Eli's (long) Induction Birth

I was scheduled for an induction on Thursday night, but unluckily for me, this happened to be the week of the full moon. I called my hospital at eight P.M. like they told me to do, but I was informed that they were completely full and that all inductions (medical or otherwise) were on hold. They advised us to call again in the morning, and in the morning we were told to call again at three. It went on like this until Saturday evening, when I had finally given up and taken an Ambien to help me sleep. My husband and I had just gotten settled in bed at nine when they called. As we drove to the hospital I could feel the medicine trying to put me to sleep, but I was still excited that I would finally get to meet my son.

Once we arrived, we checked in at OB triage, and we were immediately shown to our delivery room. After I changed and they stuck a saline lock in my arm, the nurse explained that we would be trying prostaglandin gel to soften my cervix first, since I was only dilated to one and 50% effaced. For six hours I did a three-hour rotation of laying in bed, walking the halls, and being monitored in bed again. This caused some pretty strong contractions that weren't dilating me at all, so my next nurse explained that now they were going to try Cervidil. They had to give me some IV medication to slow down the non-productive contractions first. She then allowed me until ten A.M. to take a shower and eat breakfast, then she placed the Cervidil in my cervix. It looked like a a skinny balloon that you would blow up to make animals with. This was a really painful process for me, as my cervix was very high, posterior, and tilted to the left, and most everyone who checked me had trouble finding it. She explained that they would leave this in for twelve hours and see if any changes were made, and then they would see where I was and determine what to do. I received it at twelve, and I had to remain in bed all day (lasting through another shift change) on monitors while it was in. I wasn't supposed to eat or drink anything besides water, but occasionally they brought me juice and allowed me to suck on hard candy when I wanted. At twelve that night the next nurse came in and removed the Cervidil, and stated that my cervix was now at a two and 80% effaced. She had orders from the doctor to administer pitocin, which they gave me at one A.M. I had soft contractions at this point, nothing that I couldn't handle, though I was a little surprised that they felt nothing like anyone had ever told me. Instead of menstrual cramps, mine felt more like gas pains, and it took me longer to even realize I was having them. They were also completely focused in the lower front of my abdomen. The pitocin didn't really bother me at this point, and I fell asleep until about seven the next morning. By this time, my contractions were a little stronger, but when checked they found that I still hadn't progressed at all. My fourth nurse explained that they were considering sending me home to try again on a different day, which made me pretty upset. It seemed like my contractions were getting fairly intense, though still nothing I couldn't handle, and they offered me demerol to help. I accepted despite my better judgment, knowing that I tend to have strange reactions to drugs and that I really didn't need it anyway. It didn't help much with the pain but made me dizzy and nauseous. I thought I would try to sleep again, and as soon as I got comfortable, I felt a strong punch/kick in my stomach and a huge gush of fluid. I thought maybe my water had broken, and suddenly my contractions were ten times stronger. They swabbed me and told me it wasn't my water, but took notice of how I was now barely holding it together through the contractions. A doctor that I hadn't met before came in to assess me, letting me know that if I wasn't dilated to at least four that I was going home. Thankfully when he checked me, I was at four and the next step was to keep raising my pitocin every half hour and hope for a baby by mid afternoon. I was relieved and already exhausted by this point, especially after not eating for twenty-four hours, and I was ready for an Epidural. It took at least half an hour for them to hunt down an anesthesiologist, but once he got to my room he didn't take his time. I have a low tolerance for pain, and even though having the lower half of my body numb felt pretty strange, it was also the most wonderful sensation to my overtired body. He stuck my back with three needles, two to numb me and one for the medicine, but I only felt the first one. Afterward they turned me on my side and propped my leg up with what they called a peanut, which is in fact a peanut-shaped object that sort of looks like a birthing ball. I could still move my toes and had a bit of feeling in my legs, but all the pain was gone and I was ready for another nap.

Around twelve P.M. the numbness had begun to wear off on my right side. I received another dose of the medicine before they checked me, and my fifth nurse told me I was now at nine and a half, and that I still had a lip of cervix in the way. Close to two my doctor arrived, checked me one last time, and said it was time to have a baby. I could feel the contractions at this point--pain and intense pressure in my lower abdomen--even with the epidural. They prepped my room and bed in roughly fifteen minutes, and after fifty minutes of pushing my son was born. They sat him on my stomach to clean him off, and he looked like a pretty healthy little boy! He cried right away and didn't stop until long after they were done messing with him. He weighed 8lbs. and 1oz. and was 21in. long. Afterward I remembered that everyone told me the pain stopped when the baby was delivered, but it didn't really stop until the placenta was out too. I didn't realize it until much later, however. My doctor stitched me up right away (I had second degree tearing), and soon he left us to be alone with our little boy. He was born at 2:45 P.M. on Monday, February 21st, perfectly healthy and beautiful.

This is Elias Sora Lee, Eli for short. We love him very much. :-)

If you read this far, thank you for letting me share! I really wanted to write a detailed story about the induction for anyone who is curious about how they work. Although it was a long process because my cervix was in a horrible condition beforehand, it wasn't a bad experience, and it had a wonderful outcome!