Dominic's Long Birth

This is a little late in coming but I thought it would be nice to share.

I was due on April 19th and the day came and went. My doctor set our induction date for April 22nd at 5a.m. I wasn't crazy about having to be induced but I was making no progress on my own and they were worried that the baby was getting too big.

When I went into the hospital on the 22nd I was admitted and hooked up to an IV and Pitocin. The checked me and found that I was still only 1cm dilated ( I had been for a few weeks) and the baby was still pretty high. The nurse wasn't too happy about having to induce me since my body just wasn't showing that it was ready. Once I had been on the pitocin for several hours one of my doctors came in to check me and found that no progress had been made and I wasn't even feeling the contractions that the pitocin was producing. She told us that the baby was going to be too large for me to deliver vaginally and I was going to need a C/S. I told her that is definitely not what I wanted and she said I could labor for 24 hours and then decide. I was pretty dissapointed to hear right away that I wasn't going to be able to deliver the way I wanted to.

The doctor decided to stop Pitocin and insert a cytotec pill. The cytotec is used to ripen the cervix. I had to lay on my side for 1 hour after taking the pill and they then let me up to start walking. I paced up and down the hospital halls as long as I could. After 4 hours they inserted yet another cytotec pill in hopes of getting things moving. I finally started have slightly painful contractions around 4 that afternoon. Nearly 12 hours after I was admitted! They let me eat some soup since I was not in heavy labor and we tried to get some sleep. Well the hours just went on and on and I was having uncomfortable contractions, but nothing I couldn't handle. I wasn't able to fall asleep though. Around midnight I lost my mucous plug and from that point on my bloody show kept coming..and coming! It wasn't a very nice feeling..especially since you can't wear underpants...ick!

I decided to move into the rocking chair in our room to labor and maybe try to sleep since the hospital bed was so uncomfortable. I stayed there for a few hours and my contractions really started to get painful to point that I actually had to breathe through them. This was around 3a.m. The nurse came in and decided that I was laboring well enough to put me back on the pitocin....24 hours after I had been admitted into the hospital!! I just wanted to cry. I hadn't slept since the night before I came, hadn't eaten but a little bit of soup...I was exhausted already and I still had a long time to go! But oh well...that's why it's called labor! So they started the Pitocin back up and increased the dosage every hour. I kept declining to be checked because I wanted to avoid the added discomfort and I didn't want to be let down if there was little progress. Around noon I finally let them check me and found that I was 3-4 cm dilated! Oh boy....we knew we were in for the long haul! I kep trying to sleep but just couldn't because I was so uncomfortable from the hospital bed, blood pressure cuff, IV..My FI thought that was funny that everything BUT the contractions was making me uncomfortable. Around 3p.m. My contractions were definitely bad enough that I decided to finally get the epidural. It wasn't bad at all and it provided a nice relief from the back labor I was having. Before they were able to insert my catheter my water broke! (Of course, I thought I had peed!!) There was meconium in the amniotic fluid so they brought in the neonatologist to explain what would happen after the birth. By 5 p.m. I was 10 cm and ready to push! I was very sick to my stomache and threw up several times while I was pushing. Since there was meconium in the waters there were over a dozen doctors, nurses, etc in the room waiting for the baby to come out. I pushed from 5p.m to 7:53p.m when my baby boy was born. Yes, almost 3 hours! His big head (haha) got stuck behond my pelvic bone so that's why it took so long.

Dominic Charles was born April 23rd at 7:53PM and was 8lbs 8oz and 20inches long! We didn't get to see or hold him right away because they needed to work on him because of the meconium, but he ended up being just fine. While they worked on him my doctor stiched up my 2nd degree tear. When they brought him over to us my FI and I just smiled and cried tears of joy. It was the most wonderful moment of my whole life.

 It was worth every moment of the incredibly loooooong labor! He's such a wonderful baby and we are treasuring every moment we get to spend with him.

Dominic at 1 month