Thomas Michael has arrived- the long birth story version

From Anne Marie and Thomas Michael

Well, I can honestly say that, even though things didn’t go according to plan, they went exactly as I would have wanted them to if I couldn't have a vbac.
After a week of pre-labor (1-2 hours of contractions every day, but nothing that lasted any length of time), I had a dream that I was having twins- I could tell because both sides of my pelvis hurt. That woke me up mid-contraction. I started timing them- four minutes apart and a 45 minute drive still to go. Then I went to the bathroom and saw some blood. I woke Matt up, we stuffed Anne Marie in the car and were off. About 10 minutes in to the 45-minute drive, contractions were 2 minutes apart from start of contraction to start and I was puking. I was sure we wouldn’t make it.
But luckily (or not) Thomas had other plans. I arrived at the hospital dialated to a 10 minus a “lip,” but the baby was still only at a station 2, just as he had been the week before. My mom overheard the doctor tell the anesthesiologist to stay nearby because she wasn’t sure the baby would come down at all. To her credit, however, no one gave me any indication that a c-section was likely inevitable. She knew I wanted every chance at a VBAC. The nurse, doula and Matt helped me switch positions, massaged me and coached me through every single contraction. The nurse was even willing to check my cervix while I was on my hands and knees. Last time they made me lie flat on my back every time, which was way painful. I was having pretty icky back labor this time, and as soon as I was on my hands and knees, the pain ended. I’m not even exaggerating. It went from really hard to breathe through and super painful to nothing more than pressure in my pelvis. I spent a couple of hours on my hands and knees draped over a birth ball in the bed, rocking.
After five hours at 10 cm without needing to push, however, it became pretty obvious that the kid was not going to come out the regular way. The doctor was so kind, though. She knew I had a good feeling about the nurse, and she had the nurse explain things to me. She also came in to explain things, and when I asked for 15 minutes to digest and make a decision on my own, she had no problem leaving, and she went and got the midwife to look at my statistics and give her opinion. The midwife agreed. My doula said she would never tell me what decision to make, but that it was really unusual to be dialated that long without getting to the pushing stage. They took the time to show Matt and me the paper with what they called “transition style contractions,” meaning they were at the top of the charts strength-wise and double-peaking. They had been going on the entire time without any progress on my part.
Everything was so much more respectful than last time. They waited until each contraction was over before the steps for the epidural for the c-section, and they did one last check before they wheeled me out, just to make sure. I told the doctor that the situation sucked, and she said, “it does suck, sweetie.” The doula agreed.
Thomas Michael was born at 7:27 a.m. on Feb. 27, 9 pounds and 21 inches even. He is totally different from Anne Marie! He is a high-strung little guy already, and it’s going to take some getting used to on all of our parts. Anne Marie is also turning out to be a great big sister, and seems fairly unphased by her brother’s long bouts of yelling. This photo, taken a few hours after birth, is deceiving.

From Thomas Michael