My 40 hour labor...long.

My little one was born on September 3 and here is the long birth story.

Wednesday morning about 12:30 I started having contractions that were lasting close to a minute and were about three minutes apart.  We called the doctor and he said to go for a walk and if they continued to come in, but if they spaced out then it was false labor.  So at 1 in the morning we go for a walk and they got more intense and I almost couldnt make it back to our house so we headed to the hospital.  They checked me and hooked me up to the monitor.  At that point I was a good 1cm and 70% effaced.  So they let me walk around the floor for a while and about 6 they checked me again and I hadnt changed at all.  They said I was def. having contractions they just werent dilating me so they gave me the option of getting admitted or going home.  DH and I decided to go home as I would much rather labor there than in the hospital.

So we got home about 7 and went to bed.  I was able to sleep a little, but the contractions kept waking me up.  At about noon I couldnt take it anymore and got up.  The contractions had spaced out a little but were more painful.  So DH went for another walk, but they didnt change much.  We called the doctor and the hospital and they both said to come in as I may only be feeling the peak of each contraction.  So we went in (which I didnt want to do at that point) and they checked me and I was a good 2cm this time.  I was so disappointed it took me 14 hours to dilate 1cm!  They decided to admit me and that night gave me morphine and a light sedative so I could sleep, but I would keep contracting.  It worked pretty well and I was able to sleep until about 4am when the medicine wore off.  At that point they checked me again and I was 3cm, but was in true labor at this point.  So I labored most of the morning between being in bed and walking the halls.  Around 11 I couldnt take it anymore and got in the tub which felt good for bout 10 minutes, but I stayed in there til about 12 when my doctor came to check me.  I was 5cm, 0 station and about 90% effaced!  Thank goodness we had progress!  She broke my water at that point and that was the beginning of the end for me.  Right after she broke my water I got a shot of stadol which did nothing expect help me rest a bit more inbetween contractions. 

About 1/2 an hour later the contractions got A LOT more intense and a lot closer together and I started to loose control.  Everything I had practiced about breathing and going somewhere else in my mind went out the window and the only way I could get through the contraction was to moan.  After the dry-heaving kicked in I told them I wanted in epi NOW!  I had been scared to get one and was going to try and do it without it, but at that point I just wanted to pain to go away.

About 45 minutes later the doctor came in and gave me the epi, oh what sweet relief.  If you have any question about getting one, do it.  After he gave me the medicine all I could feel was tightening (like and BH) at the very top of my uterus, I almost cried I was so happy to not be in pain anymore.  And the actually procedure of getting it put in didnt hurt either, the worst part is the numbing and that only felt like a bug bite.  Seriously it was the best thing ever.

 About an hour after I got the epi I started having sharp pain down my right leg with each contraction.  The nurse thought that my bladder might be full which would cause pressure on my nerve which was probably what was causing my pain so they said they were going to cath me.  The first nurse tries to do it and cant get it in so her mentor comes in to do it.  She looks down there and goes oh my there's the baby's head!  So she cathed me to take some pressure off my nerve and said when I felt the urge I could push.  About 10 minutes later I felt like I had to poop and they said to go ahead and push.  I got about 3 pushes in with each contraction and after about 4 sets of pushes he was crowing and they hadnt even called my doctor yet!  So they told me TO STOP PUSHING, that was about the worst part of the entire process was trying not to push.  My doctor got there about 10 to 15 minutes later (this entire time he is crowning and I wasnt allowed to push!) and she delivered him her high heels and dress clothes, it was a pretty funny sight. 

In the end we have a beautiful baby boy 8lbs 2oz 20 inches.  And since he crowned for so long I didnt tear, expect a little one on my labia (didnt know that could even happen!)