Birth Stories
mirdamae03
member
XP: Rhett's induction birth story
mirdamae03
member
At around 7:30 on Tuesday night, my DH and I headed over to the hospital for my induction due to pregnancy induced hypertension, swelling, and headaches (never diagnosed pre-e though). After getting checked in and situated, the nurse took my blood, started an IV, checked me (still 2 cm, 50% effaced, and high), inserted the Cervidil, and started me on monitoring for 2 hours. After the 2 hours were up, we had an hour until midnight that I was allowed to eat. I had no idea they would let you eat with an induction once you were there so we hadn't planned on it, but who knew how long it would take the next day so DH got me a hot pocket out of the vending machine. By this time my Ambien had kicked in and I only vaguely remember shoving down the food and then falling asleep shortly thereafter. I woke up at 3:30 feeling some painful contractions and needing to use the restroom. As I waddled my way into the bathroom I started leaking. At first I thought it was just urine, but after about 15 minutes in the bathroom I finally came to the conclusion that my water had broken. The nurse came in at 4:30 to get DH and I up and seemed very skeptical that it was really my water breaking. She inserted the test strip to check, and sure enough I was right. I thought surely with the Cervidil in for several hours, painful contractions annnnnd my water breaking I must have made some progress.... but nope, I was still the exact same as I was when I got checked the night before. I was a little discouraged and not sure the induction would be successful, but I tried to stay optimistic. I would meet my LO that day, regardless of the method to get him out, and that helped me stay (relatively) calm.The Pitocin was started around 5:30, and holy moly they weren't kidding that it's a bit painful. Even starting on a low dose and gradually increasing, it was hard for me to remember to not tense up and to use my breathing techniques through each one. I'm not sure if my water breaking so early on in the process made the contractions that much more painful. At 8:30 I caved and requested the epidural. The anesthesiologist hadn't arrived to the hospital yet, so my nurse recommended Stadol in the meantime to "take the edge off". It took the edge off all right, but it also made me hallucinate and I felt strange on it. I wouldn't really recommend it. Once the anesthesiologist arrived and got the epi in, I was a whole new woman.Labor was a breeze after my epi and I progressed pretty quickly for a first timer from 4 cm, 100% effaced at 8:30 to 8-9 cm at 1 pm but still pretty high. I also had a thick lip of cervix on the right side that needed to move before I could make it to 10 cm and ready to go. The nurse had me roll to my side, thinking that might speed up the process and get the lip moved. Instead, my LO decided he didn't like that and his heartbeat dropped very low, very fast. A few panicked pages to the nurses station requesting backup and the assistance sprinting to my room had my DH and family terrified. The nurses and my Dr. determined it was a rapid drop in my high blood pressure that caused the distress, so they had me go back on my back, gave me some oxygen and medicine to increase my BP just enough to get his heartrate up to normal. That did the trick, thankfully.Since I had to stay on my back, it took a while to make any more progress. Once I had made it to 9.5 cm with a thinning lip (about 3 hours later), my nurse had me do some pushes to see if we could move it. Sure enough it did, and about 30 minutes later we started pushing him down bit by bit since he was still at +1 station. Getting him down took about 5 minutes, and the nurse grabbed my Dr. and the fun began. My epi had worn off most of the way, but I was glad because I could really feel when and where to push. At 5:38 pm, 4 or 5 contractions later (20 minutes of total pushing), Rhett Andrew came into this world, 10 days before his due date, wide-eyed and alert weighing 6 lbs, 10.7 ozs and 18.5" long. It was the most amazing and emotional experience.He was a lot smaller than I had imagined him being, but perfect nonetheless. He eats like a champ, and is still adjusting to life on the outside. My DH and I are so in love with this little guy.
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