My team green birth story (a little late)

moosebaby2011 · January 2012

I was without internet access for a couple of weeks, so I'm a little late posting this. My team green baby ended up on team blue! Owen Harry was born December 16th at 11:18 pm. My EDD was 12/15, and because I had gestational diabetes my doctor wanted me to be induced before 41 weeks. I didn't see any reason to wait, so we elected to go for the induction on the 16th. At that point I was already 3 cm dilated and about 70% effaced, so my doctor ordered a Pitocin only induction. The induction was scheduled for 8 am, but because they were very busy in L&D that day they didn't actually start me until about 11:00 am.

I was really nervous about being induced, largely because I had heard that labor tends to start very quickly and is very intense. This did not end up being the case with me. According to the monitors I was having contractions every minute or two, but they were not actually strong enough for me to feel most of them. The only discomfort I had was because I was hungry! By 5:00 pm I was still at 3 cm so the doctor asked if they could break my water. I agreed, and went from feeling very little to feeling very intense contractions in a short amount of time. I opted to have an epidural around 6:30 and (despite nearly passing out while it was being placed) I found it to be extremely helpful. Breaking my water did the trick, and at 8 pm I was dilated to 8 cm. Around 10:00 pm I started feeling painful contractions again, and so the doctors checked me to see if they should top off the epidural. It turned out that I was fully dilated and it was time to push! After how slowly things had moved all morning it was a really big surprise to me that things were moving along so quickly after breaking my water.

After about an hour of pushing, Owen arrived at 11:18 pm. He was 7 lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long. He is named for two of his great grandfathers, and also for my dad. I cannot believe how much I love him.