On Tuesday May 24th my husband and I checked into the hospital for my labor to be induced. I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant and ready to have my baby boy!! After check in we unpacked some of our things, I changed into my gown, and my IV was started. At 7:35 am started the nurse started my pitocin. It was started at 2ml per hr and would be upped about every 30 mins as long as my vitals and babys looked good. At 9:05 am my doctor showed up and broke my water. I had been having some contractions before then but after that they did become more regular. At this point I had went from a 3 to a 4 cm dilated. The pitocin got stronger every 30 mins. I was worked all the way up to 10 ml per hr of pitocin. By 11 am i was about 5 cm dilated. Along the way my blood pressure started to rise, it was manageable but doctor was starting to worry that it may get to high, also babys heart rate would have a few sudden peaks and drops. My doctor couldn't raise the pitocin any higher. By 1:50 pm the contractions were so frequent and strong my eyes were watering up. At this point I was still only dilated to 5cm. I should have been progressing about 1 cm per hour but by this point I had been stuck at a 4 or 5cm for over 3 or 4 hours. My nurse told me that they were going to have to get much more aggressive with the pitocin to see if my labor would start to progress. Unfortunately my body wasn't holding out well. My blood pressure jumped to 169/109! I was staying in the upper 160's over 90-100's. When she told me they really needed to up the medicine but couldn't, I had a breakdown. I started crying so hard that I couldn't breathe. My husband and my nurse tried to get me to calm down but I couldn't, I sent my whole body into shakes. Along the way baby's heart rate was still jumping everywhere which added to my stress. I knew then I was going to have to take the epidural and I was going to be further confined to my bed. Disappointment and annoyance set in and added to my hysteria. My nurse came in and told me my doctor called and gave me 2 options, I could try to keep going and get treated for high blood pressure or just take the epidural. My nurse also told me that my doctor really wanted me to try for the epidural, but couldn't force me to. Finally at 2:40pm I went ahead and offically asked for the epidural. I knew I had been stuck at a 5 for to many hours and this was getting unhealthy on me. So my pitocin was shut off for the time being and the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. I was crying and shaking the whole time, it was mostly effective on my right side, though it did work on my left as well, and it hurt so bad going in I bruised hubby's arm squeezing. Finally by 3:30 my epidural was complete. My pitocin was restarted at half the strength it ended at. My blood pressure immediately dropped and for the most part baby's heart rate stabilized. When my doctor came up to my room to check me at was about 5:30 she told me then I was about a 6 cm dilated and that the baby was still high in the birth canal. She placed a monitor in side me to see if my contractions were strong enough and the nurse earlier had to place a monitor on the babys head. The external monitors were not picking things up well. My doctor said she would give me 1 maybe 2 more hours for baby to drop and me to dilate, if neither happened she would have to consider doing a c-section! That was scary! So far I felt like nothing was going right! I had to labor with this blow up thing called a peanut in the between my legs. I was rolled from left to right back and forth.

My doctor got called away to do an emergency c-section on another patient and I was left to labor. Around 7:30pm I was told to roll to my right side but as I did baby's heart rate dropped instantly. So they put me on my back long enough to check me. At that point I was a 9 cm dilated and baby had dropped but not yet all the way. So I was kept on my left side rolled up into a ball. At 8:10 my doctor came in and told me its time to push! The baby had finally dropped and I was ready. So the bed was changed and I was told how I needed to push with the contractions as directed.

About 8:15 I started pushing, my pitocin was increased some to help increase the contractions and get him out! With in 4 or 5 contractions and pushing 3 times through each one his head was basically out and hubby said that he could see the cord around his neck. My doctor quickly unwrapped it announcing that it was loose and finished pulling him out of me. Baby had a slight pause then started crying. He was born at 8:39pm! He was placed on my belly and they started cleaning him off. I immediately started  crying again just due to the overwhelming emotions flooding through me. He was cleaned, placed on me, then taken to be weighed and measured, and brought back. It was a roller coaster. I did end up with one small tear on the inside that she did a single stich that will dissolve over a few weeks.She then came over to me and said "You did great, that was fun, let's have 3 or 4 more kids!" I just laughed!

After his birth I did have some shaking but no other side effects. Over the next 2 hours I got all my monitors off and baby and I did plenty of skin to skin. It was an amazing and scary experience. I give God all the glory!