The first hitch in our induction plan was that the hospital was overcrowded and they didn't have a bed for me, so we were delayed a few times and told to call back so many hours later each time. Eventually, we all went to bed to try to sleep.
We weren't actually called into the hospital until the next morning (Thursday, June 12), which just so happens to be our wedding anniversary. My loving, anxious husband didn't sleep much, if any, waiting for a call to come in, but I got one more night of deep sleep in my bed, which I know now was a gift from God. The only downside (from my perspective) was that it had been a LONG time for a pregnant woman to go without food, and I was hungry.
We made good time on the way to the hospital and arrived right at 7, which is shift change. I asked Husband if we should just wait in the lobby, expecting them to be put out that we arrived early, but we decided to head up.
Thankfully, my assigned nurse was already prepping the room and we were taken there after only a short wait in a waiting room. At that point, there was a lot of paperwork, signatures, changing into a gown, etc.
When they started my monitors, they asked if I knew I was having contractions, and I said no. The nurses then told me I was already having them 4-5 minutes apart, which was encouraging even though they were so weak. Because of that and our delayed check in, my doctor decided to skip straight to Pitocin, which worried me for a minute until I thought about how much I like my doctor and trust her.
The next eventful occurrence was getting my IV put in. It didn't go great. We learned throughout the day that my nurse was still in training at this hospital and new to LDR. She was also 20 weeks pregnant. In spite of all that, she had a calming personality, and I really liked having her with me through the majority of my labor.
But, she made a few hiccups. The first was when she inserted my IV. There was almost immediately a blood blister, her trainer-nurse had to check it to see if it was viable to use, and my blood pressure bottomed out. It all worked out, and I regained my color after a few minutes flat on my back, but the IV site continued to hurt me to various degrees until it was removed.
I began receiving fluids and Pitocin from the IV and soon after that my doctor, who was on call all that day, came by to check my progress and break my water to really get things started. She left her keys in my room because I was her only induction (not sure why that mattered), which was oddly comforting. We joked with her that she couldn't leave until we had a baby because we had her keys.
The actual labor part of my labor is pretty blurry at this point. I managed to labor with Pitocin (the hyped crazy painful drug) for 5 hours without an epidural. I wanted to do all I could to progress while I could still breathe through contractions, so we first tried the birthing ball, but baby's heart rate went crazy, so I tried sitting in a rocker for a while to be upright and help her drop.
I appreciated several things about my nurse, including the fact that she kept me on a low dose of Pitocin and monitored me carefully. A few times, she backed off on the dosage because my contractions were too close together for the stage of labor I was in. I was able to go so long feeling good without an epidural because of her inclination to take it easy on the meds.
One of my prayers was for baby girl's heart rate to stay steady so that I would be confident that the meds weren't messing with her and hopefully avoid a c-section. That prayer was answered thoroughly. Other than a few minor blips, the monitor showed a steady heart rate the whole time.
I was checked for progress throughout the day, and before I decided to get the epidural, had been told I was almost 5 cm. However, my nurse had measured wrong, and when checked by her trainer, I was only at around 3 cm. That was frustrating to Husband because he had already texted the great news to our family. However, I was getting more uncomfortable and wanted energy to push, so I had already asked for an epidural and it didn't bother me as much. I was in it for the long haul.
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