Baby Vanessa is here!

I have been procrastinating blogging about Vanessa's birth simply because I don't know what to write. Dave is working on documenting the entire birth story but he using a word document and on page 7 and isn't done yet...so I'm not really sure that is all going to fit on one blog post. Anyway, I felt I should at least update on here some of the latest...and keep the story more condensed. The stats: Vanessa Jo LaMarche was born June 2nd, 2010, at 6:58 pm, weighing 10 lbs, 3 oz, and 22 1/2 in long via c-section delivery. I went into labor on Friday the 28th. I had contractions start about every 15 minutes, they lasted all night and through the night. The next morning on Saturday, they just kept coming, and they got closer and closer together, and the whole day the contractions came about every 8 minutes, and lasted anywhere between 45-60 seconds. I took many walks to encourage labor to continue and increase. Labor continued like that through Sunday and Monday, and didn't really pick up quick enough for me to drop everything and run to the hospital...so it was A VERRRY long three days dealing with horrible sleep from trying to get through a night in early labor. Finally at 2:30 am on Tues morning we headed to the hospital because I was so uncomfortable and sick to death of dealing with contractions at home with the kids running around. My mom was there helping but I felt helpless and couldn't do much other than walk which made me really tired. Anyway, got to the hospital, and kept walking around to try speed things up. When I got there, they checked my cervix and I was dilated to about 3 cm. I was encouraged by the progress, which kept me going! Contractions did pick up, and got going about every 5 minutes, lasting for about a minute. I kept walking the hospital hallways and leaning against the hall or leaned against Dave to get through each one. Got checked, I had dilated to almost 5 cm. I was so encouraged by progress, so I had enough in me to keep going. My water broke in a HUGE gush when I was in the room recovering from a contraction sitting on the couch, and that is when we discovered lots of meconium in the water. I was a little concerned but nobody indicated it could a big problem, so I labored on. I was getting SO exhausted. The pain of the contractions picked up big time when my water broke so it got really tough. I got dilated to about 6 when I asked for an epi so I could get some rest. I was sleeping between contractions, that is how tired I was. So I got the epi, slept in bed for a couple hours, and when I woke up, the nurse checked again and I was dilated to 10 cm! We were all so excited, because I was closer to birthing this baby! The docs/nurses let me "labor down" which means letting the strength of my contractions help bring the baby lower while I rested up to start the pushing phase. A few hours later, I started to push, and I worked HARD pushing the baby down. She was moving down, I was working, and three hours later, we could see the head peeking through. Dave told me the baby had a head full of dark hair! I was getting extremely tired from pushing. The docs were concerned about baby being too big so they refused to even use instruments to deliver the baby, they said you either push this baby out or you need a c-section. I rested for awhile so we could really think this through and make a decision. The doctors felt me pushing and could tell the baby was making progress with each push, but her head slipped right back to where she started after each contraction was over. It was so incredibly frustrating. They got an ultrasound out to determine the position of the baby. and the news was very discouraging. Baby was face up (should have been face down) and her head was tilted crooked in my pelvis, meaning the back flat side of her head was wedged in the birth canal and couldn't budge past my pubic bone. The nurses/docs tried positioning my body in such a way to encourage baby to flip, but after many attempts, baby just didn't budge. Such effort pushing got her head really stuck and she just wouldn't move. Docs determined she was too big to fit the way she was laying (I posted on my FB wall about the position being Asynclitic)....and ultimately a c-section was done to get the baby out. There was a huge swell on the back side of her head that was trying to get pushed out of me, and seeing that was very telling, as I could physically see how her head would not have fit through my pelvis. That's the majority of the story. I had some horrible, awful, and way-too-memorable effects from the drugs they used during the c-section since my epidural had worn off so much. Hallucinations, horrible memories, dreams during the surgery I'll never forget. I refused to see the baby for the first time until I knew I had snapped out of it and would remember seeing her for the first time. At least I was still with it during the time she came out of me and Dave announced "Its a GIRL!" I clapped I was so excited!!! The anesthesiologist gave me the drug because I kept complaining about a severe pain near the top of my abdomen while they were sewing me up. The epidural had worn off, the lidocaine they injected into the epidural was wearing off, and I was really scared. That's why they gave me another drug...and it was the better of two alternatives because the other option was to knock me out under general anesthesia, which I'm glad they didn't do. In the end, I am SO glad I got almost the ENTIRETY of the labor experience and made it to 10 cm and even got to almost push a baby out of me, but it was a huge blow and a big disappointment to get so far and have it not work out. Its going to be a long healing process as many of you know I've wanted a VBAC for so long. Anyway, that's the story!! I hope you enjoyed it. I am just so glad mommy and baby are healthy. And Vanessa was worth it!