As most know, I had a terrible pregnancy, I was sick every week and generally felt pretty crappy throughout. Because of my constant nausea, I basically ate nonstop which in-turn made me gain quite a bit of excess weight. All for a perfectly healthy happy baby boy.
My estimated due date was April 29. I was put on bed rest almost exactly one month prior to that because of pregnancy induced hypertension and a 9 pound weight gain in one week...The reason for bedrest was to hopefully prevent further hypertension which can lead to seizures. I was on the verge of pre-eclampsia because my I had little to no proteins in my urine. (I even got to do a fun 24 hour urine collection [don't drink from the big orange jug in the fridge]). Since I didn't have proteins in my urine, my doctor chose to hold off on induction until 41 weeks despite my begging him to do it earlier!
I spent the weekend drinking raspberry tea and eating pineapple as I heard those both helped people go into labor. I wasn't able to take long walks because of my bedrest. Needless to say, nothing helped!
So we planned the induction for Tuesday, May 5. We went to the OB department somewhere between 530 and 6 that night if I remember right. The plan was to get cervadil a medication that softens and ripens the cervix so that when the contraction medication is started the next morning there is a better chance for delivery. However, when the doctor checked me I was further dilated that he thought I would be so cervadil would not be necessary. This meant pitocin, (aka pit) the contraction starting medication would be started. I was definitely not looking forward to this as I heard about how awful it was. Well, those that said it was awful were not joking. I went from tolerable, excited to I can't stand this. I got a couple doses of fentanyl which made me feel drunk more than anything.
On top of it all, I was having terrible back labor. And more good news (not) from the doctor was that he was turned the wrong way, "sunny side up" as they say. Meaning, rather than being face down which is much easier to deliver he was face up.
Knowing these things and because my blood pressure still wasn't cooperating, the doctor, nurse and I decided it would be best to go ahead with the epidural. I was frustrated because I really thought I would be able to do it without one but with the pit and my blood pressure this was the best option. Since it was the middle of the night, the nurse anesthetist would have to be called in. While waiting, the nurse suggested to try a walk. I was contracting about every 2-3 minutes I think.
Joel, the nurse anesthetist arrived and started my epidural. Luckily we know him from hanging out with him a few times. He was awesome and did a great job. My epidural helped considerably and I was able to get a couple hours of good sleep...until about 3:00 or so. Then I could feel my contractions back in full force. I thought to myself this is crap, the epidural is supposed to help the entire time... The nurse checked me and I was already dilated 9 and pretty well effaced. She called the doctor to come. Joel came back in and gave me a bolus of lido-cane through the epidural which helped a little bit.
When the doctor got there and checked me again and they pulled out the stirrups is when the whole "holly shit, I'm having a baby" thing hit me. A little while into it, I told the doctor I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't really know what I was expecting, that he would be like okay, we'll do a c-section. but he was awesome and coached me through it along with my nurse. And my wonderful husband. :)
In the end, I pushed for about 45 minutes and Henry was born healthy at 4:22 AM. 7 pounds 14 oz and 20 inches long.
Later, I'll do an over view of our first 3 months as new parents.
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