Whew! Sorry it has taken me so long to get through this. I never expected having a newborn who does nothing but sleep all day to take up so much time!
We went in on October 27th at midnight to be induced. My blood pressure was continually rising and I was in the prehypertension stage. Even though I was really against induction, I knew that the most important thing was having a healthy baby and keeping myself healthy. We went in at midnight with the plan being 1) to start cytotec every 4 hours to help ripen my cervix, 2) Monday morning (10/28) my midwife would break my water, 3) I would progress into labor naturally without needing pitocin. If you have read my other posts, you know that my plan was always to have a natural birth.
The cytotec was administered every 4 hours through out Monday morning with the last dose given orally. My cervix did not react. I had a few minor contractions and chilled with my family in the delivery room all Monday morning. Finally at 2pm my midwife decided to break my water. I was 2 cm dilated. I remember thinking that he was never going to come, in fact my midwife jokingly threw around the phrase "cervix of steel" a few times.
Now what they don't tell you is that once they break your water, shit gets real. This is the moment I would say labor started for real. I went from having minor contractions to having "holy S&%! I think my uterus is going to fall out" contractions. I started out in the bed gripping the hand rails and groaning (why is it that women in labor fixate on a noise? I have no idea but it sure did help at the time!). Ben was a fantastic birth partner. He continuously reminded me to breath. He was also amazing at telling me how strong I was and how much he loved me.
Things progressed slowly. I was checked every 4ish hours just to be told I had made little to no progress. I tried the birth ball, walking, sitting, swaying with holding on to Ben, a shower, and kneeling on the bed. Nothing and I mean nothing was helping. I did everything I had been taught in my Bradley classes to do. I was getting seriously discouraged. When I hit 5 cm around 9PM Monday night, I gave in to IV drugs.
I will NEVER get IV drugs again during labor. I felt drunk. I couldn't concentrate on anything happening around me and I could still feel every contraction. It was terrible. I actually ended up getting them twice hoping they would help the second time around again, in which I was terribly terribly wrong.
After I came out of my second round of IV drugs, I was in the transition part of labor. Since I had called for the IV drugs, my body never had a chance to prepare for how much more difficult labor had become. At this point it was around 12 PM, I swayed with Ben for the next two hours, making a "shhh" sound. This seemed to help the pain at the time. I was feeling incredible pressure around 1 AM Tuesday morning and I had my nurse check me (who by the way was amazing. I was so lucky to have such an amazing nurse who supported my birth plan 100%). I was only 8 cm dilated. I continued my swaying in hopes to progress further. At 2 AM the pressure was still there, I was sure I was almost at a 10. I had her check me again, I was still at an 8. At this point I knew I needed to throw in the towel. My body was no longer progressing (I had been at an 8 for 4 hours at this point). I knew what I needed to do and I need to stop fighting it. I called for an epidural.
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