Baby V’s birth story starts out 10 days before he actually came out. Feel free to skip ahead to read about the trip to the hospital when he actually came out, although that part is still pretty long.

The beginning:
On the afternoon of September 10, I noticed that my stomach hurt. I didn’t think much of it. DH and I went to the mall after dinner. While we were there, I really noticed that my stomach was uncomfortable. On the way home, I realized I was having mild contractions. When we got home, I went to the bathroom with “flu-like symptoms.” I was in and out of the bathroom all night. I couldn’t keep down water. I knew I was getting dehydrated. Around 6 AM, I started timing my contractions. They were 6-7 minutes apart. I waited until 9 AM to call my OB’s office. They told me to go to the hospital to get checked, since they were very busy that day. When I got to the hospital, they confirmed that I was dehydrated and set me up with an IV and continued contraction/fetal monitoring. The nurses were great. After about three hours, my OB came by to check me. I was not dilated at all. She told them to keep me until I finished my second IV bag and the contractions slowed down. After a total of 6 hours, I went home.
I went to my scheduled appt two days later. I was 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. There was hope! She told me that she would induce me the following week if I didn’t go into labor before then, and I had the choice of Monday night or Wednesday night. The following morning, I started losing little bits of my mucus plug. DH and I spent the weekend enjoying ourselves but always leaving the house with the hospital bag packed, just in case. On Sunday evening, I noticed consistent, uncomfortable contractions again. Around 11:00, I started timing them. Between midnight and 1:00 AM, they progressed to around five minutes apart. Between 1 and 3, they were mostly less than five minutes apart and lasting over a minute. I woke up DH and told him it was time to go to the hospital. To make a long story very short, we were sent home after two hours. I hadn’t progressed at all, and the nurse said that if I could talk through contractions, I shouldn’t be there (she was pretty mean in general). At my appt that afternoon, we scheduled the induction for Wednesday night.

The main event:
We arrived at the hospital shortly after 6 PM to begin the induction. All of the L&D rooms were full, so we started the process in the postpartum unit. After three hours of tests, the nurse put in the Cervadil at 9 PM. It was a 12 hour dose. We were moved to the L&D rooms around 12:30 AM. There was a pull-out bed there, so DH got some sleep. I did not. I sat in bed, slightly reclined, hoping that gravity would help out.
At 9 AM, a nurse came in to take out my Cervadil. I was happy to see that it was one of the nurses I saw on my first trip to the hospital! She remembered me, and actually said she had been thinking about me that morning. She checked me and said that my cervix was softer but only 2 cm. She told me to shower and get ready, and she would start the Pitocin at 10:00.

I felt the effects of the Pitocin within an hour. I felt the contractions, but I felt more cramping than anything else. The cramps were constant and kept getting more painful. Unfortunately, my contractions were irregular. I’d have some 3 minutes apart and some 8 minutes apart. They kept increasing my dose trying to get the contractions to even out. They checked my progress at 1:00 PM – I was at 3 cm. I was so frustrated. All of that pain and only 1 cm? DH could tell how upset I was and how much pain I was in. Between 1 and 2 PM, I started asking about my pain medicine options. I hadn’t wanted to use any, but I was tired, hungry, and miserable, and there was no end in sight. There was the IV option and the epidural. DH didn’t like the IV option since it would go to the baby. I didn’t want the epidural because I don’t like things touching my back.

Around 2 PM, DH’s parents showed up unannounced. Thankfully he took them into the hall. I started crying. This was not at all what I wanted. It took me an hour to finally decide to get the epidural. The nurses told me my OB was going to come check my progress and probably break my water, but they didn’t know exactly when. I got up to go to the bathroom one last time, just before my OB showed up. I was at 4 cm, and she broke my water. We knew from a previous u/s that I had a lot of fluid. It was amazing how much gushed out of me. They put lots of towels down on the bed, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Within just a few minutes, I had three towel changes. Every time I had a contraction, more came out. I started laughing hysterically because it felt so weird. I was also shaking. The contractions felt a lot stronger, but I had to finish one more IV bag before they could place the epidural. When the anesthesiologist got there, I told him multiple times that I would flinch when he touched my back. Thankfully, we both made it through without anyone getting hurt. As I was sitting on the bed getting it placed, the contractions kept pushing water out.

After the epidural was placed, I felt relief within 5 minutes. At 5:30, I was checked again. I was just over 5 cm. They checked me again at 7:00 and I was 8 cm! Time to call the OB on call! She wouldn’t come over until I was 10 cm or felt pressure, but she was on alert. Around 8:00 I was 10 cm. They started bringing in carts and supplies. At 8:30, I was instructed to push when I felt a contraction. It was hard since I didn’t have much feeling down there. As he descended, they lost his heartbeat a few times because he moved, but they frantically searched for it every time. They relied on me to tell them when I was feeling contractions (with my hand on my stomach), since for some reason the monitor wasn’t picking them up. It was kind of a blur, but I do remember the OB saying something about needing to use the vacuum if I couldn’t keep pushing. They also gave me oxygen, but the mask wouldn’t stay on. After 45 minutes, I pushed Baby V out. They placed him on my chest briefly before taking him over to be evaluated. The OB had me push out the placenta and went to work stitching me up. I had a 2nd degree tear that needed to be stitched, plus there was extra bleeding. It seemed like she was working down there forever, but finally she stepped away and the nurses started to clean up.

Baby V arrived at 9:16 PM on September 20, weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and measuring 21 inches long. I could write a lot more about the wonderful nurses in the postpartum unit, but I’ll just say that the post-birth experience was great.