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September baby induction story!

Braegan • Sun, Sep 11

I'm finally posting this as promised. Sorry it's so long! My baby girl Evie Mae was born 9/6/16 at 3:51pm weighing 7 lbs 7oz, 19.5 inches long

Just before I get started I should mention I was electively induced at 39+4 for several reasons including living over an hour drive from the hospital. The week before induction I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced making elective induction more of an option for me also. On the morning of 9/6 My husband and I arrived at the hospital at 5 am. We were taken to the L&D room and I changed into a gown and got the IV and belly monitor set up. I was already having contractions on my own, but they were not consistent. I started pitocin at about 6 am and the contractions started off feeling like a tightness and period cramp, barely painful just uncomfortable. My pitocin was upped at 6:30 am but my contractions were doing good about 2-3 minutes apart so I never needed my pitocin to be upped again throughout the rest of the labor. My doctor came in and broke my water at 8am. It felt good actually, almost like a big release of pressure. At this point my cervix was checked and I was 2 cm and 90% effaced at a -1 station. Contractions started to pick up at 8:15am but were still manageable. However about 8:30 the contractions got really intense. It was the worst pain I've probably ever felt, like the strongest muscle cramp ever! I labored like this with contractions coming every 2 minutes. I was offered Demerol during this time but was able to refuse and so thankful I did. The worst part of my labor, however was that it took them three tries to get my epidural going. They started my epidural around 10am but they kept hitting a vein so it took almost an hour to get. It was a very stressful situation, especially having those terrible contractions at the same time and trying to keep still! After the epidural was finished I got the shivers really bad but the pain was gone. When the nurse checked me again I had progressed from 2cm to 5 cm and baby had moved further down. No wonder I was hurting! Now it was time to relax and hope I kept progressing well. During this time my pain was mostly gone. I could feel some light cramping in my cervix and right side but we propped me up and the epidural distributed better after that. My cervix was checked at 1:30pm and the nurse said I would start pushing in 30 minutes! I went from 5cm to almost fully dilated in 2.5 hours. I did get a little nauseated but was given zofran and that helped. I started pushing around 2:30pm and at 3:45 baby was crowning! I could still feel lots of pressure but it didn't hurt. The doctor came in just in time because as soon as he sat down she popped right out no problem! I had three 2nd degree tears (all internally) but it was all so completely worth it. In total from start of induction to delivery was about 10 hours. I don't want to do it again anytime soon but it was a great experience and I'm so in love with my baby girl!