Updated: Susan Mae Birth Story Long (klbowie)

klbowie · March 2014

Short Story: Susan Mae was born March 8th at 10:54 pm after a scheduled induction. She was 7lbs 11oz and 20.5 inches and absolutely perfect!

Long Story:

Friday night, March 7th, I reported to the hospital to start my induction. Around 9:45 pm, I was still closed and the nurse inserted the cerividal. I tried to get some rest that night but with me moving all night and knocking off the monitor hourly I didn't get much sleep.

Around 4:30 am, I started getting strong enough contractions to keep me awake. Around 6:00 am they started to get pretty close together but not consistent. We text my mom to let her know and she headed over. I spent the next few hours with inconsistent contractions that were pretty manageable in pain.

At 10:00 am, the Dr. checked my cervix and after 12 hours I had only dilated by to 1 cm. This was a huge blow to my confidence. I spent the next few contractions crying through them. I was super bummed and worried about me making it to deliver baby without pain meds. The Dr. suggested we insert a foley bulb and see if it would do the trick before trying the pitocin. I was very excited about this because it was a more natural alternative.

The nurse suggested I take a hot bath while I wait to eat some breakfast before we really got into the thick of things. So I was taking a nice hot bath when my DH informed me that the Dr. had to do a C-section soon so I had to get out and speed eat my breakfast or otherwise I would have had to wait hours to proceed.

At noon the Dr. and nurse came in to insert the foley bulb. Holy hell did that ever hurt!!!! I cannot put into words the pain I felt. My cervix is extremely retroverted and was only a 1 cm so reaching it was super difficult and painful. The first attempt didn't work (my cervix kept pulling back to original place before the Dr. could insert the bulb). So the Dr. had to get the speculumn out to try again. Thank goodness she was sitting on my feet because I would have seriously kicked her. I think I actually tried once. Wow!!! Did the contractions come hard and furious after that. The first four contractions after were horrid. The Dr. stated she could not believe I did that without pain meds and that is was pretty intense.

The Dr. let me labor on my own for a few hours. I took another nice hot bath. But around 3:00pm the Dr. decided it was time to start the pitocin. When I received the news, I just said, "That is going to hurt." She said are you sure you don't won't the "E" word. And I said I don't know anymore. She stated, that I had scar tissue on my cervix so it was preventing me from dilating. She also thought we might be looking at another 24 hours labor before she arrived. At this point I was already exhausted. I was sleeping between the contractions and was on hour 11. MH and I discussed it and I decided to get the epidural. At first I felt defeated but I know its what I needed to get through.

At 4:00pm I got the epidural and the relief was amazing!!! I took a nap and was able to hang out. After about 2 hours, I could start feeling the contractions again and was breathing through them. Luckily, the nurse noticed this and informed me I could up my dose with the button. Ooops.

At 7:50, my water broke and the foley bulb finally fell out. We called the nurse and I informed her I was feeling a good amount of pressure. She checked me and I was 6 cm dilated!!! Yay.

Soon, I was feeling tons of pressure and I called the nurse to check again. She said I was 10 cm but the baby was to high and not to start pushing yet. I was livid with her because the pressure was crazy!! I just wanted to push. Right after she left I got an intense contraction and started throwing up. MH paged the nurse because the bile coming out was red and my catheter had blood in it. The nurse said it was normal and checked my again and baby was in position!!! Yay time to start pushing.

After 20-25 minutes of pushing she finally arrived!!! It was a 19 hour labor and was super exhausting and amazing. I do not regret taking the epidural and nor do I think I should have taken it earlier.