Tesla Coleen S. arrived at 4:53 a.m. on Friday, October 23rd via repeat c-section. She weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20.25 inches long. She has a full head of red hair and steel blue eyes. We're all very much enamored with her!
Tesla's Birth Story:
My water broke on it's own at 3:40 on Thursday morning. I was exactly 42 weeks. I started having regular contractions within minutes. I called my doula right away to let her know I would need her in a few hours, but decided to wait to call the midwife. I tried to go back to sleep for a little while, but they were just strong enough that I couldn't lay still. I wandered our house for a little while, did some light cleaning, and made breakfast. Though I was trying to be quiet, I still managed to wake DD at about 5:00. I got DH out of bed and we started to prepare the house for our homebirth. We made the bed with old sheets, I pulled all the toys out of the bath tub, and I brought our birth ball up to our bedroom. At about 6:30, the contractions were getting strong enough that I though I should call the midwife to come over to check me. She agreed and was at our house about an hour later. I was already 6-7 cm. dilated, but my water was not completely broken (just the forebag had ruptured). We decided to wait a little while longer to see if it would break on its own. I called the doula back and asked her to come over. Meanwhile, I ran myself a bath and got in. I still wasn't in pain. All I felt was pressure. Between contractions I was able to hold normal conversations, stopping only to concentrate when I felt another one coming on. My doula arrived at about 9:30 and sat with me in the bathroom for a little while. She rubbed my back during contractions and offered a lot of encouragement. After a little while, the water wasn't helping as much as it had been and I decided to get out and get checked again. The midwife decided I was still about 7 cm. so I wandered the house for a little while longer. I labored for several more hours, but the contractions weren't getting any stronger, so we decided to break the remaining "bubble" of water around Tesla's head. She did and about an hour later, 3:30 or so by now, I was at 8 cm. The contractions started coming much harder now and I had to moan through them to cope. They still weren't really painful, but I felt immense pressure. For the next several hours, I got in and out of the shower several times and my midwife, DH, and doula took turns rubbing my back. When checked again, I was still at an 8 with a very "floppy" little lip of cervix and she thought the baby's head was entering the birth canal slightly crooked. She had me lay on my left side to try to get her to turn, but the contractions became exceptionally painful if I was lying down. I HAD to be standing. I was starting to tire and it felt like the contractions were coming one on top of the other. Nothing helped to ease the pain. I started to have extremely long contractions, the longest lasting about 11 minutes. We decided it was time to go to the hospital. It was 8:00 and I had been at 8 cm. for nearly 5 hours. My dad drive us and the contractions actually eased up a little in the car. When we got there, DH and I headed straight to L & D. The midwife had called ahead so they were expecting us. We were given a room immediately and the midwife suggested I get an epidural to see if relaxing would help me to finish dilating. Though I desperately wanted to go unmedicated, I happily agreed after 18 hours of labor. It took about an hour before the anesthesiologist could come in, but my contractions had slowed enough that I wasn't too uncomfortable waiting. From 9:30 to 1:00 I was just watched. The on-call OB came in chastised me a bit about choosing homebirth. She definitely rubbed me the wrong way (she was VERY rude and condescending) and I ended up filing a complaint about her the next day. The resident, however, was exceptionally nice, and continued to check me regularly in the hopes I was making some progress. Around 2:00 a.m., Tesla's heart rate started showing late fetal decels. They were minor, but given that I hadn't progressed in 12 hours and was starting to get a fever, we decided to go ahead and do a c-section. I admit, I was heartbroken, but I know it was truly necessary. I asked to speak to the on-call pediatrician and explained my fears about the baby being taken from me because of my last c-section. He agreed to let her stay in the OR with me until I was all stitched up so long as she was born healthy. My epidural had started to fail, so we decided to take it out and do a spinal. I was prepped for surgery and taken into the OR around 4:00 a.m. My hospital midwife happened to be on-call and came to the OR with me. The resident who had been checking me also seemed very aware that I had anxiety about a repeat c-section. He allowed both my DH and my doula in the OR with me, agreed to keep my arms free, and talked to me about what was going on until the baby was out. Tesla was born at 4:53 a.m., 25 1/2 hours after I went into labor. She was deemed healthy and was allowed to stay with me in the OR. I even got to see her before they cleaned her off. The doula took tons of pictures for me. We discovered that I hadn't progressed because I had actually ruptured. I had a 6 cm. tear in my uterus that was never caught with any of the monitoring. It was so severe they had to use part of my bladder to close my uterus. The surgery took nearly 3 hours, but I had my baby with me the whole time. I found out later she was so low in the my pelvis they had to put my legs in stirrups and push her back into my uterus to get her out. Her head was so pointy!!
Because of the severity of my rupture and the way in which it had to be repaired, I will never have a vaginal birth. A future baby would be delivered by c-section ar about 37 weeks. I've been told that I could probably carry one more pregnancy, but that if the placenta were to implant in the weak portion of my uterus, I would likely need a hysterectomy at delivery. I'm having a lot of mixed emotions right now. I KNOW this c-section was necessary. However, I still can't help but think it wouldn't have been if I had been allowed to delivery Fenna vaginally. My homebirth experience was wonderful and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was so great to have the freedom to do what felt right and to be able to make noise without feeling inhibited. I felt loved. Even though it didn't end ideally, I still have sense of healing. I went into labor by myself, something I was afraid I would never do. I also proved that a baby would fit through my pelvis, even if she didn't get to. As for the c-section, it was as good as it could've been, I think. The doctors seemed very aware that my last experience was frightening and did their best to make this one better. I was allowed all of the things that meant the most to me and think I was a better advocate for myself and my baby this time around.
Recovery has been rough, but doable. Because I had the fever, we were both immediately put on IV antibiotics. Tesla had some initial temperature issues and the doctors decided she should probably remain hospitalized, though I was discharged yesterday. She should be realized on Thursday. I haven't left the hospital yet as I can't bear to leave her here alone. She's a breastfeeding champ and I'm happy to say her head has normalized. :-) Fenna adores her.
We should be home this weekend, I'll post a few pictures then. Thank you all for your support! You've all really helped me to feel like I wasn't broken and have given me the support I needed when my real life friends were distant. (((hugs)))
Kelly
'
