Lucy Jean (PIP)

ajbook · September 2013

Lucy Jean was due September 16. From the beginning I knew she was going to come later than the given EDD. I was actually hoping she would come a week-ish late because my doctor was going to be going out of town for a few days right after my due date. Sure enough, there were no signs of labor as my due date came and went. I was 0cm and 0% effaced. Before my doc went out of town we set up an induction date in case I didn't have the baby in the next week.

I was scheduled to go in to begin the induction process September 23 at 41 weeks. At first I thought this was a little early, but I later learned that inductions can take many days. DH and I arrived at the hospital around 6p Monday evening. Cervadil was started by 7:15 and the waiting game began. I woke up in the morning to contractions and everyone was happy my body took the small nudge and seemed to be going into labor. Originally, we had planned to start Pitocin Tuesday morning, but with my body contracting on its own, we didn't need to. Around 2p the contractions had noticeably fizzled out and we made the decision to start Pitocin. At this point I was about 1cm and my cervix was high and hard to reach. I was on Pitocin for 8 hours before the I was checked again. Hours of contractions later and I was at "maybe a 2". Ugh! I was very frustrated. The gave me a pain killer and let me try to sleep before we started the process again Wednesday.

Wednesday morning we started Pitocin for a 2nd time around 8am. I was told we would try Pitocin Wednesday and Thursday if needed, but if baby wasn't here by Thursday afternoon we would start talking c-section. As the meds started flowing I was happy that the back labor I was dealing with Tuesday seemed to be a thing of the past (at least for a little bit). The contractions felt much more manageable without the back pain, and I was trying to go epi free. I did a good job staying on top of the contractions and working my way through them for about 5 hours. I'm not sure what happened, but around 1-2p I lost control of my body through contractions. I was miserable. The back labor had returned and I didn't feel like I was getting any relief between contractions. I asked to be checked and was told I was at 3-4 cm. I wanted to get the epi, but I didn't want to get it if we weren't going to be having a baby that day. The nurse said if I got the epi we wouldn't stop the process until baby was born. That was all I needed to hear!

The anesthesiologist was called and I was prepped for the meds. That process was much more difficult that I expected (took him FOUR tries to get it in!!), but it was well worth it. Once it was in I was able to relax and get some sleep. I fell asleep at 3-4 cm and woke up a few hours later at 8cm. I fell back asleep for about an hour and woke up at 10 cm. My doctor was called at this point, about 10pm, and we planed to start pushing around 10:15-10:30. We ended up starting to push around 10:30. At first it was alright. The epi took away most of the pain, but I was still able to feel pressure and knew where to push. As time went on, the pushing go harder and harder. Around 12:30a I was still pushing and losing strength to continue. I didn't believe it was possible, but I was actually falling asleep between pushes. At this point the doctor suggested trying the vacuum. I agreed and 25 minutes later, Lucy Jean was here. The induction that started September 23, finally ended September 26.

I didn't get to love on her right away because she had gotten stuck and had some shoulder problems, and was also having a lot of trouble breathing due to her cord being wrapped around her neck. After about an hour I finally got my hands on her. She was absolutely perfect! We are on our 2nd day home with her and can't get enough. She sleeps well (for a newborn) and is a breastfeeding champ.

Here's a picture from her birth day

Meet Lucille Jean