My labor was induced on June 6th at 8:30 PM because my body just wasn't progressing as it should have in order to go into labor naturally. A natural labor, preferably med free, was an ultimate goal of mine but my body just wasn't having it. All of the sonograms projected Jess's weight to be 8 lbs 2 oz. She was supposed to be a big baby but I didn't have any worries as I am a rather hippy lady as it is. My doctor's office told me to have a large breakfast, light lunch, and no dinner which was a big mistake as I come to find out later. I did eat a giant breakfast at Bob Evan's and it was wonderful.
Once I was checked in they got me all hooked up to the monitors and IV. I was having contractions on my own every seven minutes or so. This had been happening for about two weeks but progress was non existent and so was the pain. Then they inserted the balloon to dilate my cervix and the Cervidil to soften it. I don't know what it was about those two things but then I started to feel my contractions. They were manageable and I didn't have any problems. Actually, the balloon hurt the worst. Eff the balloons. This also caused me to start bleeding so every time I got up to go to the bathroom, I left a blood trail, which was quite often because they were pumping me full of fluids. I was starving at this point but couldn't eat anything...yeah right, I was sneaking fun sized Snickers bars left and right. After several hours of not being able to sleep because of the contractions, we all felt it was probably a good idea to go ahead and get a shot of Demerol to ease the pain and let me sleep since I was sure to have a long road ahead of me.
Finally I was dilated to 4 cm and the balloon and Cervidil were removed. The doc came in around 6:00 am to break my waters and start Pitocin. It's kind of the devil. They cranked that shit up high and I was having contractions every minute or so. Alas, I finally broke down an hour or so later and got the juice. The epidural went in with no problems and the nurse and anesthesiologist were amazed at how well I handled it. Little did they know I was a pro. My sophomore year of high school I had to have a lumbar puncture to check for meningitis and then since that didn't heal properly I had to get an epidural blood block so I knew the drill. The epidural did relieve the pain so I could relax but I hate the way it made me feel. I felt like a ton of bricks and my legs felt like they were asleep, all tingly-like whenever I or anyone else touched them.
The next thirteen hours or so are a bit of a haze. I was in and out of sleep. I remember being extremely nauseated from not eating dinner or anything else for that matter which caused my blood sugar to drop. I kept down popsicles when I could. To combat the nausea they gave me alternating dosages of Phenergan and Zofran. The Phenergan made me drowsy so I slept most of the time and couldn't really wake myself up either...a little scary looking back.
My progress had slowed down dramatically once I reached 6 cm. The last thing I remember, it was around 4:00 PM, maybe 4:30 PM and I was about 9 cm. They said that if I did not progress to 10 in the next hour that I would be getting a caesarean section. So since we had a while my mother in law and aunt in law left to go home and shower...they live like 5 minutes away from the hospital.
Sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 I was checked again and I was 10 cm and she was in position. Aaron called his family and told them to get there ASAP because I was ready to push. So we started pushing. I had my mom, husband, and his cousin's wife, Brittany in the room. Brittany was overwhelmed by everything going on and I think she truly appreciated getting to experience the birth of a child. Once my mother in law got back though, she came in and Brittany left. I only pushed for about 30 minutes and I felt like a champ for it too. I didn't get tired or anything. At one point Aaron went down to check out what was going on and the look on his face was priceless, he looked horrified! Jess's shoulders did get stuck though so in order to get her out, I had two nurses on top of me pushing while I was pushing, and the doc gave me an episiotomy pretty much from font to back. Surprisingly, my mid-section wasn't sore at all and my sutures barely hurt once I got feeling back from the epidural.
I cried as soon as I heard her for the first time. The moment when they finally put her on my chest was absolute bliss. She was gorgeous and I was in love. Everything I went through was so worth it, all the sickness, feeling like my tail bone was broken, the induction...all of it.
Jess was born at 5:55 PM. She weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 20 inches long. She was also born with a heart murmur and was ended up being jaundice. The first 5 days of her life were heart wrenching. Something you never hear much about it actually how common jaundice is in newborns so it's incredibly scary for new parents.
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