l wouldn’t pray about it. When Josh would pray each night that God would allow Anna to be born by VBAC I would think, why pray for something when you already know that God’s answer will be no? All through Isaiah’s pregnancy I had prayed that the Lord would allow be to have a VBAC. And He said no. A VBAC after two c-sections is rare. I don’t like being told no, so I didn’t ask.

At the beginning of Anna’s pregnancy I met with a doctor who has done VBACs after two c-sections. I went to find out if it was a possibility for me. He came into the room rather abruptly and told me I was not a good candidate for a VBAC. I’d never gone into labor on my own. For a VBAC to even be considered I would have to go into labor on my own before my due date (something I’d never done before) and be far enough along that the doctors would consider a VBAC. Furthermore there were only two doctors within the hospital system that had ever done VBACs after two c-sections, so they would have to be the ones “on duty.” All the other doctors would do a repeat c-section no matter how far along the labor process was. Oh, and I was told to not labor at home since I could end up with a dead baby. In other words, the answer was no, and for the next several appointments I was told the same thing. I was ok with that. I had wanted to know if it was a possibility and now I knew that, unless God worked in several specific ways, Anna would be a third c-section. That was fine. We thank God for c-sections, for what modern medicine can do, for the way a c-section saved Becca’s life, and for God’s hand over all our pregnancies. Anna’s c-section was scheduled for April 11^th – 9AM. I’ll mention here that the doctor let me choose any date between April 7th and 11th for the c-section. I chose the 11th since it was a Friday and would be easier for my mom to come. At my next few appointments the other doctors questioned to wisdom of waiting so close to my due date (April 13th) to have my c-section. They were worried that I would go into labor and have to have an emergency c-section. I kept going by what the original doctor said and the fact that my mom’s plane tickets had already been purchased.

Tuesday night before Anna’s scheduled c-section I started having contractions. They seemed more than my normal nightly Braxton Hicks. The next morning at my scheduled doctor’s appointment there was discussion about keeping me at the hospital, but I was only dilated at 1cm and they let me go home. I took it easy on Wednesday. Wednesday evening the contractions continued and I didn’t get much sleep. Thursday we had our last family of 4 outing to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. (This was actually our first ever outing to Krispy Kreme, but not our first family of 4 outing!) The kids enjoyed seeing the doughnuts being made.

Thursday night the contractions continued and grew. I didn’t sleep much. I didn’t bother timing. I didn’t want to go into the hospital early just to have them do surgery. We could wait until morning. Sometime during the night I went and slept on the couch. It was a little easier to adjust my position. Around 4:30 Isaiah woke up and wasn’t going back to bed, so I had him on the couch with me and tried reading him books, though every so often I would stop and work through a contraction. I felt it was unfair that I had to endure contraction pain only to go have a c-section.

Friday at 6:50AM we left for my c-section. As they were starting to prep me for surgery they decided since I seemed to be having contractions in regular intervals they would check me – and I was dilated 6cm. The doctor came in. It happened that the exact doctor I had initially met with — the one who has done VBACs after two c-sections — was on delivery duty that day. He came in and asked me about my first c-section and started talking about how this was my chance to try a VBAC. I realized he didn’t know that I’d already had two c-sections. I was tempted to keep my mouth shut, but when I mentioned I had already had 2 c-sections he quickly changed his tune and told the nurse and resident to continue preparing for the surgery.

I didn’t want to ask. I had hardly slept the past two nights. I’d been in pain – contracting for no purpose but to have a c-section. I was ready to get it over with. But I thought about how my dear husband had faithfully prayed for a VBAC. I had to ask for his sake. . . . So I asked if I could try a VBAC. The doctor seemed surprised that I wanted to try but said I was a good candidate for it, since I was already in active labor and dilated 6cm. He was willing to give it a try and would be around all day. If I needed an emergency c-section he had plenty of doctors around who could do one. So off they wheeled me into a labor and delivery room.

We spent the next hours wondering what God was going to do. I kept saying I couldn’t believe this was happening, but I was worried that I was going to go through all of this only to end up in surgery. They broke my water. Later in the day they started me on pitocin. The doctor wanted my labor to continue progressing, but didn’t want me to labor too long in case of rupture. A little before 3 o’clock, I dilated to the full 10cm. Things moved pretty fast after that. We were told the doctor did a happy dance out at the nurses’ desk when he was told I was ready. Anna Grace was born at 3:39PM – a VBAC after two c-sections.

I am amazed that the Lord allowed me to have a VBAC. He lined up every detail, right down to the doctor and the later c-section date, so I didn’t have to have a c-section. It was one of those unexpected blessings, a sweet undeserved gift, an answer to Josh’s prayers when I chose not to pray about it.