Adventures with Joy and Kindness: Baby Audrey is Here! (Her Birth Story)

Introducing Audrey Xinhui Brengle!

Born April 5, 2017 at 12:44pm

7 pounds, 8 ounces, 20 inches long

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 4th, I woke up with some semi-painful contractions and stayed up from 1am to 4am. They were painful enough not to sleep through, but not so painful that it was labor. That morning, I went to the doctor's office and I was 2 cm dilated and Audrey was at +2 station. I had the beginnings of a bloody show right before the doctor's office and so to try to jump start labor, I asked the doc to strip my membranes and she did. The rest of the day, I had some strong but inconsistent contractions and more bloody show, but nothing consistent, so we went to bed.

At 2am on Wednesday, April 5th, I woke up with strong contractions, much stronger than the night before. I decided to labor at home in the living room using the birthing ball and around 2:30pm, I felt a small gush. I saw there was a whole lot of bloody show. I didn't think anything of it at the time, just changed and kept on laboring. I found out later, that was my water breaking! By 4am, I thought hmm, we should start getting ready to go to the hospital. I woke Shane up and asked him to make me some eggs and a grilled cheese sandwich, which I ate in between contractions. I asked my mom to come over to watch Clara while we were at the hospital, and then we took off to Sharp Mary Birch. When we arrived at 5am, the contractions were 30-45 seconds long and 2-3 minutes apart. I had to stop walking twice from the pain of the contractions just from the short distance where we parked at the roundabout to the sliding glass doors.... like a crazy pregnant lady in labor...

In triage, they tried to ask me questions, but I couldn't answer the majority of them because of the contractions. Shane was a trooper and answered all their questions. They decided to forego the normal triage procedure and just check me first, since the contractions were coming so quickly. They checked me and I was 6cm! They said, we're going to get you upstairs as quickly as possible. Were you thinking of getting an epidural? Yes! I had really been hoping I was 6cm, because that's when I was planning to get an epidural if I went into labor naturally. Funnily enough, in between contractions, I heard another woman in triage talking normally to the nurse saying, "I swear I feel like I've been at 5 cm for two weeks now!" I thought to myself, you would not be saying that calmly if you were in active labor!!

It took about an hour from when we got to the hospital to placing the epidural. That was a long, long hour. The first two hours of labor felt different from the back labor I had with Clara. It felt more like strong period pain that started in my back but radiated forward into the belly. It was totally doable, and some were stronger than others and some were closer together, but others were not as strong, and others not as close. (Natural labor is so different from pitocin-induced labor!) But by 5am, it was feeling very much like the back labor I had with Clara, not as intense, but definitely trending towards unhappy. Fortunately, they got the epidural in around 6am and when they checked me again at 7am, I was 10 cm!

The OB on call wanted me to labor down because I had pushed for 3 hours with Clara and she had failed to descend past 0 station. So they had me just hang out and wait for my body to have the contractions for an hour before we started pushing. I was talking with the nurse asking if she could tell if Audrey was in the right position. She wasn't sure, but the OB came back and checked and said yes, she seems to be in the anterior position. Yay! I had been working on that for weeks and I was really hopeful Audrey might come out without a c-section because labor had started naturally and had progressed with a quick fury!

At 9:10am, we started pushing, and even with an amazing nurse, we made little progress over the course of the next 2-3 hours. She got down to -2 station, and was trying to make her way past the pubic bone, but she and I just couldn't get her there. She was, however, far enough that the OB said we could try a vacuum assisted delivery if we wanted. If that didn't work, it would be another c-section. We said, let's go ahead and try. They got everything ready, turned on the baby warmer, got extra peds nurses and extra nurse nurses, along with the OB and the labor nurse. I had never seen that before, it didn't happen with Clara, so at the moment it was weird for me to think wow, maybe she might come out in this room!

For the last few weeks, Shane and I (and many others) had been praying for me to go into labor naturally, in the hopes of avoiding another c-section. The thought of being able to walk and be able to do normal activities after delivery was something I was really hoping for. As a mom already, I thought mostly of Clara and how I so love picking her up and holding her, and how hopefully with a VBAC I could be the best mom to both Clara and Audrey! And so it's with those thoughts that I started pushing through another thirty minutes (after having already pushed for three hours) with the help of the vacuum. Everyone was really encouraging. The extra nurses were like cheerleaders saying, "Cmon push push push you can do this!" We got a little further during those thirty minutes, but the vacuum popped off three times. The OB said, if it pops off a fourth time, I can't put it on again, it's too dangerous for the baby. So let's give it one last go, give it all you got. At this point, I kind of knew it would be another c-section, so I tried to wait for a really strong contraction. During labor, the nurses were saying how strong my contractions were, and mentioned they were all my own, not from pitocin. It's as if my body knew this was the last chance because no strong contractions came. I waited and waited for several minutes and finally felt one and then I gave it everything -- pushed pushed pushed and then I heard the 'pop.' She had gotten so much further than Clara! She was -2 station, I could feel her right there! Not just the pressure of her, but actually feel her just there! But sadly, the OB had to push her back in (ironic huh?) and I got prepped for the c-section.

From there, it felt similar, getting wheeled to the OR, getting the stronger epidural, getting placed on the table, drapes, curtains, etc. This time, I was much less scared and much more aware. I had thrown up during labor already twice, but remembered I threw up on the table during Clara's c-section. I warned the anesthesiologist, who Shane says took really good care of me, and she started me on a cocktail of drugs. This time, I was able to feel my arms the whole time, and while I did end up throwing up twice during the c-section, I felt much more in control and didn't shake until we got to recovery. I also threw up another two times in recovery, and another four times in the postpartum room... But, contrary to Clara's c-section, I was actually lucid during surgery! I was fully present and even got to see her through the curtain (they had a clear portion they adjusted) just at the moment when they took her out!

They brought her over to me after cleaning her off and I got to touch her little nose and her little face! Eventually, the nurses took Audrey for tests and Shane went with her while they finished closing me up. I actually made it to recovery before them (which is amazing considering I spent over an hour in recovery after Clara's surgery and they had to call for me to come feed the hungry baby!) and shortly after Shane and Audrey came in and I got to hold her and feed her for the first time!

After some time in recovery, we went up to the post partum room, where we spent the next 4 days. The OB was ready to discharge me on April 6th, which is amazing since I couldn't get out of bed for a full 24 hours after Clara's c-section. However, Audrey wasn't ready to be discharged until April 9th. But that's a story for another time.

Sweet Audrey was due to be born today, April 11th, but instead, she came out early, like we had prayed! In the end, I'm so grateful to have gone into labor naturally and so happy to have been able to try for a VBAC. And even more so again grateful that c-sections exist. This momma just seems to birth babies that way, and that's okay.

So in honor of Audrey's due date, here's a few pictures:

Sweet Audrey in her going home outfit, getting ready to be discharged :).