My birth story...
I was scheduled to go in on Sunday night (June 6th) to begin induction with Cervidil. My doctor would not agree to let me go past 41 weeks, so Saturday was my last opportunity to try and get things going naturally... After taking castor oil for the second time (this time with no side effects whatsoever), my fiancˇ Ian and I walked around the VMFA all afternoon and had a wonderful dinner at which I had a glass of red wine, and then we ended the night with some time "in between the sheets". Before I fell asleep though, I started having contractions that were much more painful than any other Braxton hicks or false labor type contractions that I'd been having for the past couple of weeks...so we started timing them. When we realized that they were 3-4 minutes apart, lasting a minute or more, and for almost an hour, I decided we should call the doctor on call. We went to the hospital that night, but returned home after a couple hours with no change in dilation. But the contractions continued and I couldn't sleep.
All day Sunday I was having contractions, they spread out to about every 7-8 minutes, but were they didn't go away. That afternoon we went to the hospital to start my dreaded, medical induction. After having the Cervidil in for 4 hours, and with contractions increasing in pain and frequency the nurse checked me to find that I was 4 cm. and pulled the Cervidil tape out. However, when the next nurse came on in the middle of Sunday night, she said that I was only 2 cm. Now I was really upset because I hadn't been given the full dose of Cervidil (typically 12 hours of having it in), and I was supposed to be put on pitocin in the morning. I stayed awake again, all night and at 6 in the morning my fiancˇ and I decided that we were not going to be doing the pitocin without the full dose of cervidil and because we were exhausted we would go home and come in the next day to start this all again.
However, when the Dr. came in to check me that morning, she told me I was going nowhere, that I was 6 cm. dilated and had a bulging bag of waters. Ian and I were thrilled that our daughter would be here, but again, we had both been awake since Saturday morning...The Dr. broke my water, and the contractions took on a whole a new phase. From 7am until 4pm on Monday I tried breathing, relaxation, showers, bouncing on the birthing ball, and all kinds of positions, you name it I tried it. The pain was in my back and butt, and when I was checked that afternoon I had only gone to 8cm, and the baby was facing upward. I tried for another hour to get her turned, and to hopefully dilate more, but I was exhausted and was having trouble staying "in control" of the contractions which were coming like a minute apart. Anyways, I gave into the epidural....I think I wanted it mostly because it would allow me to relax and get a wink of sleep. After what felt like a couple of hours, but was really only 30 minutes, I was checked again by the Dr. and was deemed ready to push. I pushed for exactly 1 hour, and Mabel was born weighing 7 lbs 11oz (exactly what my mother guessed she would weigh) and was just under 21 in. I still had the skin to skin contact immediately, and she latched on within 5 minutes of being born. (I hadn't eaten since Sunday morning so I guess she was just as hungry as I was).
In the end I was glad I got the epidural, it had been one of the last things I thought I wanted, but in my state of complete exhaustion it really helped me, and luckily it was good timing and there weren't any negative effects from it. Needless to say, it has taken me a lot of time to feel caught up on sleep...of course with a newborn I don't know when I'll be completely caught up.
Kat O