My not so natural birth, but a thank you for all your wisdom...

First off, my natural birth, did not happen as planned, at all, but I wanted to post my experience here for two reasons: one, to thank all of you for keeping me informed and feeling "in control" when I felt like I was losing any bit on control I had; and two, in case others may learn from my experience. LONG story.

At 36 weeks 5 days I was sent to the hospital for early induction for low fluid. After speaking with the doctor on call and receiving iv fluids and drinking a lot of fluid, I talked them into releasing me on bed rest and increasing my fluids. Every two days I would go back for monitoring. I was drinking over 200 oz of water a day in addition to other liquids. The following week my doctor was still alarmed my fluids were on the low side of normal. For three and a half week I would go in for daily, then reduced to thrice weekly NST and AFI testing.

I was told that no matter what at 41 weeks I would be induced; however at 40 wks 3 days although my NST appeared good, my fluids had dropped from an 8 to a 4 in two days. U/S confirmed my placenta showed calcification and no matter how much fluid I drank, the baby needed to come out. 

After checking into the hospital I was honest with the midwife about my desire for natural, or as natural a birth as we could do at this point. After weighing all the options, I was only 1 1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced with baby at -3. I knew my odds weren't excellent for successful induction. Her suggestion was to use Cytotec. I had heard all the pros and cons on here regarding that drug and was skeptical, but knowing it was probably the most effective method that still allowed me to move around, and not be strapped to an IV, I consented to the lowest dose, being monitored once every hour and a half because I trusted the midwife I was working with and her experience. After four hours they would dose me again. However, after four hours, I was contracting too heavily for another dose so we walked an additional 4 hrs and at 8 hrs, the contractions were still too strong to dose again.

Instead of pit right away, we opted now to do a balloon and hope this would ripen and further dilate the cervix. This would be in place for 12 hrs. After six hours, they were pressuring me to start pitocin. I avoided it as long as I could be asking for breakfast, to go for a walk, to shower, etc I spoke with the midwife and she strongly urged me to start the pitocin to avoid c section down the road for lack of progression. We stated on a small dose and I was promised they would see if my body responded and could be taken off the medication as we went. I was told they wouldn't up the dose without my consent.

When the balloon was removed they broke my water. I knew I was "on the clock" for a hospital birth within 24 hrs. At this time, the shift change was not informed of my desire to be notified about the meds, because the pit was tripled in strength. After five hours of horrifying contracting (between the suddenly increased dose and breaking of water) the nursing staff finally stopped the meds because my body "could not handle it." She was alarmed the contractions were coming steadily at 60-75 seconds and lasting 60 seconds long. I was to get 20 minutes of reprieve before starting again. I asked to be checked because the baby's heart rate was already slowing and my blood pressure kept dropping sounding their alarms. 

I had not dilated at all in that five hour period. After lurking long enough on this board, I feared all the interventions would result in a c-section since I was still at 4 cm so I asked for the epidural after 28 hours of labor in hopes my body would relax enough to dilate on it's own and at least have a vaginal birth. And it did!! Within four hours I dilated fully. They were shocked when I told them I felt the pressure and urge to push to see I was in fact dilated. I'd stopped the epi meds and 30 minutes of pushing later, our angel arrived on Thanksgiving night. 

My birth experience was not my ideal, and although I keep rehashing and rethinking everything I could have done differently, I want to thank all of you for making me think logically every step of the way. It helped me to feel as though I was maintaining SOME control of my birth experience.  My baby arrived safely and that is all that counts in the long run. I still plan to lurk, and hopefully, have a more positive and natural experience the next go round, but for now, thank you all.