James' Easy Birth Story - Induction and Quick

I was induced on Tuesday, November 23rd.  At my 39 week appointment on Monday the 22nd, I had high blood pressure and was sent straight to L&D.  After a few hours, my BP reached an acceptable level, so they sent me home to sleep through the night.  I was told by my doctor to report back to the hospital at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.  I was so scared to be induced because I had no dialation and was not effaced at my appointment that week.

On Tuesday, we reported to L&D and after getting checked in and situated, I was started on Pitocin around 7:15 that morning.  The doctor came in at 9:00 to check me and I was a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced.  He was able to break my water at that point.  By 10:00, I was having some stronger contractions so the nurse checked me and I only 1 1/2 cm dilated.  Since I had not progressed very much, I did not want to ask for an epidural yet, so she gave me some stadol to take the edge off.  That didn't help that much and my contractions got much stronger and more regular.  It was nothing that I couldn't breathe through, however. 

The nurse came in again at 11:00.  I asked when she was going to check me again and she said probably a few hours, since I had not progressed much the last time.  My mom was in the room with me and mentioned to her that both she and my sister had quick deliveries.  The nurse decided to check me again at that point and when she did, she said "Lets get that epidural ordered.  You are at 5 cm."  They got to my room quickly to give me my epi and when they got finished the nurse checked me again and I was at 8 cm.  I'm so thankful that my mom mentioned that she had quick labors, or else, i may not have gotten that epi.  The nurse called the doctor and let him know how quickly everything was going. 

 By 12:45, I was at 10 cm. and ready to push.  After about 30 minutes of pushing the doctor came in for the final few pushes and my little man was born at 1:36 that afternoon.  I did get an episiotomy (sp?), but I am recovering well. 

The little man also had a small breathing problem for the first day - he still had some mucus in his airways.  The neonatologist told us that was more common in a C-section baby and not a vaginal delivery.  She did say since my delivery was so fast he did not get all of the mucus squeezed out of him like most vaginal babies do.  It cleared up within about 24 hours and we were all released to go home on Thanksgiving day. 

I'm sorry this was so long, but I felt like i needed to post it since it was a relatively easy delivery story.  Sometimes, I would read stories about being induced when you have no progress beforehand and they have been difficult birth stories, so I wanted to share one that was not so difficult.  Thanks for reading.