Induction birth story -- v long

Our due date was July 4^th (or 5^th, depending on who you ask) and we had an induction set for July 1^st.  Given all the pre-term labor contractions, pressure, swelling, etc., I was positive I would go early before the induction like I did with my daughter but no such luck.  Apparently June 30^th was THE day to give birth so I was asked to call in a couple of times to see if they had room.  The first two times they didn?t but finally told me to come at 9 pm. 

We arrived at the hospital a little after 9 pm and got checked in.  No progress since my last appointment ? 2 cm dilated and about 80% effaced.  The nurse inserted the prostaglandin a little after 10 pm to soften up the cervix and that?s when the fun began.  Within minutes, I started with regular long and painful contractions.  I just breathed and vocalized through them while my husband, sick with a cold, tried to sleep.  Even though I was tired, the contractions were too painful to rest at all.  Finally around 1 am, I told the nurse I was done and needed the epi.  The anesthesiologist was in the OR for an emergency c-section but my nurse was a god-send and just sent off for the back-up anesthesiologist to be called in because she thought the surgery might take some time. 

Turns out the epi was all I needed to really start labor.  Still 2 cm right before I got it and then the nurse checked me about 15 minutes after I got the epi and I?d gone up to 4 cm in that short space of time.  Unfortunately, that was about all the progress I got for a while.  The dr ordered pitocin to start up at 6 am since my contractions were starting to stall out and when he checked me at 7 am, I was only 4.5 cm, so he broke my water too.  At 8:30, I was still 4.5 cm and not much progress so we all predicted an early afternoon.arrival.  Yeah, right.  Fast forward about 20 minutes and I was telling my husband to go get our nurse to check me because I was starting to feel some pressure.  Nurse came and checked at 9 am and I was 6 cm.  Cool, progress.  Nurse tells my husband that she still thinks it will be a while so he tells his mom, who is staying with us to care for our daughter, that she can catch a nap (she didn?t sleep well the night before) and he would call her when we got close.

Um, yeah, that call came about 30 minutes later.  Suddenly I felt a LOT of pressure.  A LOT.  I paged the nurse, she came in and looked at me and said, ?Yep, you?re complete ? we?re having a baby.?  And immediately started scrambling to get stuff ready because no one predicted I?d be going from 4.5 to 10 cm in under an hour.  DH called for MIL to show up, told her to drop everything and get to the hospital as fast as she could.  The nurse was plugging in the incubator and paging for a dr, any dr, to come and catch because the baby was coming so fast, while telling me to try and breathe through it and not push.  Which was terrible because my epi had worn off and I could feel everything, including the unbearable urge to push.  It really is like the worst constipation of your life.  Small heart attack for my husband when another nurse told us that my dr had gone to another hospital to do a surgery (untrue ? he walked in a couple minutes after that) but at that point, I didn?t care who came in and caught the baby ? I just needed someone with a catcher?s mitt at the other end.

Took a whopping 14 minutes of pushing and unlike with my daughter, where I was numb and consequently quiet for all 2 hours of pushing, I was shouting up a storm until his head and shoulders came out.  And then the baby screamed up a storm on me until I just cupped his face and he looked around quietly.  It was amazing.  My MIL walked in just after I?d pushed it out so sadly she missed the big event but was glad to be there for right afterwards.  Tyler David  arrived at 9:42 am and weighed in at 7lbs 11.6oz and 19.75? long, almost a pound heavier but an inch shorter than our daughter.  I had a 2^nd degree tear in the same place as with my daughter but the dr said that meant it would likely not hurt as much and heal faster, which has been true.  And it was also true about the cramping being worse the next go round ? percocets were my friend for a while there.  It was exactly like the contractions on prostaglandin.

The usual rough first week while he started to get things sorted out and we were figuring him out, plus BFing has not gone as well as it did with my daughter so we?ve had to supplement (which is okay with me, as I?m not a good BFer anyway for a myriad of reasons and he would likely be weaned by the time I had to return to work anyway).  He?s already eating up to 3.5 oz at a feeding and is gaining weight beautifully.  And he snorts when he gets to crying which is hilarious and has led to the unexpected nn of Snortapotamus.  But all is going well and we are certainly in love with our little guy.