Milly8611 Birth Story - Induction at 41 weeks

Hello! It's been a few days but finally have a chance to share my birth story!

I had a scheduled induction at 41 weeks at the suggestion of my OB. I was against an induction at 40 weeks (she asked if I wanted one, I declined) but I finally decided that I couldn't take much more! We were scheduled at 5am. I showed up at 5am and was checked in, a pitocin was started immediately. When checked, I was still 3 cms (had been for 2-3 weeks). My nurse said my DR would be in around 7am to break my water. When I asked, the nurse figured that I would probably have the baby around 3pm but it wouldn't be abnormal if I was still here when she returned for her shift at 7am. So we updated my parents who were watching my son (my mom wanted to be at the hospital when I gave birth) and my in-laws who were driving up and set to arrive around noon.

Well, baby had other plans. Around 6:30am, my water broke on it's own! The nurse said this was a great sign my body was ready to go through labor and I wouldn't need too much pit. My contractions got REALLY intense at this point, which the nurse said was normal after water breaking and she called for my epidural. In the meantime, my DR came to break my water, and was pleased it broke on it's own. She said that she'd stay in touch with the nurses and see me later. Her office is attached to the hospital so she sees patients all day then then just pops over for births! My epidural was placed about 8am and I got settled into bed after around 9am. It took a while because I was having contractions between steps. The nurse told me now would be a great time to nap for a couple hours and when I wake up around noon, she'll check me again. So I settled in..for about five minutes. I was trying to sleep and I told my husband I felt like I was feeling a lot of pressure during contractions; he reminded me the epidural takes away only 80% of labor pains so it was probably normal. That lasted about five minutes and all the sudden I felt like something was pushing against my catheter and felt like I needed to push. My husband could tell by my face and tone that this was not a drill. He called for the nurse, told her I felt like I needed to push and she was like "Um okay, I doubt it but I'll be right there" (this makes her sound bratty, she wasn't at all). Well, she came in and checked me and immediatly called for backup and looked at me and said "You are 9 cms and growing, this baby is coming now". People rushed in and started getting ready. I could hear her calling my DR and confirming four times it was me she was talking about. They got me all ready, my DR rushed in and in four pushes the baby was here at 9:56am. I was so thrilled with my "easy" labor. Baby was perfect, we immediately had skin to skin and she latched on right away. My mom rushed in about 3 minutes after the baby was born and was laughing and saying "what the hell?!". My inlaws showed up shortly after and were thrilled they didn't have to "wait around all day". Haha.

Well, then things got hairy. I was in the recovery room a few hours later and felt like I was having ALOT of bleeding and I had to pee. So I sent my in-laws out and called for the nurse. The nurse checked things out and immediately got really serious and said, everything is going to be fine but, you are hemorrhaging so it's about to get scary really fast. She called some code and all the sudden there were 4 people in the room, including a midwife. I know now that I was passing softball size clots and bleeding ALOT. My midwife had to insert her hand into my uterus (up to her elbow) twice to pull out melon sized clots. It was TERRIFYING for me and husband but it was all over within 30 minutes (the emergency part). I lost a lot of blood and had to be put on pitocin again to get my uterus to clamp down. Thankfully, I didn't need a transfusion. I was closely monitored and pretty  medicated and had to stay two nights (we only wanted to stay one after giving birth so early in the day). I am so thankful for all the nurses and midwife, they truly were amazing and took such good care of us. 

We are both doing great now except a few minor latching issues!

I'll add a picture on my phone.