Failed epidurals and lonnng induction...

But totally worth it!

I had an elected induction which started on Dec 20th, wanted to be out of the hospital by Christmas. They started with the Cervidil which stayed in for 12 hours, so the first part of the process was easy. I'd been stuck at 2cm for a month, so after they took that out, I'd gotten. to...3cm. Yay. So then they started the Pitocin. At first it was fine, I felt contractions but they weren't painful and I was just hanging out. However, no progress was really being made, so they inserted the Cooks Catheter which is a balloon that goes in front of and behind your cervix and "mechanically" dilates you because they come in every hour or so and tug on it. Once it is either pulled out or falls out, you're at 4-5cm. Not sure why but the balloon being inserted made the contractions get amped up so it started getting painful. Because i wasn't dilated enough for an epidural yet, they gave me Fentanyl which was amazing but only for about half an hour. Luckily that was enough time to get me to 5 to start the epidural.

For a few hours, the epidural worked like a charm. Getting it kinda sucked and it made me shiver for a while, but I felt nothing. Once I was numb, they broke my water, which I couldn't feel at all. Then all of a sudden, I started feeling cramps. And then I was able to move my legs. And then the cramps turned painful and suddenly I could feel everything. They called the anesthesiologist and he gave me another dose which only about half numbed me for a very short period of time. Meanwhile, my pitocin was on an insane setting so I was getting pummeled by horrible contractions. When the monitor was showing them as peaking over 100, I was feeling everything, eventually throwing up from the pain. They gave me yet another dose which I don't remember helping at all.

After what felt like hours of nonstop contractions, but was only about half an hour, my nurse checked me and I'd bled all over the bed but I'd gone from 6cm to 10cm in 30 minutes. Suddenly all the techs came in to set up for delivery and it was show time, which I was apparently just going to have to feel.

I pushed for an hour. They kept trying to make me wait for the contraction to "peak" but pushing felt so much better than feeling the contraction that I didn't always wait. The push is so instinctual and really does suck but it's so much better than just being in pain, but it was so exhausting. Because I'd gotten sick earlier, I was overheated and miserable so I pushed the entire time with a wet rag over my face and saw nothing. She crowned for about half an hour where they tried to stretch me enough to get her through but it never worked so they finally had to cut me. Next push, she was out. 33 hours after starting labor, at 2:02am on 12/22/26. 8lbs 2.5 oz, 21 inches long. The love of my life, and totally worth the pain and exhaustion!

Haven't gotten the "real" pics from the hospital yet but this is my favorite, watermark or not!