On December 19, we welcomed our third (and final) baby into the world. Riley Faith Haywood was born at 11:49 pm on 12/19/17. She was all of 7.4lbs and 19.5 inches. A tiny little babe compared to big brothers who where 9.1 and 8.12 and both 21 inches long!
The birth of our middle son, AJ, was slightly traumatic for me as I had to have a csection and was absolutely terrified. I had never been hospitalized aside from my first birth not had I ever had any medical procedures done. Frankly, I tend to steer clear of doctors and western medicine and prefer holistic methods and essential oils. My husband refers to me as a hippie! ✌🏼Hey I’ll take it.
Naturally after a traumatic birth, I was nervous, anxious, and worried about baby number three coming along. I was determined to have a successful VBAC and made sure my doctor fully understood that in one of my first few appointments. She gave me the all clear and said I was a great candidate for a VBAC. I drank red raspberry leaf tea every.single.day for a healthy uterus. I got weekly chiropractic adjustments to keep my hips and pelvis aligned. I wrote a very specific, detailed birth plan for a completely unmedicated VBAC....
Funny thing about childbirth- it’s one of the few things in life that we have absolutely zero control over. Yet I was determined to have labor go exactly my way, exactly WHEN I wanted it. For certain reasons I needed to deliver on the 18th or 19th but Ms. Riley wasn’t due until the 25th. After talking with my OB, we booked an induction for the 19th.
Again all the feelings of worry, anxiety, and fear entered my heart. My biggest concern was getting induced only to end in csection yet again. Nonetheless, at 1:00 pm on December the nurse hooked up my iv and started pitocin. My original birth plan called for NO pitocin or epidural. I wanted to experience a natural childbirth. Wrong. Pitocin is synthetic oxytocin- and oxytocin is what your body needs to produce in order to dilate. Since I was shooting for a VBAC, I was limited on the amount of pitocin I could have as I ran the risk of a uterine rupture from my csection incision. Pitocin causes your contractions to come HARDER and FASTER than naturally letting your body labor so nine hours into labor I was in tears begging for an epidural. Reluctantly, my OB ordered the epidural. I appreciated that she was trying to stick to my birth plan, but pitocin contractions are not for the faint of heart!
Cue the epidural and all was right in the world again. I was finally dilated to a five so they cranked the pitocin which was fine with me since I could no longer feel contractions. It was around 11:30 when my OB came in and I started pushing and at 11:49 Riley Faith entered the world.
We had immediate skin to skin and she latched within a few minutes. My nurses were great with all my birthplan requests. I was able to have delayed cord clamping. Riley didn’t receive the HepB vaccine, which is completely pointless (and comes with a long list of risks for baby) for a newborn baby, nor did she get the vitamin K.
Baby girl was by far the easiest of all three deliveries. My VBAC experience was phenomenal and my OB and L&D nurses were beyond great! I would encourage all momma’s, if able to go for the VBAC. It’s well worth the shot!
And just like that, I’m a momma of THREE littles.
