My birth story, overdue gd, induction, cytotec, pitocin, success

Background: This is my third baby, I was diagnosed with gd my second pregnancy and passed borderline with this one but monitored my sugar very closely because of the history. I ended up needing to take metformin 1500mgs at night to lower my fasting. It was a mostly uneventful pregnancy but I did end up having 3 episodes of svt and had to wear a monitor for 2 weeks which was a little scary, and then at my growth scan they were a little worried about his kidneys and referred me to a specialist for another scan who said his kidneys were retaining some fluid and he would need an ultrasound after birth to make sure it cleared out but it was a small amount so she wasnt too concerned. Both my other pregnancies went over one week, my first was induced at 41 weeks and my second I went naturally at 41 weeks. This time they wanted to induce me at 39 weeks 6 days which made me nervous, we ended up rescheduling until 40 weeks and 3 days due to scheduling conflicts with the doc.

So the night of April 1st we came to the hospital, I was dilated to a 2 and was soft but thick maybe only 30% effaced at 9:30 pm they gave me the first dose of cytotec a nasty little pill that dissolves under your tongue and you cant drink water for 20 mins after and they want you to stay on bed for an hour after. After that we walked for 30 mins and rested for 30 mins. They give you the pill every 4 hrs. At 1:30 they checked me again I was at a 3 now and maybe 50% effaced, I had some mild cramping but no contractions. Another dose and we decided to nap through this one instead of walk since e knew we had a long night and say ahead of us, some contractions and after 4 hrs I wasnt dilated anymore but was about 70% effaced and was having more contractions. At 5:30 I had one more dose of cytotec and started to have more regular contractions I tried to relax and labored on until around 12 or so they checked and I was at a 4 and at that time the doctor decided to start pitocin. I opted for the epidural at that point based off my last experience with pitocin where I would have contractions 1-2 minutes long and only 30-40 seconds in between. Everything kicked in and then the baby got mad and his heart rate slowed a bit, so they slowed the pitocin and he was fine. I was a bit freaked out. The doctor came and checked me and I was at a 4. At that point I was terribly discouraged because i expected things to be moving along faster (I had joked with my husband that the baby would be born at 4:15) plus the epidural had settled in my legs and I couldnt move them much and was feeling contractions. We sat me up in throne position for a while maybe an hour and then at 3 I asked to lay down with the peanut ball hoping the epidural would settle back to not feeling contractions. Contractions came stronger and stronger but I was doing ok the epidural was half working and relieved my back labor. At 4 the nurse came im because the baby had moved off the monitors, I told her that I was feeling a lot of pressure but she was so focused on finding the heart rate she wasnt listening, she freaked out and called for help and the head nurse came in took off my blanket annnnddd the babies head was already out!! A swarm of nurses followed and my next contraction pushed him out lol.

My doctor was quite disappointed to have missed the whole thing.

Grayson Alexander 9 lbs 3 ozs 20.5 inches long born at 4:16pm (as I predicted! Lol) no rips or tears