Starting to panic!!!

No experience with the vbac thing but you should start the rescue rememdy thing now and even if you aren't stressed on a particular day take it anyway. I find it works better if you just take it all the time anyway.

For the labour I focused on a couple of things, one was not to fight the contractions and to try and go with them, kept trying to remember they would hurt less if I didn't fight them and that fighting them wouldn't make them stop...lol
The other thing I focused on was that it wouldn't last forever and I kept thinking this time tomorrow labour will be a distant memory and I will be holding my baby (one way or the other). And remember with a VBAC they won't let it last that long. I went 14 hours and they let me push for 2 and that is very rare, normally they won't even let you go that long without intervention.

Other things I thought about in the lead up where that a c/s was the worse case scenario when I was pregnant with Spencer and it happened and it really wasn't that bad, we both survived, I healed and it was all ok and that if need be I could go through again.

In actual fact I was more concerned about the breastfeeding than the labour, cos that's the part I found hardest and most worrying and made me feel worse physically (cos of repeated infections and blocked ducts) and emotionally (cos I weaned earlier than I had planned too).

Sheena, i know its a bit late as you dont have much time left but I was talking to Toni yesterday and she said she did hypnotherapy and it really helped her. Ooh hope she doesnt mind me saying....

I can understand you freaking out, your labour was long, hard and traumatic (and not that long ago) and your only point of reference!

Perhaps some visualisation each day until you go into labour might help. Just sitting in a quiet place and visualising how you would like the birth to go???? I am sh*t at that kind of thing and end up drifting off and thinking about all sorts of random stuff like what to make for dinner, what bills I have to pay, do I have enough clothes or do I need to wash, having conversations with people in my head ( I am a nutter ).

Have you had a chat with DH about what you want him to do if he sees you starting to panic?

At the end of the day, you know how bad it can hurt and you will manage it however you need to on the day. Caden's birth was just that and Isabella's birth will be hers whether VBAC of C -Section.

LOL, throw this back in my face in a couple of years when its me freaking out about my VBAC!

Thanks

melnel, Im about the same as you with the visualization thingy lol, I have a short attention span haha!

I guess I just need to keep telling myself that this is a different baby different birth so tis not going to be the same as Cadens...
I know deep down that I will be just fine, I guess its just the not knowing how its going to go that freaks me out a lot.

JD-With Caden, I was 2 weeks over due when I finally went into labour, and it ended in an emergency c section after 48 hours of labour. I had a bleed on the operating table and lost a litre of blood and had a blood transfusion the next day, I also had swollen bowels and needed xrays, that was scary, and then I had problems breastfeeding afterwards, so it was a long 6 weeks to recovery
So I cant seem to get all of that out of my head

I was going to suggest positive visualisation as well - maybe when you are lying in bed go through the birth in your mind how you want it to be. And maybe put some little cards around the house with positive affirmations on them?

A good one is to stick the affirmations on the back of the toilet door so you see it everytime you go in there, as I am sure you visit there quite often!

My labour 2nd time around was much quicker and different than with no1. @nd time I was fully dialated after 7 hours, with no1 I was only 2cm after 7 hrs. Pain with no1 was everywhere, front, back, sides, everywhere all at once so it was really hard to know where to put a wheatsack or massage etc cos it kept changing every contraction. With no2 it was fairly constant, in the same place etc so much easier to manage even if I was strapped to the bed cos of complications a week earlier. I had an epi with both and while I had to push for nearly 3 hours Joel was a VBAC with forceps......at the time felt so good to have managed to do it....then the epi wore off and I started feeling all the stitches from my tears lol, but it was still a great feeling.

I really really wanted a VBAC but towards the end Joel started to get distressed and it came down to forceps or cs and only 1 go at forceps.....they were prepping the theatre while doing the forceps, and if it had meant a safe  healthy baby I so totally would have been happy to have another cs. (did that make sense??)

At least you know what the worst cs is like (from memory yours was pretty crap) so if you have to have an elective, while not what you want, at least you have some idea of what to expect, there were a few things I wasn't prepared for with a vaginal birth....hadn't even thought of them compared to the cs, which was probably just me being dull and not thinking of that part I just couldn't see past the VBAC, not what it really entailled!