The morning of January 1st Casey and I were sitting on the couch and he asked me if I had any plans for the day. I said, "no I might mop my kitchen floor, but otherwise I am just going to rest and take it easy." He said, "well I was thinking of going for a short snowmobile ride, you aren't going to go in to labor or anything right?" I laughed and said "no, I'm not going in to labor today."
I mopped the floor and packed some more stuff for the hospital and a bag of clothes for Cael for the next day and Cael and I ate lunch. I laid him down for a nap at 12:30 and had my first contraction at 12:35. My second contraction was 15 minutes later, the third was 12 minutes later. I finally called Casey around 2:30 and he was just getting back to his truck and my contractions had consistently been 10 minutes apart for over an hour. He got home about 3:00 and my contractions had started going to about 6 minutes apart. My mom was on her way over to pick up Cael and I was still trying to focus on packing my hospital bag so Casey shaved and showered. (I wish I had been able to focus long enough to shave and shower :). By the time we got in the car and the whole drive to Provo, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. The drive was miserable, I laid the seat back because I was so uncomfortable to sit. I wanted to walk.
Fortunately I had called the hospital that morning and pre-registered so paperwork wasn't too long. They got me in a room and checked me around 4:00-4:30 and I was dilated to a 2.5. I wanted to wait to see how fast I was dilating and talk to my doctor before I decided on a VBAC (vaginal birth after ceserian) or another c-section, so they only gave me an epidural strong enough for a VBAC. My doctor checked me about 5-5:30 and I was dilated to a 4.5. I had a lot of bleeding and my doctor again told me that it was my choice but that in his opinion the risk of having the uterus rupture during a VBAC was not worth it and I had a feeling that I should do a c-section. So they turned off my first epidural and wanted to wait about 20 minutes for it to wear down before they gave me a different, stronger epidural for surgery.
When the anesthesiologist came back to give me the second epidural at 6:00 I was in quite a bit of pain again so he had them check me again and I was dilated to an 8, fully effaced, and had a bulging bag. So they called the doctor back in again to discuss a VBAC. It was the hardest decision for me to make. I knew Casey's opinion and my doctor's opinion, the whole surgery team had come in on a holiday and was prepping for a surgery at 6:15 and there were 4 doctors and nurses standing there waiting for me to make a decision. My doctor still thought the VBAC had the least amount of risk involved and said he did c-sections all the time with women that far in to labor. I had a strong desire to do a VBAC because I felt that was the way the woman body was designed to do it, but I had a feeling that I should do a c-section.
During surgery the two doctors told Casey and I that I had the thinnest uterus they had ever seen. It was clear as glass and they could see the baby right through it. They told us that he had long blonde hair before they even had him out. They told me 3-4 times that I had made the right decision. They also said that I should wait at least three years before having another baby (2 years to get pregnant) so that the uterus would have more time to heal and they said that a 4th baby may not be a possibility for me. They would be able to determine that when they do my 3rd c-section. They also said that the placenta had torn from the uterus causing the bleeding. This c-section took twice as long as my surgery with Cael. There were less doctors and nurses in the surgery but they also said it took more time because they had some repair work to do on the uterus that they didn't have to do last time.
I was upset to not have the VBAC, especially because I was going so fast, but I know that my decision was guided and that I was being watched over that day. It didn't matter how he arrived, we had a healthy baby boy and we love him so much!
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