At 7:00 am, as we headed to the hospital we were a mix of emotions. We would finally be able to hold our little baby boy sometime today, but at the same time, being my first birthing experience, I had many thoughts running through my head. I was being induced but was still going to at least shoot for an all-natural birth. I had been told that being induced with pitocin makes the contractions much more intense than normal, so I was quite scared. This was also my birthday.
They hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me an IV and began the pitocin, along with an antibiotic. Apparently I was already having contractions, but I didn’t feel them-it was actually this way for a few hours. Once in awhile I would feel them, but nothing strong at all, although according to the monitors, they were pretty strong. I was thinking, this is going to be easy if this is supposedly a fairly high contraction. Since I was not progressing much, (I had come in at 2 cm dilated and a few hours later was only at a 3,) and the contractions weren’t getting much stronger, the nurse had to keep upping the dose of pitocin. We were hoping to be able to give birth with as little as possible. They even gave me cake for my birthday.
By about 12:00, the contractions started getting pretty strong. Since I was still not progressing much, the nurse estimated me to give birth somewhere between 8 and 10:00 tonight. Once the contractions started getting rough, this was not very good news! I was at a point where I wasn’t getting any relief, the contractions were still coming and going but in between I would cramp up rather bad. According to the monitors, most of the contractions were off the charts; yet I was still only at maybe a large 3cm! At 1:30 they gave me the option of having a dose of stadol. This would give me a little break and some rest. Unfortunately it would also make baby drowsy, which could prolong the process a little, but there was no way I was going to make it until 8:00 or later, so we opted for that. Looking back, I regret this decision because it gave me less than an hour’s break and I felt drowsy for the rest of the process!
Something I will never forget is that all morning I had been texting friends and family to update them, and around 3:30 I had texted my best friend and she asked if the contractions hurt. All I can do now is chuckle (she doesn’t have kids,) but at the time I wanted to scream into the phone, “YES, THEY HURT!!!” Too cute!
By 3:30 every contraction was off the charts, but the nurse didn’t want to check me again since I had only been a 3 (maybe 4) before the stadol. The stadol had worn off over an hour ago and I was not getting any relief. Between every contraction I would cramp up. Some contractions were worse than others, so the less intense ones were the only relief I would get! By 4:30 I started saying I would not last until 8:00 and I needed an epidural! Bryce and the nurse encouraged me to use the birthing ball and walk around; they would also rub my back and remind me to breathe. By 5:00 I was making constant trips to the bathroom, but nothing would happen; and I would have contractions in the bathroom and on the way to the bathroom, it was horrible! Every time I would have a contraction and I wasn’t hooked up to the monitors, the nurse would ask me what “number” that one was, she finally stopped asking when all the contractions were basically just one big contraction and it was the worse pain I had ever felt! Eventually she gave up on hooking me back up to the monitors. The nurse tried to encourage me by saying that I could do it and didn’t I want to do this all-natural? I said, yes, but I didn’t know how intense they would be with the pitocin and if I couldn’t make it, then that was okay. She said she would call my doctor. She came back in a said that it would be awhile before I could get an epidural because they were all in surgery. She called my doc and he said to go ahead and check me to see where I was at (if I still wasn’t too close then I could at least have another dose of stadol.) That’s when I started throwing up. Shortly after that, while on the birthing ball, I uncontrollably started “peeing” all over, (my water had broke). She then checked me, and very suddenly started telling me to get on the bed and get ready because I was going to have a baby! Apparently he was basically on his way out already. She called the doc and told me NOT to push! At that point, I don’t remember much, it was all a blur. I think another person came in to help get everything ready, and I bet the nurse thought she would be delivering a baby. Doctor Betz finally came in, checked me and ran back out to change. The nurse just kept saying, hold on, and don’t push yet. The pain was crazy, but yet, it was so exciting, that I don’t remember it being that bad anymore; maybe it was partly from anticipation knowing I would be holding our son in just minutes. Finally our doc came in and they said, okay, on your next contraction, push. Since I wasn’t getting any relief between contractions, I no longer could tell when I was having one, so I told them they would have to tell me when to push. I felt so powerful; I was the only one that could push this baby out, so I pushed with all I had. Three pushes later, at 5:55pm, we met our amazing little miracle. At the time I didn’t realize how lucky I was that it only took three pushes, and the whole process, (from the time she checked me until the time he was out,) was only 11 minutes! To me, the actual birth was not painful at all. I tore very badly, which really frightened Bryce, but I don’t remember feeling any of it. I just remember them telling me to push and then telling me his head was out and I was shocked because it was so quick and had been so easy.
December 1, 2010-the best day of my life.
It's so nice to be able to type out your experience cause then you can read and look back on it! And in the future when you have more kids and write their stories, you can see what differences there were. And I cant believe your little man it almost 8 months old!!
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