Having a baby (Part 1)

Its a labor and delivery post... so if you want to skip this one, feel free ... at least we know its a happy ending.

So last Friday my day began at 4 am as I woke up and headed to work to do the early morning 5 am shift. Normally I don't do these shifts anymore, but I had a 2pm "monitoring" appointment at the hospital and didn't want to use my PTO before the baby got here if I didn't have to. (Yup,  41 weeks and I was still working because my doctor was kept telling me at every appointment that my body had not started the labor process. Saturday was going to be me last day at work since i knew worse case I would be admitted Thursday at midnight for a Friday induction.)

So I worked and went to the hospital right afterwards. I checked in and they put me in the chair to check the babies fluid levels to make sure he's was still happy in his temporary home. They wanted a measurement of 5, but I had few areas that were big enough to measure and after some 4's and one 5.2 section that couldn't be replicated, she told me she was going to call my doctor, but would have me go on to the next stage of the test, the heart rate monitoring just in-case.

He was a champ there with a nice strong heart and apparently some of what I thought was him "moving" was actually a contraction or two... but it came down to fluid, and the doctor gave the go ahead to induce me. I was walked across the building after I called my husband at work, and they brought me to my room.

Since my body wasn't doing anything at this point, the doctor advised against the folly balloon and gave me a pill to dissolve under my tongue that was supposed to help thin my cervix. The side effect was contractions, so I had to be hooked up to a baby monitor and a contraction monitor and basically confined to bed for the next 4 hours or so until they came to check on the progress to give me another pill, or to try something else.

Around 7:30 pm I had shown some sign of progress, but had had too many chemical contractions to take the pill again... and while she knew it would be hard, the doctor was able to get the folly balloon in place and they started me on Pitocin. I also got an internal monitor to measure how intense my contractions were.

Before going to the hospital, I had decided I would see how painful labor was before deciding on pain medications, (I didn't need to be a hero if I didn't want to be... but I didn't need to take drugs I didn't need). So going in, I knew the only thing I would take would be the Epidural since the other narcotics could affect the baby.

I told the nice nurses my "pain" plan and told them not to offer me anything unless I had progressed enough to get an epidural. My breathing skills would just need to help get me through. The balloon fell out around 10 pm and I was 4.5 to 5 cm dilated. I hadn't really thinned much, but the balloon did its job. If I wanted an epidural, I could have it now that I was at least 3 cm along... but I didn't need it since the nurse/husband helped me move a chair closer to the bed so I could stand up next to the bed, sit in a chair or lay in the bed. That was all the movement I was allowed since I still had to be attached to all the monitors.

The next step was breaking my water... which is a very "unique" feeling since you are sitting in bed and for me, I had a gusher. My internal monitor also came out, but since I prefered not being in the bed but alternating between standing and sitting, they put back on the original monitors. 

I got checked on a few times, but things got worse. The pitocin and the chemicals made me begin to dry heave and vomit. After a couple of "episodes" I got some anti-nausea medication..... but that still didn't help and after a few more incidents around 3 am I decided it was time for an epidural. I had already been up for over 24 hours that day since I had gone into work for the early shift and I didn't need to be a hero. The problem was the anesthesiologist got called to an emergency C-Section and the back up was on the other side of the hospital helping someone else so I had to wait.

The pain got worse. My legs would involuntarily shake... I cried in between and tried to keep my breathing steady... an hour later, the anesthesiologist came in and between contractions he had me up and running seamlessly.... and I slept for 2 solid beautiful hours.