaking down my leg and puddling on the floor. I even apologized to the cleaning lady for the mess, but laughed that it was probably the least icky thing she has to clean!

We finally got to the maternity floor and they stuck me in a little room with another mom (having twins!) with a little curtain between us. This is when I got on Facebook and started chatting with other "special scars" moms. I was put on monitors and talked to the nurse, who worried me at first due to the expression that crossed her face when I mentioned "birth plan". Turns out that having a birth plan is like saying "calm" or "boring" in ICU.. It's kinna a jinx. I told her about us being a hospital family and being used to things changing. I also had a plan for VBAC and C-section. I was again told that it was unlikely I would VBAC due to my prior Classical. She hooked me up to the monitors and I waited.
Unfortunately this is about the time I got links about how to deal with having your water break before contractions begin... #1... not going to the hospital.
After all the fuss to get there and with my family in the waiting room with my son.. I wasn't leaving.
The Dr came in at some point.. Totally against a VBAC. She seemed to think I was an idiot. She also commented on how irresponsible it was that my OB scheduled my C-section so close to my due date (at 39w6d) and I let her know he was just happy to get any date from me. At some point we told her that we were a hospital family and had spent a ton of time at the university hospital.. "well, I just came from there". (like this should be a big deal).. My thought.. So she's a noob.. Great. I asked her if she knew my son's case.. (You know the ONLY surviving Micropreemie in MS with teratology of fallot)... She didn't.. And she was THERE when he was born! Not a good sign.
At some point my cervix was checked... (another water-break-no-contraction no-no) 1.5cm.. Argghh.
I knew by this point that my chance of rupture had dropped but I ended up signing the wavers anyway.. And wish I had held off.
Shortly after I had my one and only really good contraction on monitors. A new nurse comes running in yelling at me to get on my side. To which I tell her to hold off till I get through this contraction.. She yells at me again. The other nurse comes in and a furry of movement is going on around me.
During this time my sister and husband (who had been with me the entire time) were out of the room. My sister was near the nurses station when the contraction began. The Dr was there, suddenly yells "I think she is rupturing!!" and runs in my direction. My sister texts this info to my mother who is in the waiting room with my dad, my son and niece.
As I'm being pushed out in the hall my nurse is there and she tells me that they think I'm rupturing, which is when the contraction begins to dissipate. I tell her "but a rupture doesn't stop hurting, right? It's going away" "right" and sighs. It was to late.. I was already on my way to the OR.
In the OR is where the flashbacks really started to hit me, but at least the room looked different. It was cold and I was mildly shivering. I got the spinal by the very nice anesthesiologist. He was also rather funny, which helped.
This one hurt pretty bad still and made my leg cramp up again. Once I was laying down they began prepping me and the shaking really started, (a reaction to the spinal). They managed to get it to calm down by piling warm blankets on me. I was keeping myself distracted by chatting up the nurses and the anesthesiologist. We waited on the spinal to fully take effect and the tingling numbness climbed up my body. Every so often they would touch me with the sharp point (scalpel I guess) and I would tell them that I felt it. This went on for a bit. Then the Dr said my husband and sister could come in (she is a pro photographer and would be taking pictures) apparently they had already started cutting by this point. Hubby kept peaking over the curtain and the anesthesiologist would have to adjust my position, I remember one point it felt like my husband was sitting on my chest and he had to adjust me again.. It pretty much stayed that way the rest of the time.

In the OR. Hubby, Lil'K and me

Then we had the "ok, lots of tugging" moments and it didn't feel quite like my son's. Still felt like a giant pimple popping but more extreme and actually caused my body to shift.
Then a little blood streaked face popped up over the curtain and I think someone said "hi, mom!" I reminded my husband to stay with her. She was cleaned up, checked out and swaddled. All the while yelling her head off, a very welcome difference to the deafening silence of my previous delivery. She was then placed on my upper chest and I was able to hold her (with DH's help) minutes after delivery, another huge difference. It felt momentous. When it was time for them to close me up and for her to get the rest of her check-up, my husband and sister went with her to the nursery.
At one point I asked the medical people how my previous scar looked. It was perfect.. No stretching or thinning.... It would have had no trouble with a VBAC. *sigh*
Yes I have a healthy baby, but that shouldn't be the only factor. I now have an even higher risk of a future rupture with even higher risk of complications. I was in massive amounts of near constant pain until just recently, over a month later. She also has a higher risk of asthma. All because of a Drs fear.
It's frustrating and hind-sight is as always 20/20.

Lil'K was 5lbs2oz and 18". She went down to 4lb13oz before we left the hospital. She was 5lbs3oz at her one-week well baby appointment, much to the amazement of our Ped. Apparently I still produce the high octane milk that I did for Lil'C. :D. At least something works right! She is happy, healthy, with a perfect heart and nurses like a champ :D