My Induction Story (long, positive, PIP) XP 3rd Tri
Hi All,
I was mostly a lurker on the first, second, and third tri boards but I wanted to share my story.
Although it took my husband and I a while to get pregnant, once I got my BFP my actual pregnancy was great. I had very few side effects and no major complications. Because we used fertility drugs to conceive, I was considered high risk at the very beginning and ended up with two first trimester ultrasounds within a week of each other. One gave me a due date of August 1st, and the other was about 5 days before that, but my OB decided to stay with Aug 1st because it's all a guess anyway.
That said, she did not want me to go past 41 weeks, because it's possible that would be closer to 42 weeks for my pregnancy. So I was scheduled for an induction on Monday, August 6th, at 40weeks, 5days. I really wanted to go into labor on my own, but I had no specific birth plan besides healthy baby and healthy mom.
Baby had her own plans, and on Sunday night around 9pm my water broke. Luckily we were all packed for the induction, so we got to the hospital around 10:30. I was at 3cm, 50% effaced, but my contractions weren't getting stronger or closer together, so I was induced around midnight. After that they were very pleased with my contraction pattern.
Around 4am I was at 4-5cm, and although the contractions weren't too uncomfortable when the nurse said if I wanted an epidural this would be the best time to get it I went ahead and got it. Mainly because, since my water had broken, I wasn't really allowed to walk around much (constant fetal (and me) monitoring), or get in the shower, or use a birthing ball. So my coping skills were limited to breathing, and I hadn't slept since Saturday night.
The epidural ended up being great. My nurse, the charge nurse, my OB, and the on call OB all talked about what a great job the anesthesiologist did. I had no pain and was able to nap until about 2:30-3pm, when I was finally complete and ready to push. I pushed from about 3-3:30pm with just my nurse, but I was making no progress. It seems like my epi was too good. So they called to get my epi turned down so I could feel where to push. From 3:30-4pm I hung out, and at 4:10 I was able to feel my contractions (although not uncomfortable) and could feel where to push. I pushed a few more times with just my nurse there, and when my OB came in she felt the baby's head and she was sunny side up, which explained my lack of progress. She was able to turn the baby (that felt really, really weird) and then we kept on. Pushing was by far the hardest and most frustrating part of the process. It's made more difficult because I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything but ice chips, so it had been almost 24 hours since food and I was working so hard.
Anyway, at 5:56pm, after almost two hours of pushing, we finally got to meet our baby girl. She was 9lbs, 2oz (my family makes big babies, I was over 9lbs, as was my husband). When the baby was emerging she kept her arm next to her head, so I tore a little worse than I would have if she would have cooperated and kept her hands down. 
I have a second degree/partial third degree tear that is uncomfortable but will heal nicely.
All in all, everyone was very pleased with this delivery as a first time, induced birth. I did have to be on constant monitoring, and they did take blood from my daughter to make sure she had no infection (she was in utero after membrane rupture for longer than 18hours), but she's fine. At no point did they even say the word C-section, my LO was never in distress, and my vitals stayed fine.
I know that there are increased risks of complications with inductions, but this couldn't have gone better for me or my family. I hope for all of you facing a possible induction (elective or not) that it goes as well.
Re: My Induction Story (long, positive, PIP) XP 3rd Tri