Successful & Quick Induction

Cgilb · March 2010

I wanted to share my story with everyone since I read them when I was pregnant and they helped ease my mind. I made the decision to be induced on my due date, March 18th. DH and I arrived at the hospital at 6:30am that day and the doctor started the pitocin drip and broke my water at 8am. I labored without any pain meds for 3 hours. The contractions started right away with the pitocin and were painful from the start, but spaced out enough that I could handle them. However, as time went by and they became closer together I had to focus just to be able to breath. I quickly could not stand the sound of other peoples voices and could no longer converse with anyone in the room because I just had to focus on getting past the pain. By 11am the contractions were on top of each other and there was no break. I asked for the epidural, which I planned on having the whole time, I just wanted to hold out as long as possible. I think I was only 4 cm dilated at this point, but I wasn't so concerned with that, I had just come to the point where I didn't want to deal with the pain any longer. The insertion of the epidural went smooth and within minutes ALL the pain was gone. I relaxed for the rest of the labor until about 2:10pm when I felt an unmistakable pressure like I had to go to the bathroom. This being my first child, I figured that I did have to go to the bathroom because surely it wasn't time to push yet. I told the nurses and they said that I would continue to feel more and more pressure. I told them it was pretty bad and they decided to check me, even though I could tell from their faces and the tone in their voices they thought I still had a ways to go. The look on the nurses face when she checked me was priceless, she said, "Oh, well, you're 10 centimeters!" I was so relieved! I was prepared to labor all day and well into the night. So, they let me labor down for about 40 minutes and at 3pm we started some practice pushes. I guess I didn't do that well for the first couple and the nurses tried to prepare me and tell me we might be pushing for a while, but after a few more good pushes they told me to stop because they had to call the doctor! At this point the pressure was so intense I was begging the nurse to just catch the baby. I assured her she could do just as good of a job, but she insisted we wait for the doctor. After what felt like forever, but was reallly something like 7 minutes the doctor arrived. I think the epidural wore off because this part was the most painful experience I've ever had and I was screaming at the top of my lungs without even realizing it, but once the baby's head was out most of the pain was gone instantly, then when her shoulders came out, it was over and they placed my little girl on my chest. The feelings were overwhelming for both myself and my DH. It was the best experience I've had up to this point in my life and was totally worth any pain or trauma my body may have gone through. I won't even try to explain the feeling as I'm sure it's different for everyone, but I can say that as a new mother you won't be disappointed when you meet your child for the first time. Annabelle Riley Pope was born at 3:45pm on Thursday, March 18th weighing 6 pounds 7 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. We're in love and life is awesome! There are pictures of our little girl in my blog (below) and we're just trying to take it one sleep deprived, beautiful day at a time.