this isn't how it's supposed to go

So I'm getting induced instead of going home for bed rest. Not how I envisioned my day going when I woke up this morning. I wasn't dilated although I was having some really mild contractions. The plan was to start me on pitocin and gradually increase it & just wait and see what happens. This was about 2 pm. Thankfully my doctor let me eat one last meal before things got too underway since I ate a light breakfast at about 8:15. Turkey sandwich, salad and some fruit. I'll take it. After this tray is gone it's only water.


Contractions came and went mild to moderate the rest of the afternoon and into early evening. I was able to practice my slow paced breathing we learned in class, but it really wasn't that bad. At least not until 9-ish that night. It seems like all of a sudden the pain was off the charts and no kind of breathing was going to help get me through them. That and the slow progression of pain I had experienced before was gone. These contractions just showed up in full force. They started coming more often and worse than the last one. In between, what should have been my rest period, all I could do was shake. No resting. One of the nurses finally decided to check my dilation - 2 big centimeters. So, it took 7 or so hours to progress by one cm. Around 10 my doctor broke my water. Holy cow! That on top of unbearable contractions on top of anything else you can think of. It was then that Ryan and I decided I would do the unthinkable - get an epidural.


Why the unthinkable? I really wanted a natural childbirth. I wanted to know what labor and delivery were like, but more importantly I wanted to know that I could do it. But, with only 2 cm dilated and who knows how much longer this'll go on, we figured it was more important to be able to relax just a bit and be able to push whenever that time came. Plus, relaxing may help get my blood pressure to come down just a bit (which was getting checked every 10 minutes now and always very high). So, there was a real medical benefit to the epidural which is the only way I was able to be okay with that decision. Even now (a few days later) I still wish I didn't have to have that done, but I am mostly okay with it.


Epidural in and starting to feel a little better. Thankfully (and I really mean this) I could still feel all the contractions and they were uncomfortable. Some were even borderline painful which made me happy. If I was going to have to get anesthesia, I did not want to be so numb that I couldn't feel anything. So, this is how things stayed throughout the night. I was able to actually rest between contractions and catch a quick nap occasionally as well. Still getting my bp checked regularly and it stayed high all night. For each diastolic reading that went over 90 the machine would beep. This beep can't be heard at the nurses station so we had to wait until either a nurse came back in to check on me or I had a reading lower than 90. Guess which happened first. A note about my nurses - most were really great and a few were good. My labor & delivery nurses were outstanding.











By the time the sun was up on friday morning my dilation was almost complete!! Finally. I had a bit that was hangin' around, but the baby was starting to drop into place. I may have this baby afterall.