XP: Med Free Pitocin Delivery

andrealynn0707

I really enjoyed reading these at the end of my pregnancy, so I thought I would post mine:?At about 2:30 on Sunday morning (Nov 16) I woke up with contractions. They were about 15 minutes apart, and while uncomfortable, certainly not unbearable. They were definitely stronger than a lot of the false labor contractions I had, though. I was sleeping in between them, though, thinking they were probably more false labor and if not, I needed to rest!At about 7:30 DH got up and went to work. The contractions were still 12-15 minutes apart, so I was pretty convinced they were not the real thing, and stopped timing or really doing more than just breathing through them. This continued until about 2:30 when I went to the grocery store, just like I always do on Sundays. While driving there, I realized the contractions had actually gotten quite a bit closer together, but I decided that walking the store would do me some good. In case you didn't already think I am a little on the crazy side, I do not recommend going to the grocery store when you are in labor! Holy hell it is hard to decide between half lb and a full lb of lunch meat when you are?having?contractions!By the time I left the store, I was in some serious pain and contractions were five minutes apart. I called DH and told him he needed to come home from work, because I was pretty sure this was the real thing by this point. The OB wanted contractions to be 3-5 min apart for at least an hour before calling, so we labored at home for a while longer. At about 7pm, we called the doctor, and she said to come on in. The nurse checked me, and I was only at 3cm. That was a little hard to take, considering I was at 2cm to begin with. But, we walked around for two hours to see what kind of progress we could make. That took us to 3.5 cm. Ugh.I decided at that time to get in the tub to see if I could maybe relax a bit to speed things along. That did not end up working, the contractions in the bathtub were way worse than they were out and walking around, but not really any closer together. I think the pain was worse in the tub because of the way I had to sit. So, I got out and sat on the ball instead. They checked me again about midnight, and I was still at 3.5 cm, but almost completely effaced. It was like my cervix wanted to thin out before it would open. Either way though, they wanted to start me on a pitocin drip to get things moving. I was really on the fence about that, as it would mean being attached to the monitors all the time, and I had heard all about pitcoin contractions, and I wanted no part of that! In the end, though, I decided to go ahead and get it, as there was really no point in hanging out at the hospital if I wasn't going to progress any further on my own.?Pretty much as soon as they started the pitocin, I started having a fair amount of back labor. I tried to labor on my hands and knees, as it was more manageable that way. However, the damn monitors kept falling off of my belly in that position, and they needed to monitor the baby while I was on the pitocin. My nurse was awesome and kept trying to make it stay, but it just wasn't happening. ?By this time, the contractions were coming hard and fast, and I was having a difficult time managing the pain. At about 2am, I decided to ask the nurse to check me again, thinking that if I was at 5 or something similar, I was going to get the epidural. She checked me, and?surprise! I was?at 8cm. The relief I felt that we had finally made some progress was incredible! Plus, I felt vindicated for thinking I couldn't handle it anymore, as I had gone 4.5 cm in two hours!?I had about two of the most painful contractions I had experienced during the whole thing, and then I felt like I had to push. It was so weird, because I was only 8! When it happened again on the next contraction, I told everyone that I felt like I needed to push. My awesome nurse had sent her snotty boss nurse to go call the Dr and let her know I had progressed to 8, and had just come back to the room when I said that. Bossy nurse told awesome nurse to go ahead and check again. This was at about 2:20 am, literally 20 minutes after I was at 8!She did, and somewhat surprised, said, "She's complete!" So, they went to go call the Dr. right back and tell her to get there as quick as she could. ?In the mean time, the bossy nurse kept telling me to bear down but don't push until the Dr. arrived. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I just went ahead and pushed. At about 2:50 the Dr finally got there, and on the next push, she was crowning. Unfortunately, she was like that for about 10 minutes, as I just couldn't push hard enough to get her head through. The Dr. asked me if she could make a small cut to make it easier, and I told her to go ahead. While she was getting her stuff together to do the epi, I got a really strong contraction, and just pushed her head right out! The rest of her body just slid right out on the next contraction- I am not even sure that I pushed at all. Emily Jean was born at 3:05 am on Monday, November 17th. I ended up with first degree tearing in three directions, but that seems to be mostly healed up now.?In summary, I had 20 hours of early labor, 2 hours of active labor, 20 minutes of transition, and 45 minutes of pushing! ?

superdeejayanna

kick ass!

Hyfagal

What a doll! And good for you. : )