E's Birth story - pain med free induction

kmm2150

I haven't posted in a long time - hard to get to the computer - but wanted to share my birth story since so many people are induced and are scared about it.  Due to not-too-scary but still necessary medical issues with me, we decided to induce just a few days before my due date.  I was supposed to go in Tuesday night, but they called and said they were full and to come Wednesday morning - grrr.  

We got checked in about 7am on Wednesday and pretty soon I was hooked up to an IV, blood pressure cuff, monitors, and had cervadil put in - I was NOT a happy camper with all the junk I was hooked up to, but  it wasn't unbearable.  After a few hours though, I was really uncomfortable and thought that maybe the cervadil had slid down out of position - I mentioned it to the nurse and she kind of dismissed it and I figured, ok, I'm just going to be this uncomfortable until they take it out. Later, though, my doctor stopped in and checked on it and it HAD slid down - so it was making me really uncomfortable and obviously not doing its job effectively.  My doctor fixed it and I was SO much more comfortable after that.

At 10pm they took the cervadil out; I was barely dilated and 50% effaced, and was having some mild contractions/cramping.  They gave me a little time to rest and then started pitocin at  midnight.  Contractions picked up, but weren't too bad. However, sometime in the early morning I started shaking, and DH called the nurse - she said it was likely hormones kicking in, and covered me with a bunch of warm blankets and turned the pit down some and that helped.  

By about 5:30am my doctor came back in - I was now dilated between a 3-4 and she wanted to break my water. I was nervous about this because it would start the clock, but she was confident that I was making good progress and it would help.  When my water broke, there was meconium in it - this scared me, but my doctor said as long as the baby looked fine on the monitors it was ok and they wouldn't push me to hurry or do a c-section - although it did require some NICU folks be there for delivery, and meant we wouldn't get to wait for the cord to stop pulsing, or for DH to cut the cord - they wanted to deal with the baby quickly.

When she broke my water, my doctor also said that the contractions would really pick up and that if I felt like I wanted an epidural it was time to think about that - I told her no, I was fine.  Honestly, compared to the discomfort of the misplaced cervadil, my contractions were a walk in the park.  She was right though - they got much more intense after my water broke and by 7am I was feeling pretty miserable - I thought that if I was still at a 3/4, I didn't know how much longer I could go.  My nurse checked me though and I was at a 6! When she said that, I knew I could make it the rest of the way.  

Contractions continued to pick up - I moved around a lot from my birthing ball, to the toilet, and the edge of the bed and practiced our breathing technicques from prenatal yoga,, but was starting to find it pretty hard to get comfortable.  By 9:30am or so, I yelled for the nurse and DH from the bathroom that I was feeling the urge to push - I don't remember the progression here, but over the next hour and a half, contractions were on top of each other, I was breathing really loudly/moaning through them, and my body was sort of pushing on it's own - the nurse kept checking me and I was progressing really fast at that point. She started calling the NICU people and other nurses for delivery, and called my doctor telling her to be ready because I was going pretty fast.  

A little before 11am, it was time to start pushing.  I didn't feel like this hurt, but it was HARD work.  DH counted for me and encouraged me between pushes, and at 11:32am she was born - 6 lbs 6 oz, 19 inches and TONS of hair! They whisked her away to check on the meconium situation, but everything was fine and she started up a nice healthy scream.  DH had been texting our families as we got closer to pushing, so everyone was in the waiting room - after DH and I spent about an hour with LO on our own (and she caught on to breastfeeding right away!), all the family came in.

I am SO GLAD I went with out an epi - no judgement on those who use one, and like I said if I hadn't been progressing as quickly I might have considered it, but it was so nice to be able to move around, and to get in the positions I wanted to, and to feel the urge to push, and maybe most of all to be able to just get up and feel totally back to normal minutes after having a baby.  DH has been telling people I'm nuts because pretty much as soon as they got everything cleaned up I told him "that wasn't that bad, I'd do that again."  

My one piece of advice based on my experience - SPEAK UP. If something doesn't feel right, or hurts, or isn't what you want, don't just silently suffer - yes, some things are just gonna hurt, but don't be afraid to ask for something to be adjusted or changed if possible, or to say "I don't think this is right."  It's your body and you know if something's not ok.

LO will be 3 weeks tomorrow and is doing great - breastfeeding is exhausting (she is a grazer and seems to always be nursing), but it's going well and she's sleeping longer and longer at night, so I really can't complain. Thanks to everyone here for their advice and encouragement over the past 9 months!  

shotzie

Congrats!

SoonToBeMsP

Congrats!! And med free- awesome!