paisley's birth story! (long)

akatiegrl · November 2014

I really enjoyed reading other people's birth stories before I went in, so here's mine for those who are interested! It's long because I want to remember all the details for myself too.

I was scheduled to be induced at 12am on Friday, November 7^th. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to staying up and going to the hospital at midnight. But I couldn’t wait to meet my little girl!

For the past 2 weeks I hadn’t felt Paisley moving as much in my belly, which had been making me nervous, and lead to 3 trips to the hospital for non-stress tests already. But she always looked great when we checked! On November 6^th I wasn’t really feeling her at all. By 2 in the afternoon I was concerned enough to call my doctor and ask to come into the office so we could listen to her and make sure she was ok. I just needed to make it to midnight! But the Doctors office was already closed for the day so they sent me to the hospital.

I got to the hospital around 3pm. I had contractions every 5 minutes (that I couldn’t feel), a slightly elevated blood pressure, and a small amount of protein in my urine. All of that combined was enough for them to just keep me and induce then, instead of waiting till midnight.

So they moved me back to my labor and delivery room. At 4:30 they gave me my first dose of cytotec. It was only half of a tiny little pill that I swallowed. My contractions increased a little in intensity, but they were still minor pain at best. And the frequency increased to every 2-3 minutes. By 9:30 I was still not dilated. They gave me an even lower dose of cytotec, but this time vaginally. I tried to walk around a lot to help the process.

At midnight they checked me again and I was dilated to a 1 and thinned out some. My contractions were now 1 minute and a half apart. But they were still manageable. They checked me again at 2am and I was still 1 cm dilated, which was so frustrating. The contractions were getting a lot stronger so I spent the next hour in the shower trying to relax and then rocked in the rocking chair for a little, My husband tried to sleep some.

At 4:15am I decided to try to sleep also. I was almost asleep at 4:30am when my water broke. The nurse came to confirm and help me. Then checked and saw I was still only 1 cm dilated but I was much more thinned out. At this point the contractions got really strong. I was miserable. I was having a very hard time handling the pain and was crying and moaning and clung to the railing on the side of my bed. It was terrible. I didn’t last long before I asked for an epidural and my mom. My mom and sister-in-law came over right away, but I was in so much pain there wasn’t much for them to do.

I knew an epidural was a long shot at only 1 cm but I was desperate. My doctor approved it so they called the anesthesiologist. By that time my mom and sister-in-law had arrived and I was just trying to survive till the epidural happened.

It was 6:00am when the epidural was finally in and my family was allowed back in the room. Initially it only worked on my right side, but they changed something then had me lay on my left and it evened out. They also began giving me a low dose of Pitocin.

At 10:00am they checked me again and I was dilated to 4 cm. Progress finally! They upped my epidural dose at that time.

Sometime shortly after 11:00am I began to feel my contractions again. Not a lot of pain, but a lot of pressure. I asked my nurse about it and she wasn’t really helpful. Then I called in a different nurse because the contractions were really beginning to bother me and I wanted it fixed. I was feeling a lot of pressure. She sent my regular nurse back in who was reluctant to check me, but finally did at 11:30. Much to her surprise I was completely dilated! It was time to push. Nothing was set up yet and my Doctor wasn’t there so it was about 40 minutes from there to when we actually started pushing. (Although I was kind of pushing that whole time a little because it was hard not to!)

I started pushing at 12:10pm. I was pretty nervous. My husband, mom and sister-in-law were in the room. Along with my Doctor and about 5 nurses (There were some things they were concerned about but ultimately everything was great!). I pushed for 20 minutes and then she was here! Towards the end her head was ¼ of the way out and my Doctor told me I had 2 more tries to push her out or she was going to cut me. That was all the motivation I needed and I got her out! She was born at 12:29pm. I had a first degree tear on the inside that only required 2 little stitches.

Overall everything went great! My doctor and nurses were all shocked how quickly I dilated and pushed her out, especially considering I was induced, got an epidural so early on, and I was a first time mom! I’m so thankful everything went well and she is here!