Gene's Birth -- Part 1

At my 40 week appointment on the 17th, my doctor began speaking to us about the possibility of induction.  He left the choice up to us since I wasn't yet 41 weeks.  It gave Michael and I a lot to think and talk about that day.  I still hadn't made any progress and I could barely walk up the stairs.  Did I want to stick it out another week and see if my body would finally go into labor on its own.  Did I want to wait a week only to be induced anyway?

Ultimately we decided to go ahead and be induced.  At 6:30 Monday evening, I spoke to my doctor and he scheduled my induction for Tuesday morning.

I received my first dose of Cervidil around 8am.  My doctor stopped by that evening just before 8pm and removed the first dose.  I had progressed to 1cm and had been having mild contractions for most of the day.  After that I had a two hour break before my second dose of Cervidil was inserted.  I'd been having some back pain, so during the break I took a shower and let the hot water spray me in the area that hurt.

Around 1am, I called for the nurse and asked about possible pain relief.  I'd been saying my entire pregnancy that I wanted to have a natural labor and delivery, but I'd been awake for nearly 24 hours and the pain in my back was getting worse.  I wanted something so that I could try and get some rest before delivery.  To determine my pain relief options, the nurses checked to see how much progress I had made.

Imagine my surprise when the nurse announced that the Cervidil needed to come out because I was dilated to 4cm!  The medication had put me into labor.  Over the next hour the pain in my lower back continued to get worse.  An ultrasound several hours earlier showed that the baby's head still had not engaged but that he was facing the wrong way, which was causing the pain in my lower back.

Around 2am I had a chat with my nurse about possibly getting an epidural.  She told me that the anesthesiologist was currently there for a c-section and that if I wanted to get an epidural, now was the time.  If I waited, I'd have to wait for him to come back to the hospital from home.  I decided to get the epidural and had it within half an hour.

The epidural did provide some relief.  My contractions weren't as intense, but the pain in my back never went away.  In fact, it continued to get worse.  I was miserable.  I wasn't able to rest and my contractions were slowly getting worse.

Around 3am, I started to feel more pressure down below.  I called the nurse who came to check me.  I was 8cm dilated.  It'd been just over an hour since my last check.  I was surprised to hear how much progress I had made since I'd had no progress whatsoever in the last four weeks.

At 4am I began feeling a lot more pressure.  The nurses checked me and announced that it was time to call the doctor.  Holy cow.  It was time to have our baby

To be continued...