Birth Story!!! FAST, epi-free induction

Celtic Ember · July 2010

HI everyone!

Just wanted to post that Alexander Johnathan made his appearance on Monday, July 19 at 9:15pm. He was 7lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long.

I was scheduled for an induction on Monday at 41 weeks, and had to wait for my hospital to call to say they had a bed. Well, the phone rang at 7:30 am- and it was the hospital- but they had called the wrong patient!! I went back to sleep only to get woken up again at 10:30, they had a bed and I was to come right away.

Made it there for 11 am, and they had three women come in - all in labour- so they didn't start the cervadil until 2:05. I was closed, 1cm dialted, and long. They kept me until 4:30 to make sure I was tolerating it ok, and considering I was already starting to contract every 3-4 minutes for about 30 seconds, they counted it as a conditional success and sent me home with instructions to come back if the pain became too much or the contractions hit the 5-1-1 rule.

My friends drove me home since DH wasn't home from work yet, and we had just enough time to eat some frozen pizza before the contractions started coming 2-3 minutes apart for a minute long. I was back at the hospital, luckily 10 minutes away, by 6:00- we called DH and told him to come straight to the hospital instead of heading home from work.

They checked me again and discovered that I was 3 cm dialated and fully effaced- I had gone from no effacemnet to 100% in less then two hours. I gratefully took the offered morphine, they admitted me, and ordered my epi. I had never, ever planned on a med free birth.

Well, by the time they got me to an L&D room about 8:00 pm, the contractions were starting to pile on fast and furious, and they promised me a bath and birthing ball to labour with until the anesthesiologist came- they were in the middle of a c-section and figured they had lots of time. DH had finally arrived after taking the time to take a shower and change at home- he didn't want to meet his son smelling like work!

8:45 rolls around, they check me again- and discover that I'm 8.5 cm, my water is bulging, and the doctors are running in. The anesthesiologist was still willing to give me my epi- if I could sit up- and that proved to be impossible. By 9, I was fully dilated, 9:05 my water broke on it's own, and by 9:15, Alexander was lying on my tummy as they sewed up a single second degree tear.

I haven't needed any painkillers, and I talked us out of the hospital last night. Other then some sleepy baby issues (he doesn't like to wake up to eat!) we're doing fantastic.

etessler · July 2010

Congratulations!!! And that is so awesome you were able to go med-free, especially with the induction, even if it wasn't the intention! Good for you mama!