The 411

Today I had my 36 week appointment. Everything looks good with baby. I wish I could say the same for myself. I have laryngitis for the first time and a terrible cold that doesn't seem to want to leave.

Anyway this post is mostly to address some concerns/ questions/ doubts that people have been expressing about me having a third c-section. I know I don't have to justify my decision but I do want those who love me and are genuinly concerned to be able to understand.

The short answer is that it's the safest thing to do having already had two previous c-sections. Reason being that when you are in labor the uterus contracts and expands. Since my uterus has two incisions already they don't want it contracting and expanding too much for fear of a rupture of one of the incisions. Inducing labor is also a bad idea because pitocin is used to get the labor process going and that causes even harder contractions than in a normal labor.

I know of a woman who insisted on not having a 3rd c-section against her Dr's wishes and was successful, however no hospital would take her so she did it at home. Which I would never want to try either.

Some people might say that Dr's just do c-sections if there is any sign of distress and while that may be true for some it was not the case for my two previous ones. With Bianca my water broke, I was in labor for 21 hours. My body wasn't progressing naturally at all. They put me on pitocin. By that 21st hour they finally had me pushing and found that she was turned the wrong way and that part of my cervix was stuck over her head. They had to get her out, I think the max they feel comfortable waiting after water breaks is 24 hours. After that there is a serious risk of infection. I remember thinking going into that labor process that the ONE thing I did not want and would avoid at all costs was a c-section. But it came down to doing what was safest and in the best interest of the health of the baby and my health.

With Wyatt I planned to do a VBAC. The Dr. advise against using pitocin though if I wasn't progressing in case of uterine rupture. After 5 hours of labor it looked like it was going to be the same story. My body wasn't progressing naturally at all. The nurse asked me if I wanted pitocin. I was upset that she would even ask me that knowing what she did about the previous c-section but whatever. The Dr. wasn't there at the time and I told her I wanted to see him. He came in, we talked and he gave me the option of continuing to labor naturally or c-section again. I chose the c-section because I felt it was best and frankly didn't want to go through 20 more hours of labor only to end up having another c-section anyway.

Going into this delivery knowing that the decision has already been made takes a lot of stress off my shoulders. I remember with Wyatt trying to decide if I should go VBAC or c-section was a really hard choice. I'm still hoping that I go into labor by my water breaking early mostly because when they stick that needle in my back for the spinal I want to be in some kind of other pain to take my mind off of that. I hate that part. But the surgery really isn't too bad. It's weird because you are awake. They put a cloth in front of you so you don't have to watch and you can hear the Dr's talking and you can feel pressure but no pain. It's kind of cool when they take the baby out, they will say, OK you are going to feel a big pull, or something like that and then you hear a cry and some cheers. The downsides are that I can't hold the baby right away but the Dr. will show him to me, then they take him and clean him up. They stitch me up, take me back to the room and I can hold him. The other thing that is kind of a bummer is I have to stay in the hospital at least two nights. That's always been hard for me to be away from Bianca but I'm hoping this time my stay will go well and I will be able to get some rest and use the nursery. I've never used it before.

Hopefully that explains some things. When the time comes I'll post how everything goes. It should be happening soon and we are excited to see our new baby boy Clark.