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Birth Stories
PAAZwife
member
Pain med free induction (<5 hour labor)
PAAZwife
member
On Tuesday, September 16th at 39 weeks exactly I started feeling burning/pressure while walking around after having lunch. My mom insisted that I call the doctor, and they sent me to the hospital to rule out a urinary tract infection. I knew that it wasn't that and I wouldn't have even called the doctor, but I did want to have things checked out.
DH and I went to the hospital and ended up spending 3 hours there as they monitored my blood pressure, baby's heartrate, and my contractions. My blood pressure had been low/normal the entire pregnancy, but that night it was elevated. While they were monitoring me the readings were all over the place (high, low, normal) and my bloodwork showed some signs of pre-eclamsia. They checked my cervix and I was 1cm dialated. Since I had no other signs, they sent me home and told me to come back the next morning for further monitoring and testing.
Wednesday morning, I sent DH to work and asked his parents to take me to the hospital feeling confident that my bp would be back to normal. Once there, I was again admitted to the triage area with more high bp readings. The new doctor on call decided it was best to start me on the prostaglandin gels in case pitocin induction was needed and they started me on the 24 hour urine collection.
I was told that they do three rounds of the gel with two hours in between. You are monitored for an hour after they administer it and then can walk around for an hour. Around 9:00am I was given the first dose and was told that I was still 1cm. I felt regular contractions, but nothing was painful. I called DH and told him that I'd be there for the day and probably be going home at the end of the day, but that I'd like him to come be with me. He said he'd leave work around lunch time.
After an hour with that gel, I was feeling fine. I got up to walk around, but felt ridiculous walking the halls of labor and delivery alone so I just went back to lay in bed and eat the lunch that they had ordered for me. DH arrived aroud 12:30pm and my second round of the gel was administered around 1:00pm. At that point I was 2cm, 70% effaced. During this time is when I'd say I really started labor. I was having pretty strong contractions that were somewhat irregular. They were coming at least every three to five minutes, but at times they'd be right on top of one another. DH kept reminding me to breathe slowly, but I was definitely in quite a bit of pain. I kept telling him I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it without the epidural, but he really reassured me and reminded me that I didn't want it. I had been adament about it my whole pregnancy.
At the end of my 1 hour of monitoring, I was 4.5cm and 80% effaced. We walked a bit, but it was hard getting strong contractions in the hallway, so again I went back to bed. Around 2:30pm my water broke while I was laying there, and they said I'd be admitted and would be leaving with a baby. At that point I was still in the triage area with everyone only a curtain separating me from the other patients as I labored through contractions.
It took them about an hour to get our delivery room ready, but finally they came to get me around 3:30pm. They had me walk the hall down to the delivery room. I had one contraction in the hallway on the way there. Then I had three really strong contracions right on top of each other between the time I walked in the door of the delivery room to the time I got to the bed. I told the nurse I felt like I needed to use the bathroom and she told me they would check my cervix. The doctor showed up just then so she ended up checking my cervix. She looked at me and said, "You're going to push on the next contraction." I looked right back at her and said, "I'm having the baby now?" She told me I was 9.5cm, and yes we were having this baby now! I pushed for about 40 minutes and Caleb was born at 4:25pm - about 4-4.5 hours after the start of my labor.
I never even got an IV because it all happened so fast. I ended up with an episiotomy, but no tearing and everything healed well. I was able to nurse him right away in the delivery room, and he's been doing with it great ever since. The most painful part of the contractions for me was the fact that I felt like I wasn't in control of my body when they would happen. Pushing, although it was very tiring, actually felt good.
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Re: Pain med free induction (&lt;5 hour labor)