Update!

[K Howard]

Hello! It has been a while since my last update and boy have I been busy! As I posted, I was able to have intercourse with my husband after the procedure and was blessed to get pregnant with a baby boy. Timothy was born on 12/20/24 (due date was 12/26/14)! I was to deliver at a birthing center (water birth) but actuality ended up delivering at the hospital…here’s what happened:

Since being pregnant, I had not missed a day from work (other than leaving early or coming late due to appointments) but on 12/17/14 I decided to stay home because I’d been having stronger braxton hicks contractions than I was used to and decided maybe I just needed to rest. On 12/18/14, I stayed home again because I still just wasn’t feeling up to it plus I had an appointment that afternoon so I would have been leaving early anyway. Everything went well at the appointment and the midwife checked me (vaginally) since I was nearing my due date. My cervix was still closed and the baby was still moving as normal. Around 8pm that night the contractions (still braxton hicks) seemed harder still – I started keeping track of them after a couple had passed and called the midwife around 10pm because I saw blood when I went to the bathroom but she assured me that as long as it wasn’t more than a moderate period amount and the baby was still moving then I should be okay and to try and get some rest.

On 12/19/14, I decided once again to stay home as I just wasn’t feeling quite right. I tossed and turned all that night and throughout the greater majority of the day. I would have short spurts of feeling “okay” but then start to feel “not quite right” again and the braxton hicks were really bothering me. There was still some blood throughout the day but it was darker in color. That evening I felt like I was back to my old (pregnant) self – my husband and I cooked spaghetti (I ate a lot lol) and we watched TV.

Around 2am (12/20/14), I started having more intense contractions and started having my husband track them more closely. We were using an app on my phone to track them and they were coming back to back and seemingly lasting a long time but the app still showed it to be false labor based on all the data. Later that morning I asked my husband to fill up our garden bath tub so I could get in to help ease the contractions. I stayed in for a while and it definitely helped. I got out of the tub and was in the bed on my knees so I could stretch with each passing contraction. I started to worry somewhat as the contractions just wouldn’t let up. I had my husband call the midwife. She wanted to speak with me but by this time I was in the bathroom just sitting on the toilet (the gravity of sitting there helped a lot!) and couldn’t speak with her as I was trying to breathe through the contractions. Based on the conversation she had with my husband, she told him that it was probably best to take me to the hospital and have me checked out (the birthing center was about 45 minutes away and if something was wrong I would have to go to the hospital anyway) in the event something was wrong. At this time, I couldn’t get off the toilet to the closet to put on clothes. Every time I would stand up, I would have to sit down because another contraction would come. My husband grabbed some clothes from the closet and helped me into my clothes. I’m not sure how he managed to help me out of the bathroom, out the door, down three flights of stairs and into the car but he did!

We arrived at the hospital around 2pm and went straight to triage to check in. It was extremely busy that day and I just kept praying that I could be seen as quick as possible and that nothing would be wrong. As a side note, my mother planned to arrive in town that day mid-afternoon. She ended up meeting us at the hospital. I was seen in the triage area about 30 minutes after arriving. I was manually checked and the woman said, well there is nothing “wrong” you’re just ready to have a baby – you’re 8cm dilated! Whoa, wait a minute?! 8cm as in only two more centimeters to go?! I just looked at my husband in shock. I could not believe I’d done all of that laboring at home. She further said that I could leave and go to the birthing center or stay and deliver there. I decided to stay as I didn’t want anything to happen on the road. I did test positive for GBS (Group B Strep) which was previously the case at the birthing center and had to get an antibiotic (I had vancomycin (I am allergic to penicillin).

I was taken to the labor and delivery room around 3:30pm and was manually checked by the doctor and I was still at 8cm. My mom also joined my husband and I. The contractions continued to come and I continued to breathe through them. I was asked several times if I wanted an epidural but I declined as I’d wanted a natural birth initially. After going to the bathroom, when I got back in bed I ended up sitting up on my knees and kind of hanging over the top of the bed. I’m guessing gravity helped a lot as my water broke around 5:30pm and when I was checked I was 10cm! Yay, that meant pushing time and having this part be over lol but I had to wait for the doctor (remember it was busy). The nurses kept saying not to push and I really tried not to but it seemed like my body was taking over when the contractions came so I know there were a couple of times that I did. After the doctor arrived it was GO time. With my husband on my left side and my mother on my right side (each holding a leg) and the doctor front and center (coaching me along) I was ready to bring a new life into the world! After about 5-6 pushes, Timothy was born at 6:28pm and weighed 5lbs 3.2oz and was 18 3/4 inches long!!

My only downside is that I ended up tearing – bilateral posterior and intervaginally and had to be stitched up. They gave me lidocaine intervaginally to help with the pain but I definitely felt it lol. I think the stitching for me was worse than pushing my son out. After being stitched up, they had to get a clean urine sample (a urine sample wasn’t done when I was in the triage area). Since I’d already given birth, they had to insert a catheter to get the sample. Of course everything was sore down below so they gave me dilaudid as a pain medication. Unfortunately the medicine made me drowsy almost immediately. At that time, my son was done being examined but I couldn’t hold him after they removed the catheter due to the drowsiness. Thankfully I did get to hold him right after his birth for a little bit while I was being stitched up. The nurses helped me get somewhat cleaned up and I got to a room around 10:30pm. I was able to breastfeed my son and then rest.

Although things didn’t particularly go as planned, I spent time in the water and delivered naturally so a win win indeed in my book!

Later after speaking with the main midwife (not who my husband spoke with prior to us going to the hospital) she explained to me that it was a great chance that my vaginismus played a role in the seemingly never ending contractions I was experiencing. It was as though my body would have the normal contraction and then because of that I would then have the “hitting the wall” feeling that I used to get prior to have the Botox procedure. It made sense. I guess I just wished I knew that prior to going to the hospital – I probably just would have gone straight to the birthing center but I am a believer this all things happen for bigger reasons so Timothy came into this world exactly how he was supposed to!

I hope and pray that if if is for desire, that you conceive, have a great full term pregnancy and a safe and spectacular delivery! My son is my greatest accomplishment in this life and I am so thankful that he’s here. These last four months of having him with me have been like none other!

[Dr. Pacik]

Thank you for posting this. The detail is important because many of the women struggling with vaginismus are terrified about the birthing process. Sooner or later mother nature takes over and you go along for the ride. This is a wonderful follow up and I am touched that your dream came true. I wish for you and your family many happy years.

[Heather34]

Quote:

Quote from K Howard on April 25, 2015, 14:53
Hello! It has been a while since my last update and boy have I been busy! As I posted, I was able to have intercourse with my husband after the procedure and was blessed to get pregnant with a baby boy. Timothy was born on 12/20/24 (due date was 12/26/14)!
I hope and pray that if if is for desire, that you conceive, have a great full term pregnancy and a safe and spectacular delivery! My son is my greatest accomplishment in this life and I am so thankful that he’s here. These last four months of having him with me have been like none other!

This is so, so, so wonderful K Howard! We also had a beautiful baby boy on 5/7/15 and he is our complete joy! We often look at him and both thank God that we found Dr. Pacik and had the Botox treatment program as this was key to being able to conceive. For anyone reading this right now, please know that this can totally happen for you as well. I never ever thought we would be successful but we were as I was finally able to achieve insertion post-procedure. Right now, Dr. Pacik is retired as of September 1, 2015 but the Botox treatment program for vaginismus is continuing. He is now referring to an excellent group in New York whom he recommends. Without this combined program to address both the physical (i.e. pain/resistance) as well as emotional (fear response from the pain), we, again, would never have been able to conceive.

Today, Janet Pacik wrote:
“Dr. Pacik has retired on September 1st but he has trained a group from New York that we are now referring to. I strongly urge the women of the VaginismusMD Forum to continue to post and if you would like to receive a referral from us, please fill out the information on our contact page of this website and I will send you information right away.”