Luke's Story

Let me just start by saying:

God is so good!  Since before I knew for sure that I was pregnant, I began to pray that God would allow me to have a safe and healthy VBAC delivery.  I was nervous and anxious that it wouldn't happen and that I would end up needing to have another cesarean section, but I prayed fervently for peace through the pregnancy and I trusted that everything would work out according to His perfect plan.  I knew that no matter the method of delivery I would have a precious baby and most of all I just wanted for both of us to be healthy and safe!  Thank you to everyone who prayed for us through this pregnancy.  We can never tell you just how much it means to us to have your support!

 SO, Here's how it went...

The last shot of my big old baby belly. 

It was a dark and stormy night…literally.  Those of you who think that moon cycles and weather don’t have any effect on pregnant women, HAH!  Clearly it worked for me!  …The night of September 29^th (the full moon AND a wicked little thunder storm) I felt ok, but right around midnight (the beginning of September 30^th) I began having contractions like clockwork every 15 minutes.  Consequently, I got zero sleep.  Around 4 am I let my panic get the best of me and decided to go ahead and call Derek (he was in Mexico, naturally.) to let him know that I was having contractions and he should probably head home at his earliest convenience (or RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW!), but lo and behold…the international calling plan that we had purchased failed.  Lovely.  So I resorted to sending facebook messages to him (knowing fully that he wouldn’t check his facebook until he woke up at a decent hour…why would he??)  Sure enough, the hours passed, the uterus kept right on contracting, and Derek slept peacefully in his little Mexican Hotel Room.  I have to admit…at this point I was still thinking that maybe I was just being ridiculous in wanting Derek to come home.  I mean, after all, the contractions were still 15 minutes apart and maybe I was just having “false labor”.  When he finally called me around 8:30 that morning he asked how I was doing and decided that he would come home.  Unfortunately, the earliest flight out of Mexico was the flight that he was scheduled to fly!  So he just had to wait.  Poor guy.  He landed in Dallas around 4:30pm and called me immediately.  I informed him then that my contractions were 12 minutes apart and still very consistent.  He got through customs, to his car and drove (very fast…eek!) toward home.  He called me about every 10 minutes (or so it seemed) on the way home and my contractions progressively moved to 10 minutes apart, then 8 minutes, then 6 minutes.  I figured at this point that it most likely WASN’T false labor.  It definitely felt very real.  I called the hospital and let them know that I was coming and hopped in the car with Derek’s Mom to head that way.  Derek changed his destination in the GPS to go directly to the hospital and amazingly (or terrifyingly…whatever) made it from Dallas to Nacogdoches in about 2 and a half hours (normally about 3 and a half or 4 hours of driving!)

 

This is what my face looked like when my contractions were 6 minutes apart. haha!

Finally my baby Daddy arrived!

 When I arrived at the hospital and got all checked in my dear sweet nurse informed me that I was, in fact, only 1 cm dilated.  To which I replied “Say Whaaaaaaa???  How could this BE???  And let me just say…if this is what 1 cm feels like, I am going to need an epidural yesterday because WOW…this sucks.”  Ok, so maybe I didn’t say those exact words, but I was heartbroken.  And exhausted.  But at least Derek was there with me now.  I could handle it as long as he was there.  The nurse even toyed with the idea that my doctor might want to send us back home (the nerve!) but that we would give it a little while and see how things progressed.  She suggested that Derek and I walk “laps” around the Labor and Delivery floor and see if that would spark up some dilation.  We walked for about 45 minutes and in that time my contractions started to come every three minutes and they hurt just like the dickens. (JUST like them!)  I decided to go back to the room and try out the tub to see if that would help and I will admit that I thought for sure I would be at least 6 or 7 cm dilated at this point.  It was just insanely painful.  I know…childbirth is painful…shocker.

I was on my knees (literally) in pain during our "walk" around the hospital.  OUCH!

 Anyway, we went back to the room and I was in the tub for just about as long as it took to fill it up and then I couldn’t stand it any longer and had to get out and see if I could get some drugs to help me out.  I was so tired and I just wanted to sleep and get some rest to be able to have some energy when the time came to push.  Funny thing…when I got out of the tub and she checked me again, I was still only 1 cm dilated.  ONE!  Unbelievable!  There may or may not have been a few expletives spewed.  The nurse offered to give me a drug called Fentanyl and an Ambien to help me get some sleep.  I asked how quickly the Fentanyl would kick in and my nurse assured me that it would be almost automatic because it was going directly into my IV.  She sweetly instructed me to “get some rest” (HAH!) and left the room.  The next 45 minutes were basically the worst thing ever.  Ok, maybe not the worst EVER, but certainly the most painful 45 minutes of my life!  And can I just state, for the record, that my precious little nurse told me a lie straight from the pit of hell...that Fentanyl did absolutely NOTHING for me.  When she came back into the room after 45 minutes or so I asked if I could please have more of the drug or something else to help with the pain.  She said that the baby’s heart rate was declining a little bit so they couldn’t give me anything else.  I told her I was scared because I felt like every time I was having a contraction my body had a mind of its own and was pushing!  It was such a strange sensation.  I couldn’t stop it!  I even remember the nurse looking at the monitor and saying “Gosh…you’re having some STRONG contractions, Girl!”  (Hello, Nurse Obvious.  Pleasure to meet you!)  Anyway, she decided she would check me again and as she did her face changed from “this poor girl thinks that she is in pain NOW, she’s only 1 cm!” to “Hmmm…that’s strange.” because upon inspection she discovered that I had gone from 1cm to 10cm in a matter of 45 minutes.  When she said this to me I didn’t quite understand because believe me…in that moment…I wanted an epidural.  I wanted one BAD.  But guess what??  They won’t give you an epidural when you are 10 cm and already pushing…can you believe that?!  RUDE.  So there I was, having the VBAC that I had prayed so hard for and without pain killers to boot! (not so much a specific part of my prayer, but God has a sense of humor!)  My doctor wasn’t even there because just less than an hour before the whole 1 to 10 fiasco, the nurse had called her and told her not to worry about coming in!  So now my nurse was calmly asking me NOT to push if I could.  She asked me to “breathe through the contractions” and I cried and apologized because, as I said before, my body had a mind of its own!  I couldn’t stop!  Eventually the nurse just said we would do some “practice pushes” while the doctor was on her way.  Turns out I didn’t need a whole lot of practice.  I guess I am pretty awesome at pushing!  (can we get a round of applause, please?  Thank you.)  My doctor showed up less than 5 minutes before the baby was born.  It was actually kind of comical when she arrived because she was throwing on her scrubs and gloves like a mad woman and as soon as she sat down the baby was out. 

My sweet baby boy, Luke Iven Hulsey was born at 12:45 am on October 1, 2012!

8 lbs 5 oz and 19.5" Long

So glad (and clearly feeling the Ambien) to be holding my boy!

Funny how your perspective on life (and your facial expressions) change when you aren't in Labor!

Love my family!

We are all happy and healthy and you know, even with the insane and intense pain that I experienced in the birth of this baby boy, I would do it all over again in a heart beat!  The recovery from this VBAC has been a million times easier than my c-section (even with a toddler added into the mix!) I am so incredibly blessed to have had this experience!