Alexander Scott's birth story- PIP-

darmca · May 2011

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd let everyone know how it went.

Thursday I noticed my hands were puffy and I knew my blood pressure had been high and we were monitoring it (no protein so not pre-e). I decided to go to the pharmacy down the street and check it on their machine- it was 137/96 so I stopped at the midwife's office which is almost next door and my midwife decided she needed to consult with an OB (standard for blood pressure) who ordered a non-stress test and consultation with him. Since I was already term he decided it was safest just to induce me the next morning. While it wasn't what I had planned I was getting really depressed, stressed and uncomfortable and decided to go for it.

I got to the hospital at 6:30 AM they started me on the pictocin (I was only 1cm dilated) at about 7:30. The doctor showed up at about 10am and broke my water. It took until about 5:00pm to get me up to 4cm dilated and active labor. My midwife showed up at about 6:30 to play a support role (thank God- she was so helpful while getting through labor and the doctor was only there the last 15 minutes). I had laughing gas (which I loved I was high as a kite and it felt like a reward for breathing through contractions) and fentanyl (the fentanyl was mostly to help me relax enough to dilate) but didn't get an epidural (totally do not regret).

By about 12:20 I was 10cm and could start to push- after only about 30 minutes of pushing and a lot of groaning out came my little boy- 7lb,13oz and 20.5inches long (growth ultrasound predicted he'd be gigantic and was really wrong). I started to tear so the doctor did a small episiotomy to help him come out.. By 3:30 we were in the ward room and he didn't really sleep except from 6am-7:30am. The doctor wanted us to stay in the hospital tonight (standard procedure) but discharged us to the midwife today who said we could go home and we left the hospital at 3:30pm, about 14 hours after he was born (best decision, so comfy and quiet at home). He's been breastfeeding like a champ (only once I relaxed and stopped trying to force feed him when he wasn't hungry) and I got in a 2 hour nap while DH watched him.

The midwife said I did amazing and next time if my blood pressure doesn't go up at the end I would be an ideal candidate for the home birth I wanted. She's calling to check on us tomorrow and stopping by on Monday (she and the doctor both saw us in the hospital today).

I'm sore, nowhere near as tired as I should be and just going to put him to bed. Here's a pic my mom posted on facebook of her and Xander right after birth- we have more on the camera that I haven't moved over to the computer yet.

Sorry so long but I know people have had questions about doing inductions as intervention-free as possible so I thought some detail might be nice. Goodnight to everyone! (and please ignore name badge in sig. DH wanted last minute middle name change).

katieandjeffie · May 2011

Congratulations! And thank you for posting this. I go in for induction tomorrow morning and I had planned on a med free natural birth. So, hearing that you were able to do it without the epi is really encouraging.