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Birth Story Time! Epidural &Pitocin Experience!

An • Wed, Sep 06

So up until 39 weeks and 2 days I had NO symptoms of labor coming on soon! Wednesday Aug 30 around 3am I woke up to a gassy feeling, I had even posted on here if it's possible to have gas while having contractions! I noticed it had a pattern therefore I knew they were irregular contractions but made me gassy which really confused me. Anyways, Wednesday around noon I went to L&D just to get checked out in case. I started losing my plug all Wednesday through Sunday I was told my cervix was still too thick and I was only dilated to a 1.... that was very upsetting as at the time I was praying it was real labor and me just having a high pain tolerance lol so I went back home and labored there with contractions. Friday I had a doc apt and was told still at a 1 therefore I couldn't get a membrane sweep. I was very upset. So come Sunday night the contractions still had an irregular pattern but start getting stronger as far as pain wise. I wanted to head to L&D so bad all night Sunday night I did not sleep at all but was so not looking forward to possibly getting sent home again. I even posted a picture of me sitting on a chair in the shower for all you to see that I was doing all I could to relax assuming these contractions weren't the real deal! Lol the reason I thought they weren't was because I had read so much on how contractions are textbook as far as how many minutes apart they should be when it's the real deal, let me tell you from experience that's false. So back to Monday I had been contracting every 7 minutes then would go to 5 then 4 then back up to 5 or 6 it was just back and forth. I was in the car heading to the store with my mom when I realized these might really be real lol I noticed I started telling my mom "wait don't drive yet" pretty much expecting her to wait until my contraction was over because it was so uncomfortable. I started really needing to breath through contractions and felt like my insides were getting twisted apart and out my back! So anyways I decide to head to L&D "to get checked out" assuming I'd get sent home. To my surprise the nurse was like well you said your a 1 as if Friday and now your 4 so your not leaving without a baby! I was so relieved! I get taken to my room and already knew I wanted the epidural. I always said no I'm going to go without it, but in that moment I felt I wanted it therefore I received one and wow!!! My horrible pre labor feelings suddenly became something I was able to enjoy going through! At 4pm I was admitted. At 7pm I had dilated to a 7 but contractions started to slow down so I did need to get started on pitocin. My nurse was amazing she did tell me I would get a low dose as needed...by 10:45 I felt like I peed myself which I knew wasn't possible because I had a catheter so she checked me again and wow my water broke and I was 10 dilated and 100% effaced! She gave me 2 options. She said if you'd like we can start some practice pushes which can also help lower Baby to where she needs to crown or you can just let her make her way down on her own. I was so excited and enjoying how I felt I said let's push!! So come 11:15 everything is set up for doctor to step in when needed and we did about 5minutes of practice pushes and her head came down low enough for us to call the doctor. Doctor came in and a few more minutes of pushes and baby girl was out Sept 4th at 11:23 pm!!!! I still can't believe it! I had heard so many bad stories on epi and pitocin that I was really nervous about the two at first but my experience with the epi I feel was so much more special because it allowed me to enjoy every second of my labor, and the pitocin did not give me or my baby any of the negative affects I read all about. I will be going home tomorrow and as far as recovery I do not feel too bad! I can walk around although I did tear and need stitching it's really not as bad as I would have imagined! This is my personal experience and would not change anything about how my labor went! Labored 5 days at home and 6hours in the hospital and my baby girl was definitely worth it!!