Shannon shares her son Kellan’s amazingly beautiful VBAC birth story!
This is Kellan’s story, my third baby with my husband.
We have two older daughters, 5 and 2. I had an emergency csection with my oldest and it was a very traumatic event. I wasn’t able to hold her for four hours after she was born. My second daughter, Quinn, was born by VBAC with no medicine at all and it was an amazing birth. When I became pregnant with Kellan, I intended to have another VBAC, but this time I would do it without a doula and in a different state and hospital than I had with Quinn.
I was sure Kellan would come early.
I was due on December 18th and I swore he would come on Thanksgiving because I was having intense Braxton hicks everyday. December 18 th came and I saw my midwife. She said I was 3 cm and the baby had descended, which explained the intense sciatic pain the night before. She said baby would arrive any day. The next morning I knew I was going to have Kellan that day. I had energy and cleaned the house, including vacuuming the entire upstairs.
I was having contractions all day, but nothing closer than 20 minutes.
I had bags ready and told my husband to call his parents as we’d probably go to the hospital that night. We put the kids to bed and started to watch a movie. I was having intense regular contractions, but I was able to work through them. We both went to bed and I slept for about an hour and a half before I had to wake up from the intensity of the contractions.
I went downstairs and turned my birth music on.
I labored by myself in the dark and the quiet and I just remember how peaceful and perfect it was. If I had been at the hospital, it would have been bright, loud, with lots of questions and annoyances. So I enjoyed it, rocked through contractions and told myself I was a warrior, that I could do it. I lost my mucous plug and had bloody show after the last warrior contraction.
I called my midwife, it was about 11:45 or 12 am.
I told her about the mucous plug and that contractions were sporadic, not regular and coming at every 5 minutes and sometimes every 10 minutes. She said call her when we left so she could meet us at the hospital, which was 20 minutes away for both of us. I woke my husband, we waited for his parents to come to watch the girls, and we left. It was Christmas time so I remember driving through town with all of the beautiful lights.
Once at the hospital, we waited to check in and that’s when I knew I was transitioning.
I was shaking uncontrollably and went into a zone. We got to triage finally and the midwife told me I was 9.5 centimeters dilated and about to have a baby.
I was so incredibly happy because I had done exactly what I wanted, to labor on my own at home for as long as possible.
Once in the delivery room, they prepped me and gave me fluids because my blood pressure was low. I tried to squat to birth as that’s how Quinn was born, but Kellan wasn’t responding well to that and it was uncomfortable for me. I stood and had a few contractions, then I laid down and rested.
When I started pushing, we discovered he was posterior, aka sunny side up. I pushed for about 10 minutes before he was born. Pushing him was so much harder than it was with Quinn. My husband was there the entire time and he was my rock.
Kellan was born on December 20th at exactly 2:30 AM, an hour and a half after we had arrived at the hospital.
He was very healthy, 8 lbs 9oz. I was so elated to have my second vbac with no medicine. I recovered easily and ask for early release. We were home on the 21st, only spending one night at the hospital.
