Fast, Low-dose Epi, Awesome Birth!

MissFreo

I always enjoyed reading these stories, so here's mine!  First-time mom, but a very fast labor.

Last Sunday night I could not get comfortable in bed, I was tossing and turning until about 2am.  I went to the living room to try the couch, and started having menstrual-type cramps at about 2:30am.  I also kept having to pee every 10 minutes, but when I'd try to go, nothing would come out.  (I figured I had a bladder infection or something - great!)  Later I found out it was because the baby was so low, his head was wedged against my bladder. 

Cramps continued, at about 4:45am I was doing some stretches in my living room, still trying to get comfy...and I felt and heard a "pop!"  I ran to the bathroom just in time, as my water broke in a gush in the toilet.  Almost immediately after, I had (sorry, TMI) horrible diarrhea and basically everything kept coming out of me - mucous plug, more diarrhea, etc.  I woke DH up at this point.  It was still 10 days before my due date, so I had him finish up our hospital bags and do some last minute stuff.

Contractions started around the same time, 5am or so.  They were fairly strong and got stronger and closer together VERY quickly.  By 6:30am the contractions were at least 1 minute in length and 2 minutes apart! The hospital said to come on in, and part of me was a bit worried because I'd always read about how long the first stage of labor takes, especially for first-time moms.   Not always!

The ride to the hospital was awful, as I was in so much pain.  We got to the hospital and I was only 3.5 cms dilated (darn!)  I thought with my contractions so frequent I'd be further along.  Here's where the dilemma came in- I really wanted to wait as long as possible for the epi, my fear was that it would slow down my labor.  But my contractions were already very frequent and intense and just getting closer together...I got the epi at about 7:30am.  I got the lowest dose they could give me, and sweet relief!!! It was awesome.

With the epi I relaxed in the bed and saw my contractions on the monitor but couldn't feel them - amazing.  I went from 3.5cms dilated at about 8am to 10cms by 11:20am, all with no pain!  Loved it.  Now at about 8cms dilated (at about 11am) I could feel the epi wearing off, because I got a low dose.  I started to get a bit scared that I'd be in big-time pain during the pushing phase, but the nurses said that pushing was a relief for most people and there really wasn't time to get more pain meds because I was moving along so fast.  Sure enough, by 11:20 I was pushing.  5 rounds of pushing later and Baby Boy popped out at 12:01pm!  I was no longer numb AT ALL below the waist by the time pushing started, but it probably was for the best because I could feel what I was doing.

Baby Boy was 7lbs, 10 oz, 19.5 inches long, 10 days early, and perfectly healthy.  He is a dream baby and we are doing great!  I had a 2nd degree tear and some hemmorhoids (they started during 3rd tri) but other than that I'm really doing well.

So anyway, just wanted to give another side to the epi debate - it is so hard and confusing to decide, but when it works it is pretty great.  I remember saying to DH about the epi that if it worked (meaning, not stalling labor, leading to C-section) that it would be the best decision ever...if it did lead to more interventions, I'm sure I would have blamed myself too.  So hard to know, just do what works for you!

Anyway, good luck everybody! 

terraflora

Congratulations on your baby boy!  That's really great to hear that you had what sounds like an ideal epi.  None of the bad side effects, you could feel pushing, etc.  And it's awesome that your labor was so fast.