I went in on January 18th for a scheduled induction due to high blood pressure to prevent preeclampsia. I was induced bybhaving Cervadil placed at 12:23 PM. I did not have a great experience with thus while they were trying to insert it into my cervix. It took 2 very rough attempts but it went in. Unfortunately my emotions caught up after placement and cried for a bit. It was nothing my nurse did it was just a really rough experience.

6 hours later my OB came and checked me and I had only dilated to a 1. She decided to attempt to place a Foley balloon catheter to encourage my cervix to open up. Again, this was a very rough experience that took two very uncomfortable attempts ending with worse emotions than the first. The nurse and my husband were both great to comfort me and ensure I was mentally and emotionally okay afterwards.

I finally got calmed down and they allowed me to eat and shower before starting pitocin at 10:00PM. At this time I started experiencing a major, unrelenting cramp in my lower back all the way around to the front of my stomach. My nurse said this wasn't a normal thing as contractions should be coming and going. At midnight I could not sleep nor get comfortable due to the pain and we were anticipating still another almost full day of labor so we opted for the epidural to make sure I rested. I felt so much better after that and slept all the way until 7AM.

My OB cane in at broke my water easily at 8:15AM at 4 cm dilated and began upping my pitocin every 15 minutes and rotating positions every 45.

Unfortunately despite maxing out the pitocin and using the peanut ball, by 3PM I was still only at a 4. They stated that they believed my pelvis was too narrow for baby to come naturally and we would need to do a C-Section. I could either keep at it with likely the same end result and another doctor doing my delivery or move forward with a csection. I struggled with this as it was the last thing I had wanted for my birth experience and asked for time to ready myself emotionally for it. My nurses and my doctor happily gave this to me and to just hit the button when ready as I was crying at this point.

My mil had sent a rather unsupportive message at this time stating it was the easy way out and not to let them convince me to do it. I had only sent a message to our families letting them know what was going on and hoping for support but didn't from her which nade it all the worse.

We told them we were moving forward with the csection after paging the nurse amd the prep team for our safety. Luckily at this point everyone chose to support us.

I got back to the OR to finish being prepped but my husband had to wait. I was freaking out and crying because I was of course terrified of surgery and my nurse, ob, and anesthesiologist all made sure to di everything they could to calm me and feel the support I needed both during final prep and the surgery when my husband was allowed in to hold my hand and watch our son come into the world.

At 3:54 PM on January 19th, my son Michael was finallt born. The tears kept coming but were those of joy rather than fear. After he wax cleaned up they allowed my husband to hold him next to me while they finished my surgery.

I definitely could notbhave gotten through it without the support of all my nurses, my ob, and my husband. With COVID it was just the two of us per hospital restrictions so I'm more thankful than ever for what the workers in healthcare do for us. I made sure to thank each and every one of them before being wheeled into recovery and hope they know just how much they mean to me.

My story just goes to show that not everything goes to plan but can and will work out in the end.