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3rd baby but longest hardest labor yet!
I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible because I am tired! 
So at @ 2000 on the 17th John and I went to our bedroom to watch Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t before going to bed early since we had to be at the hospital at 0600 for my induction. I had only been lying there for about 20 minutes when there was a sudden "wetness". I didn't think my water had broken because it wasn't much and I hadn't been having any real contractions, just what I thought were Braxton Hicks. But when the wetness continued I called the doc and they said to go to the hospital and get checked. We got to the hospital about 2130. As soon as the nurse checked me it was obvious my water had broken. Apparently baby's head had been acting as a "cork" until then. But I was only 2.5cm and 80% effaced! So they got me in a room and all set up. I was having contractions but again not very painful and still irregular. The contractions finally began getting painful and after several hours they checked me again...only 3cm and still 80%! I was a bit upset by that because I had been having regular painful contractions for over 5 hours and no progress. The doc decided to move my Pitocin up to 5am and I asked that I get the epidural at the same time because I knew I was sensitive to pitocin and would be exhausted already. They started the Pitocin just after 5 and expected it to take about 30 mins to kick in...15 minutes later I had gone from 3cm to 5cm and 90% effaced. 15 mins after that I was rapidly descending into agony. By the time the anesthesiologist got there (at @ the 30 min mark) I was in extreme pain with contractions one after the other and was shaking violently. They got the epidural in and I was so HAPPY! Thank God for medical science. Those contractions sucked! There was almost no "build up" they would just spike straight vertical....insane. Anyway they let the contractions work and about an hour later I was ready to push. They had me do a couple of "test" pushes to make sure that I was moving baby ok and such. They also noticed that baby's heart rate was plumetting with each push.So they told me I would push with every other contraction. Luckily they had the heart monitor volume turned down but I could see that people were concerned...when I pushed no one was looking at me they were all watching the monitor behind me. I found out later that Kat's heart rate was dropping from a normal 145 range to the low 40s with every push. She was born the cord wrapped VERY tightly around her neck but the doctor was able to get it off quickly and just like with the pushing as soon as the pressure was removed her heart rate and everything stabilized. So after about 14 hours total labor (12 at the hospital) baby Kat was born on June 18th at 0953, weighing 8lbs. 5oz. and 21 in long. Her APGAR scores were 9 and 9.
So at @ 2000 on the 17th John and I went to our bedroom to watch Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t before going to bed early since we had to be at the hospital at 0600 for my induction. I had only been lying there for about 20 minutes when there was a sudden "wetness". I didn't think my water had broken because it wasn't much and I hadn't been having any real contractions, just what I thought were Braxton Hicks. But when the wetness continued I called the doc and they said to go to the hospital and get checked. We got to the hospital about 2130. As soon as the nurse checked me it was obvious my water had broken. Apparently baby's head had been acting as a "cork" until then. But I was only 2.5cm and 80% effaced! So they got me in a room and all set up. I was having contractions but again not very painful and still irregular. The contractions finally began getting painful and after several hours they checked me again...only 3cm and still 80%! I was a bit upset by that because I had been having regular painful contractions for over 5 hours and no progress. The doc decided to move my Pitocin up to 5am and I asked that I get the epidural at the same time because I knew I was sensitive to pitocin and would be exhausted already. They started the Pitocin just after 5 and expected it to take about 30 mins to kick in...15 minutes later I had gone from 3cm to 5cm and 90% effaced. 15 mins after that I was rapidly descending into agony. By the time the anesthesiologist got there (at @ the 30 min mark) I was in extreme pain with contractions one after the other and was shaking violently. They got the epidural in and I was so HAPPY! Thank God for medical science. Those contractions sucked! There was almost no "build up" they would just spike straight vertical....insane. Anyway they let the contractions work and about an hour later I was ready to push. They had me do a couple of "test" pushes to make sure that I was moving baby ok and such. They also noticed that baby's heart rate was plumetting with each push.So they told me I would push with every other contraction. Luckily they had the heart monitor volume turned down but I could see that people were concerned...when I pushed no one was looking at me they were all watching the monitor behind me. I found out later that Kat's heart rate was dropping from a normal 145 range to the low 40s with every push. She was born the cord wrapped VERY tightly around her neck but the doctor was able to get it off quickly and just like with the pushing as soon as the pressure was removed her heart rate and everything stabilized. So after about 14 hours total labor (12 at the hospital) baby Kat was born on June 18th at 0953, weighing 8lbs. 5oz. and 21 in long. Her APGAR scores were 9 and 9.
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