I woke up on Saturday September 25th with some mild contractions. I tracked them for a little bit, then called my midwife to tell them that I was having contractions every 4-5 minutes lasting for about 30 seconds.
Our plan was to have a home birth, but I wasn’t quite 37 weeks pregnant, so we didn’t know if they would let us. My midwife told me to take magnesium, take a warm bath, then lay down and see if the contractions would go away.
The contractions slowed down to every 10 minutes when I first got in the bath, then they picked up again. I called my midwife to let them know that the contractions were now every 3 minutes lasting for about 45 seconds. They told me their team was on the way to check on me and figure out a plan.
My husband, Adam, and I hurried to pack a hospital bag just in case we needed to go there. Adam’s sister hurried over to take care of our two year old twins.
The midwife team came around 1:30pm and did a cervix check. I was 100% effaced, but they couldn’t quite tell how dilated I was. They got everything ready for our home birth and filled the birthing tub since I was pretty sure I wanted a water birth.
Another midwife came over and said I was dilated to a 6. They were really concerned about my pelvic bone though because it is very narrow. They tried to open it up more, which was very painful and uncomfortable.
I got in the birthing tub to ease the pain of contractions. My twins woke up from their nap and wanted to get in, but we didn’t let them.
Two of the midwives went outside to discuss what was going on, then came back with some sad news. They didn’t think I could have a home birth and wanted me to go to the hospital and get an epidural. They didn’t think that the baby’s head could fit through my pelvic bone and they knew it would be extremely painful to try.
Adam and I were really sad about this, but knew it was what was best for the baby and I. I really didn’t want an epidural and we were so excited to have a home birth.
Our new plan was still to have a VBAC, just at the hospital instead of at home. We decided on the home birth pretty late in my pregnancy, so I had been seeing a group of doctors before this and they were supportive of me having a VBAC.
We rushed to the hospital a little after 6pm and got checked into our room quickly. They checked my cervix and I was still at a 6. I got my epidural and felt much better and more calm.
About an hour and a half later they checked me and I was still at a 6. Since I hadn’t progressed for about 4 hours they wanted to break my water.
An hour after breaking it I was dilated to a 9.5, then 30 minutes later I was at a 10 and it was time to start pushing.
The doctor came in and was worried about my narrow pelvic bone, but still let me try to have a VBAC.
I pushed for about an hour and 10 minutes with no luck. Baby’s heart rate started dropping into the 50s during contractions and they were very worried about him. The doctor came in and said we needed to do a c-section. I agreed and they rushed me to the operating room for surgery.
This happened to my mom when she had her first baby, so she had c-sections when the rest of my siblings and I were born too.
Our baby boy Archie Bennett was born at 12:26 am on September 26, 2021. He weighed 7 lbs and was 19.4 inches long. I was 36 weeks + 5 days pregnant when he was born.
He had no problem breathing on his own and is so healthy. His birth was so different from the birth of my twins, which was very traumatic.
You can read my birth story from giving birth to twins at 27 weeks here.
It was so amazing to be able to hold him a few minutes after he was born, do skin to skin for a long time, breastfeed him, and have him in my recovery room with me till we went home.
We can’t get enough of our sweet little Archie boy!
