Luca Francesco born at 41w6d (repost from Oct '11)

Hi ladies!  This felt like a looooong time coming.  I was due 10/19!  At 41w5d, I agreed to an induction. We were called Monday 10/31 at 2pm and were told to be at the hospital at 4pm to start the Foley Bulb. DH scrambled home, I jumped in the shower, my mom was out on a walk with no cell phone of course. She had to sprint to get ready as we headed out the door. I was told the Foley would stay in until I reached 3cm which could take a few hours or all night. Contractions, although mild, started right away. By hour four I was at 3cm so we were packed up and sent to L&D.

Then the real fun started. I had prepared to go natural for as long as I could, hopefully to the finish line. The induction changed a lot of that, but I was still going to give it a go. We requested the one room with a laboring tub and since it was slow that night we were able to get it. I was in active labor for 19 hours and got through the contractions mostly through walking the halls, in the labor tub, in the shower, and on my hands and knees in the bed. It was EXCRUCIATING to sit on the birthing ball or in the rocker. I only tried once and promptly lost my last lunch from the agony. DH was amazing. He was by my side, quietly encouraging and praising me through every contraction. Our nurse was hand-picked by the Lord and couldn't have been more awesome and supportive.

Contractions were progressing throughout but their pattern was not the typical bell curve peak. They peaked but then were rocky on the way down. I was having 90 sec contractions every 2 min for over an hour, with no progression. So after 19 hours I had only moved from 4cm-6cm, still at 90% and -3. This was pretty devastating and I realized not only was the pain brutal but my mental power was well exhausted.

They said although my contractions were strong enough, their pattern was causing the slow progression. So I through in the towel, with lots of tears and even more disappointment. By hour 24 I had the epidural and they began augmenting with Pitocin. Thankfully I never started the induction with the Pit so it was given in very small doses at long intervals. Less than four hours later I was ready to push. I could move my legs just fine and could feel all of the pressure and could feel where they were telling me to push. I figured they had turned down the epi because I was feeling everything. To what degree, I'm not sure but it hurt like hell.

50 min after I started pushing, on 11/1/11 at 8:35pm, out came little Luca.  He was 7lbs 13 oz and 20 3/4" long.  I had two small vaginal surface tears but no muscle tears. I was flinching during the stich up and the doc said "you can feel that?" I said, "I've felt everything." I thought I was supposed too I guess.  We were given 45 min of skin to skin and then we all went up to Recovery. He was weighed and measured in our room and stayed with us for half the night. It was a circus in there so I asked to have him go to the nursery until the next feeding. That was a help because I actually got a couple hours sleep.

My brother and sister-in-law were here to see us for 48 hours and were staying at our apt. I couldn't stand the constant nurse interruption every 20 min so we asked if everything was ok if we could have an early discharge. Thankfully Luca was in perfect health and I had the all clear so we went home 24 hours after he was born. It was soooo good to be in our own home/beds!

First night wasn't too bad except what we thought was a good set-up in our bedroom proved to be a challenge. We made some changes and Luca's been sleeping/eating like a champ. So far we've been holding steady with a 3 hour schedule. My milk came in today and he's grubbing it up. We saw the Pediatrician and Lactation Consultant yesterday and all looked great.

So although I'm technically a November 2011 Mom, I've been here throughout with you all so wanted to share my story here.  Thanks for reading this saga!  Happy healthy babes to all!