Noah's Birth Story
It’s hard to believe Noah has been in our arms for almost a month already! The cliché is so true, the days are long but the years are short. We are adjusting to life as a family of four one day at a time!
I’ve always loved reading birth stories, because every story is so different. As you know, I had Mason via c-section three years ago. Although I’ve never looked back with any “regrets” on my experience birthing Mase, I knew I wanted to try and experience a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). My OB was on board as long as it remained safe to do so, and we both agreed we would do whatever we needed to to ensure Noah came into this world safely.
Once again, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes with this pregnancy. With Mason, I was induced at 39 weeks due to GD, and I really wanted to avoid being induced again. My induction was not successful during that experience, so I really was hoping to go into labour on my own.
At 38 weeks pregnant, I was hoping to get a membrane sweep done. For those of you who don’t know, a membrane sweep is when your OB inserts a finger through your cervix and manually separates your amniotic sac from the uterine lining. Unfortunately, I wasn’t dilated enough. Fast forward to 39 weeks pregnant, and I was “one fingertip” dilated and she was able do a sweep. I was really hoping it would work but unfortunately nothing happened. At that appointment, we decided to put my name on the induction list for the date before my due date. With GD, there are always risks with going past your due date. Noah was measuring in the 75th percentile, which of course is on the “larger” side, but there were never any concerns with his size or concerns with health risks.
I decided to go for Acupuncture and give that a try as I had heard great things about i t helping to induce labour naturally. The Acupuncturist recommended I try the “induction cocktail” which is a mix of juice, castor oil, an essential oil and almond butter. I decided to give that a try at 39w5d to try and get things moving.
I drank the cocktail around 9PM and at 11:30PM I started having contractions. They were about 8 minutes apart but boy were they intense. This lasted for about two hours and then they completely stopped. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement!
The next day, Sunday the 27th, was “induction day”. With inductions, you’re on a list and basically if there are beds available, you get a call. Apparently, September is the busiest “birth” month so bed space is hard to come by. Around 8PM I got a call that I could come in to begin the induction process. Fortunately, one of my besties is a L&D Nurse who told me what to expect with this induction. Since I had a c-section with Mase, my induction was going to be different this time. I would have to have a Foley balloon catheter inserted to try and dilate my cervix. So off I went t the hospital, Travis was home with Mase so I had to go by myself.
It took the nurses three tries to insert the balloon. Let me tell you, this was not pleasant AT ALL. I was in a lot of pain because they had such a hard time inserting the balloon. They bruised my cervix so I was bleeding quite a bit, and had to stay a the hospital a little longer than planned so they could keep an eye on me and baby. Everything was ok after a couple of hours, so I was sent home and told to return at 3PM the next day unless I was having contractions that were 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for 1 hour.
Around 1AM I woke up with major contractions. I decided to time them for an hour before waking Travis, just to see how long they would last. I woke Travis up around 2AM and my contractions were every 5-6 minutes lasting about 45 seconds. By 3AM, I was convinced this was it. I wanted to wait until they were 5 minutes apart consistently for an hour before we went to the hospital. Around 4:30AM, once again, they completely stopped. I couldn’t believe it! What the heck was going on?? I finally got some sleep until 7 AM when we took Mase to daycare.
For the rest of the day, nothing happened. Not a cramp or anything. I was told the balloon catheter would fall out when I was 4cm dilated, and seeing that it was still in there, I was even more frustrated that nothing was happening.
So at 3PM on my due date, we went to the hospital. Around 5PM I was given Pitocin to continue the induction process. A couple of hours later around 7:30PM, they deflated the balloon and checked me and I was 4cm dilated. Finally! I was so happy that the induction was actually working. At 9;30PM, they decided to break my water as I was 6cm dilated and 70% effaced. I opted for the epidural right after they broke my water. I didn’t want to wait until the pain was unbearable to get it, and I was lucky that the anesthesiologist was there within 10 minutes to get me set up.
Around 10:30PM I tried to take a nap since the epidural had kicked in. When they checked me, they could feel Noah’s ear so they wanted me to lay on my side with a peanut ball between my legs to try and get him to turn the right way. I hadn’t progressed at all but Noah’s heartrate was having little dips so they didn’t want to increase the Pitocin yet. Once he settled and looked good, they bumped it up.
Shortly after, I started to feel intense pressure down there. Pressure I hadn’t felt before. I told the nurse and she told me to lay further on my side as it could just be the positioning of the baby. About 15 minutes later, the pressure continued and I started to feel it in my bum too. I told the nurse and she checked me again, and I was fully dilated! By 1:50AM, it was time to push. At one point the nurse asked me if I wanted to feel Noah’s head! It was a crazy feeling! I pushed for 2.5 hours. Noah was born at 4:11AM one day past his due date. He came out sunny side up which made his birth quite challenging. I will never forget the moment they placed him on my chest and I got to meet our miracle.
I am so thankful that I was able to bring Noah into this world safely. I feel very fortunate to have experienced a c-section and vaginal birth. In any case, I have two beautiful boys that I am extremely grateful for.
