I had to get induced at 39 weeks due to a blood clotting disorder. My induction was scheduled for Tuesday morning at 7:30. As we left the house, things started looking ominous. First, we passed a grizzly car accident, and then it started to rain. The closer we got to the hospital, the harder it rained, and when we arrived it was pouring cats and dogs. As we walked down the hospital hallway toward the elevators, I stepped on a little puddle of water that someone had tracked in and my right leg flew out in front of me. I did the splits, pulled my groin, and landed on my left knee. So, as I hobbled upstairs in tears, I thought about how this birth was really starting off with a bang!
So we got checked in, into a bed, cervix checked (1 cm, 50%, -1), IV placed, spoke with midwife a little more about our plans for the day and my wishes for the birth, and finally started pitocin at about 9:30. I'd hardly slept the night before, so while I waited for it to kick in, I got about an hour of sleep, then the contractions started.
At about 12:15, the midwife checked me again to see if any progress had been made and see if she could break my water. I was maybe 1.5-2cm, so she tried to stretch me enough to fit the little hook in, but it seemed to be just out of reach although she thought it was possible she might have just snagged the bag a little. Fifteen minutes later, I was just chatting on the phone with my mom and felt a big gush.
Over the next couple hours, the contractions intensified (I guess pitocin and AROM will do that!) and by about 3pm I was writhing and moaning through them and felt like crying. I figured that if I'd made a decent amount of progress then I could probably make it to the end without pain meds, so I asked to be checked. I was only 3 cm, so I told them to just give me the epidural now since I'd never make it to 10 the way things were going. With my last birth, I waited 24 hours through painful contractions before getting the epidural and even after that long, my cervix refused to dilate past 2 cm until I got it but once I did it dilated like magic, so I knew that could happen again. I think it took until about 3:45pm to get the anesthesiologist in, set up, and get the epidural in. It didn't take long before I started to get some relief from the pain, but I also got extremely itchy all over. It took them approximately an entire eternity to get me some benedryl, and once they did I fell asleep and slept for most of the hours of 5 and 6pm, waking up sometime in the middle to ask for another dose of benedryl (which never did fully take away the itching).
About 7pm, I started to feel a little pressure/pain with some of the contractions, so I let them know and we agreed it might be time to check me again. Lo and behold, I was 10 cm! My midwife doesn't feel that just because the cervix is complete that you have to push, so she told me just to hang out and let her know when I got the urge to push, and then we'd start.
So, by about 7:50, I could feel him coming down and a vague urge to push, so I called them in and tried some pushes. The urge wasn't that strong yet, but I just followed it and didn't really push any harder than I felt like I needed to. By 8:05ish, they started to tell me they could see his scalp and I had them get a mirror so I could see what I was doing. I took one contraction to get my bearings and get him crowning a little. With the next contraction, he started at barely crowning and I just pushed slow and steady and breathed through it, and his head slowly emerged, and at the end of the contraction they told me to give one more hard push to get his shoulders out, and the rest of him followed with no delay.
Nitai Theodore B. was born on 11/13/07 at 8:10pm, weighing 9lb 7oz, and was 20" long.
I felt virtually no pain through the whole thing, but I could still feel what I was doing, so aside from the itchiness, it was the perfect epidural (and I'm so glad, because I had the epidural from hell last time). They set him on my stomach while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing, as the cord was too short for them to set him on my chest. They asked if they could take him to get cleaned up, weighed, etc, and I told them to go ahead and get that done while I delivered the placenta. They called out his weight and length, as well as a few other measurements like his head and chest circumference which I've forgotten. They also said he was a bit on the hot side so they bathed him to cool him down. I was losing a lot of blood at that moment so this part is just a bit hazy, although they didn't declare me to be hemorrhaging. Once it slowed down, they checked me out to see if I needed any stitches, but miraculously I didn't, so they got me all cleaned up and pretty soon I was nursing him and getting ready to be moved to the recovery room.
Nursing is going well, and my milk is just finally starting to come in. I'm feeling pretty great, a little tired because he's been hungry all night and not satisfied with my milk not being in yet, otherwise just a lot of bad menstrual-like cramps when nursing, and, TMI, but I'm hardly even bleeding and not swollen at all. My worst injuries seem to be my bruised knee and pulled groin!
DH and I as we left the house headed to the hospital:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0639Small.jpg
Nitai:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0274Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0281Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0285Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0287Small.jpg
Meeting for the first time:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0722Small.jpg
Heading home:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0298Small.jpg
At home with big sister:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0914Small.jpg
So we got checked in, into a bed, cervix checked (1 cm, 50%, -1), IV placed, spoke with midwife a little more about our plans for the day and my wishes for the birth, and finally started pitocin at about 9:30. I'd hardly slept the night before, so while I waited for it to kick in, I got about an hour of sleep, then the contractions started.
At about 12:15, the midwife checked me again to see if any progress had been made and see if she could break my water. I was maybe 1.5-2cm, so she tried to stretch me enough to fit the little hook in, but it seemed to be just out of reach although she thought it was possible she might have just snagged the bag a little. Fifteen minutes later, I was just chatting on the phone with my mom and felt a big gush.
Over the next couple hours, the contractions intensified (I guess pitocin and AROM will do that!) and by about 3pm I was writhing and moaning through them and felt like crying. I figured that if I'd made a decent amount of progress then I could probably make it to the end without pain meds, so I asked to be checked. I was only 3 cm, so I told them to just give me the epidural now since I'd never make it to 10 the way things were going. With my last birth, I waited 24 hours through painful contractions before getting the epidural and even after that long, my cervix refused to dilate past 2 cm until I got it but once I did it dilated like magic, so I knew that could happen again. I think it took until about 3:45pm to get the anesthesiologist in, set up, and get the epidural in. It didn't take long before I started to get some relief from the pain, but I also got extremely itchy all over. It took them approximately an entire eternity to get me some benedryl, and once they did I fell asleep and slept for most of the hours of 5 and 6pm, waking up sometime in the middle to ask for another dose of benedryl (which never did fully take away the itching).
About 7pm, I started to feel a little pressure/pain with some of the contractions, so I let them know and we agreed it might be time to check me again. Lo and behold, I was 10 cm! My midwife doesn't feel that just because the cervix is complete that you have to push, so she told me just to hang out and let her know when I got the urge to push, and then we'd start.
So, by about 7:50, I could feel him coming down and a vague urge to push, so I called them in and tried some pushes. The urge wasn't that strong yet, but I just followed it and didn't really push any harder than I felt like I needed to. By 8:05ish, they started to tell me they could see his scalp and I had them get a mirror so I could see what I was doing. I took one contraction to get my bearings and get him crowning a little. With the next contraction, he started at barely crowning and I just pushed slow and steady and breathed through it, and his head slowly emerged, and at the end of the contraction they told me to give one more hard push to get his shoulders out, and the rest of him followed with no delay.
Nitai Theodore B. was born on 11/13/07 at 8:10pm, weighing 9lb 7oz, and was 20" long.
I felt virtually no pain through the whole thing, but I could still feel what I was doing, so aside from the itchiness, it was the perfect epidural (and I'm so glad, because I had the epidural from hell last time). They set him on my stomach while we waited for the cord to stop pulsing, as the cord was too short for them to set him on my chest. They asked if they could take him to get cleaned up, weighed, etc, and I told them to go ahead and get that done while I delivered the placenta. They called out his weight and length, as well as a few other measurements like his head and chest circumference which I've forgotten. They also said he was a bit on the hot side so they bathed him to cool him down. I was losing a lot of blood at that moment so this part is just a bit hazy, although they didn't declare me to be hemorrhaging. Once it slowed down, they checked me out to see if I needed any stitches, but miraculously I didn't, so they got me all cleaned up and pretty soon I was nursing him and getting ready to be moved to the recovery room.
Nursing is going well, and my milk is just finally starting to come in. I'm feeling pretty great, a little tired because he's been hungry all night and not satisfied with my milk not being in yet, otherwise just a lot of bad menstrual-like cramps when nursing, and, TMI, but I'm hardly even bleeding and not swollen at all. My worst injuries seem to be my bruised knee and pulled groin!
DH and I as we left the house headed to the hospital:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0639Small.jpg
Nitai:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0274Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0281Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0285Small.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0287Small.jpg
Meeting for the first time:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0722Small.jpg
Heading home:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...N0298Small.jpg
At home with big sister:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9..._0914Small.jpg
