Bjorn’s Birth Story

Wow! What a whirlwind of a couple days it was! We were not expecting Bjorn to come THREE weeks early, but I’m sure glad he did because otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten my VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) like I wanted.

I tend not to talk about my religion and faith on my blog very much because that wasn’t the reason for creating my blog, but I can’t deny how much God played a role in making this VBAC happen. In my mind, there is just no other explanation because it is a crazy story–one that I couldn’t have written even if I tried! So grab a cup of coffee or tea and join me for a full recap of Bjorn’s birth story.

It was the morning of Thursday, September 26th, and I had just dropped Cullen off at preschool. I went back home to finish getting ready, when the action happened.

10:15 a.m. My water broke. I went to the bathroom and when I was done, I was walking around and felt a trickle come out. I thought it was odd because I just peed, so I didn’t think it was possible that I peed my pants. I thought, “Did my water just break?” I wasn’t sure that’s what it was because I was only 36 weeks and 6 days pregnant, so it seemed awfully early to go into labor. A few minutes later, there was more trickling, and while I was getting more confident it was amniotic fluid leaking out, I also doubted myself because it was so early. Plus, I wasn’t having contractions and felt totally normal.

(Crazy enough, this was very similar to the start of Cullen’s birth story. With him, my water broke at 7a.m., and I didn’t start having contractions right away either. But I was more confident it was my water with him because I was 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant.)

11:00 a.m. I had an appointment for a manicure, and I decided to keep it and go to the appointment because I felt fine. Plus, the nail salon has a strict cancellation policy, and they charge $30 if you don’t show up or don’t cancel within 3 hours of your appointment. It was too close to my appointment to cancel, and I didn’t want to pay $30 for nothing, so I took my chances. Plus, I know a lot of people lie, and I didn’t know if they would believe me that my water broke, so I decided to go.

During the appointment, I didn’t say anything about my water breaking, and I just prayed I didn’t leak a bunch of amniotic fluid all over the white faux fur draped on their white leather chairs. Ha! Luckily everything went fine, and I made it out of there with no major leaking. (Most of the time more fluid would leak out when I stood up or while I was walking somewhere.)

11:45 a.m. I picked up Craig for lunch because we were going to have lunch with Cullen at his preschool. When Craig got into the car I said, “I think my water broke.” He said, “What do you mean think?” I explained what had happened, and he said I had better call the doctor’s office (which I had been planning on doing) since this is what happened with Cullen. That time I was able to go into the doctor’s office, have them test to see if it was amniotic fluid before going to the hospital and embarrassing myself with the hospital people sending me back home.

Mostly what I couldn’t figure out was which doctor’s office to call. You see, a week ago I had switched my care to Women’s Care of Alaska because they were willing to see me as a patient and potentially help me do a VBAC at Regional. I had only met with them twice–the first time being less than a week ago and the second time just the day before! We were still in the process of deciding if I was a candidate for a VBAC and no final decision had been made since the doctor still wanted to review my entire labor and delivery notes.

I figured at this point I would have to do a c-section, and I felt more comfortable with the doctors at Alaska Women’s Health performing a c-section on me since they had seem me for 99% of my pregnancy and up until 36 weeks pregnant.

So on the way to lunch, I called Alaska Women’s Health’s office to see what I should do. The gal on the phone said that I was no longer a patient with them since I had transferred my records to Women’s Care of Alaska. I explained my situation a little more, and she said that they could maybe take me back as a patient, but I needed to call Women’s Care of Alaska first.

So I called Women’s Care of Alaska, once again, explained my situation, and person said they could definitely see me in their office, and I could either come in and have my fluid tested or go straight to the hospital if I was sure it was amniotic fluid. She said if I had soaked through 2+ pads, then it was probably my water. (I was on pad number three at this point in time.) I said I would come in in a couple of hours after we packed our bags for the hospital, and then we could also put together a game plan with the doctor before checking in at the hospital since things really hadn’t been decided yet.

Craig and I went to Cullen’s preschool, had a pizza lunch with him, and when we were getting ready to leave, I had a very large gush of liquid come out. I definitely soaked through my pants, but somehow held it together–visiting Cullen’s room and talking to a couple people we knew before getting out of there.

12:45 p.m. We got home, packed our bags, dropped the dog off at my in-law’s, and then headed to the clinic.

We had nothing packed for the hospital–it was still too early! Luckily I had laid out some outfits a couple days earlier, trying to plan what I wanted to take to the hospital, so that helped me when packing. But since I can’t stress pack, I packed way more than I needed, but that was better than packing too less like I did with Cullen.

2:00 p.m. We arrived at the doctor’s office, and as I was walking into the building, an even larger amount of fluid leaked out. Luckily the doctor’s office got me in right away, and they had no doubt my water had broke. The doctor said I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced, which was more progress than I had with Cullen at this point. (At my appointment the previous Friday, I was 1cm dilated.)

We met with the doctor–Dr. van Haastert, who was the doctor on call that night. We explained our situation, telling her how I really wanted to do a VBAC but wasn’t even sure if I was a candidate for one–especially since the ultrasound the day before had said I was going to have an 8 pound baby and my c-section scar was about 2mm thick. (They prefer the thickness to be 3mm otherwise there is the potential for it ripping open.) I told her I had just met with Dr. Counts the day before but nothing had been concluded yet. At this point she pulled out her phone, asked me my height, the reason for the previous c-section, a few other variables, and then stated I had a 62% chance of a successful VBAC. Say what?! The doctor just used an app to determine if I was a candidate for a VBAC!!

She said she was willing to give it a try if I was. She said she had someone delivering at Regional Hospital and a second at Providence Hospital. However, since the doctor has to be on site the entire time you are in labor, this would mean that when she was at Providence (the other hospital), she would need a second doctor to be at Regional while she was at Providence. And this is where I couldn’t have even written the story if I wanted. There just so happened to be a get-together of some sort being hosted at Regional that night and several of the OB doctors in town would be on site that very night. This meant that while Dr. van Haastert was at Providence, there would still be backup for me to continue to try for a VBAC. How crazy is that?!

I told her that the only way I was going to try for a VBAC was if I had her support. In my mind, a 60% chance didn’t seem like very good odds, but she seemed very positive about the situation, so we decided to give it a try. (At this point, I think the doctor reassured Craig enough that he wasn’t as worried about everything.) We took things hour-by-hour and made the best decision at that time with what we knew.

3:00 p.m. We go to the hospital.

As Craig and I were making plans for how we would get Cullen to my in-laws since he would be staying with them, we remembered that my mother-in-law was actually at the hospital having surgery that afternoon! I never saw her, but I did see my father-in-law before heading to the mother and baby unit. We also handed Cullen off to them since Cullen would be staying with them while we were in the hospital. What are the odds?!

I got checked in, completed a ton of paperwork, got my IV put in, and then a monitor for the baby’s heart rate was placed on my stomach as well as a monitor for my contraction. Surprisingly the monitor for my contractions was showing I was having contractions, but I couldn’t feel them. They were very regular, but they never got to a place where I felt them or I was in pain. We waited for a while to see if the contractions would pick up.

During this time, Craig and I hung out. I did some shopping online–purchasing this nursing sports bra, worked on athlete plans, posted on Instagram. . . .you know, all the standard things you do when you’re in labor.

9:00 p.m. The doctor came in to see me and check my progress. She said I was still at 3cm dilated, so she said I could either start Pitocin or opt to do a c-section. I chose to try Pitocin even though it still haunts me from Cullen’s birth.

They started Pitocin at the lowest dosage and increased it every hour. I had very minor cramping for the first couple of hours. I tried to rest as I knew I probably had a long night ahead of me.

12:00 a.m. At this point the contractions definitely started picking up, and I was having a lot more pain through each contraction. They were very regular happening about every 1.5-2 minutes with a break in between, but I was starting to become very uncomfortable. (As a distance runner, I know pain, but it is different when the pain overtakes your body and you have no control over the intensity of each one.) Towards the last hour, the contractions were quite unbearable, and I was struggling more and more. I was starting to shake a lot, and I was having a hard time relaxing to let my cervix dilate appropriately.

3:00 a.m. I had the nurse check my cervix to see how much progress I had made, and she said I was at “4cm–maybe 5cm dilated.” One (maybe two) centimeters in 12+ hours!! This brought back all the memories of Cullen’s extremely slow progression, and it was not encouraging. At this point I knew it was time for an epidural. When I found out I would be getting Pitocin, I pretty much knew at that point I would also opt to have an epidural. While I would have loved to labor naturally the entire time, there was too much trauma associated with Cullen’s 42 hours of labor that I didn’t want to go through that again. In my mind, an epidural and vaginal delivery was better than a c-section, so I decided to get an epidural. The also doctor thought this was a good idea as it would help me relax and progress could be made.

4:00 a.m. The epidural was working, and I was able to sleep for a couple of hours. The nurse said hopefully you can sleep for a few hours and then wake up and be ready to have a baby!

7:00 a.m. The nurse had told me to let her know when I was feeling pressure on my pelvis, and it was at this time that I started to feel that pressure. The anesthesiologist had done a good job numbing my legs so that they were mostly numb, but not so much that I couldn’t feel anything. The nurse said she would check me and surprised me by saying I was 10cm dilated, which meant it was go-time!

The doctor came in and told me the plan for pushing. We would wait until I felt pressure building on my pelvis, I would take a deep breath, let it out, then take a second breath, and I would push for a count of 10, 3 times, taking a deep breath in between each set. (For those of you who have never given birth, they tell you to push like you are taking the biggest poop of your life! I’m not even kidding.)

So far I was successfully completing a TOLAC (trial of labor after caesarean), but I knew that it was at this point where I would most likely end up with a repeat c-sections since with Cullen’s labor, I got to 10cm dilated, pushed for 2 hours, but his head was stuck, so I had to have a c-section.

I dug deep on each contraction, pushing with all my might, hoping/pleading/begging he would come out. The doctor was incredibly positive and very encouraging throughout the entire process telling me how good I was doing and getting excited as we got closer to him coming out.

The thing with the pushing part is that there is some down-time between contractions, so there was some causal chatter about our kids, colleges we went to, and Minnesota, but most of the time between those contractions I prayed. I prayed that I wouldn’t end up with a c-section, I prayed for strength, but most of all (as it had been my prayer through this entire pregnancy) I prayed that this baby come into this world how God saw best–not necessarily what I wanted.

7:35 a.m. By this time, I knew things were looking pretty positive for a vaginal delivery. The doctor even called it, saying this baby was going to be born by 7:45/7:50a.m. After that, it only took a couple more pushes before I was holding my baby in my arms.

7:47a.m. Bjorn Gebhard Baxter was born!

A little about Bjorn’s name. . . . .
Since Cullen’s first and middle name has roots in Craig’s family’s heritage (Irish/Scottish), we (almost accidentally) decided to have roots in my family’s name for our second child. Bjorn is a name I’ve liked since high school and one, frankly, I had forgotten about until I saw it on a license plate up here this summer. I am part Norwegian, so it seemed fitting to pick something from my family’s heritage. My paternal grandfather’s name is Gebhard, which is actually a German name but my grandfather was Norwegian and would speak Norwegian words here and there. We liked how the two sounded together and never second guessed our decision.

Actually watching Bjorn be born was such a cool experience. I didn’t get to see them pull Cullen out of me since I had a c-section, and they put a curtain up in front of you to prevent you from seeing yourself be cut open. Before this experience, I always thought the baby covered in white fluid, some blood, and an ashy-gray color seem pretty gross, but when it is your baby and your hormones, things suddenly are very different.

As they placed him on my chest, my eyes welled up, and I couldn’t believe he was mine. I can’t say I was immediately in love with him, as it seemed so crazy/weird that he was just inside of me moments ago. Almost a stranger is some regards, but really a piece of me and a piece of Craig knit together during the last 8 months as I carried him.

The nurses dried Bjorn off and let me hold him for several minutes. The doctor let the last of the blood pump through his umbilical cord before I cut it. (Craig had no interest in doing it, and the doctor even said that the dad cutting the cord had become a thing in the recent years.) I, being the daughter of a pig farmer, was not weirded out by it as I have helped deliver piglets myself.

Within minutes of Bjorn being born, I saw the doctor start to stitch me up. Luckily the epidural had prevented me from feeling a lot of the pain otherwise I can’t imagine the pain from the ‘ring of fire,’ plus tissue tearing. (It just gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it.) I had some second-degree tears that needed stitching up, and then it was time to deliver the placenta, which ended up being quite difficult. (I believe the doctor said my uterus had started contracting already.)

All in all, this was a much more positive experience for Craig and myself compared to Cullen’s labor. I honestly lived in fear of laboring again and several times tried to convince myself that a c-section would be a better option for me just so I wouldn’t have to go through all that pain and emotional distress again.

While I still would have loved to have two unmedicated child births, I am glad the second time around I chose to have an epidural because it calmed me down and allowed me to see the beauty of childbirth and realize it can be an amazing thing and one we don’t have to be fearful of.

Here are a few fun facts sharing the differences between Cullen and Bjorn’s labor and deliveries.

Cullen:
born via c-section
born 54 hours after my water broke (42 hours of active labor)
7 pounds 2 ounces
20-3/4 inches long
born at 40 weeks, 1 day

Bjorn:
born via VBAC
born 22 hours after my water broke
7 pounds 2 ounces
20-1/4 inches long
born at 37 weeks (officially full-term)

I cannot thank Dr. van Haastert enough! Without her I wouldn’t have gotten my VBAC. She believed it was possible and was willing to give it a try. For me! For my baby! She spent the night at the hospital with me as I labored. (Luckily I was able to let her sleep for most of the night.) All this for a random patient she just met hours beforehand!

I didn’t go into too much detail in this blog post as to the specifics of how I was able to find a doctor who was willing to give this VBAC a try, so I have another quite-lengthy blog post coming soon that explains everything in that regard, so stay tuned!