So this birth experience was completely different than Afton's. I managed to weasle my way into getting induced five days early. I felt insanely guilty the day of induction out of fear that the baby was not ready. All guilt dissapeared when she was born and weighed.
I was scheduled to be induced at 10pm on Monday January 30 following Mark taking a final. Mark finished early and almost beat us home (as my parents took Afton and I out to eat). I called the hospital to see if I could come in early and they said they didn't have the staff for me to come in early and asked that I call back. When I called back an hour or so later they didn't have a bed for me and told me that they would call me when I could come in. So we watched lame television at Mark's parents house as we had put Afton to bed there, and fretted about how long it would be until we could come in. I couldn't sleep, my mind was racing. I was so afaid that they would try to reschedule us for another day. Fortunately I called again somewhere around 10:20pm and they said I could come in. We jumped in the car and headed to the hospital, but not without stopping to drop off library books at the Carmichael Library and then getting Mark some Adalberto's.
When we arrived at the hospital with a pregnant belly and a suitcase a security guard asked me if I wanted a wheelchair, I passed. They put us into a room and told us to get settled. They monitored the baby and I for what seemed like forever until they started the pitocin at 1:45am on January 31. The pitocin gave me Braxton Hicks contractions which were largely absent in this regnancy. Every half hour they would come in and increase the medication, but still I was pain free. As the hours went by I tried to sleep but I was there to have a baby and was a little anxious. I tried reading...not a good enough book so Mark and I settled on watching a movie. After our movie was over we just channel cruised and by then we were starting to get fatigued and we each drifted in and out of sleep, but woke every thirty minutes when the staff would come in to increase the meds.
At 6:45 the staff changed over and I was so excited to meet my day shift nurse as she was the same nurse that delivered Afton!!! My Ob's shift ended at 7 so before leaving she called to check on me. The nurse told her I was sleeping and she was shocked and asked the nurse to check my cervix. After 5 hours on pitocin I had gone from 2cm to 3cm...GO PITOCIN! The doctor that took over for my Ob at 7am came in at 7:20 and announced that he wanted to break my water. I was super excited and very willing for things to speed up! He checked me and felt I was 4cm. He broke my water and that was a hoot. I had an epidural on board when my water broke with Afton, so feeling that warm water spew out of me was a new sensation.
I would say it was about 20-30 minutes later that the painful contractions started and increased. By that time I was on 16 of pitocin and fortunately they left it there for the duration as my contractions had reached the goal of every 2-3 minutes. As the contractions came and went more fluid would leak out of me, until I asked the nurse I thought I had become incontinent, but she explained that it was amniotic fluid (phew). Once the contractions became painful I became very set on not changing up anything and doing the exact same thing through each contraction. The tv was on channel 3 and I kept the same slow breathing pattern going and would focus on one particular thing on the tv. Sometimes Mark would annoy me by asking a question as I was contracting, it annoyed me because it would distract me from my breathing.
Once my water was broken things progressed quickly and it wasn't long before I was at an 8 and my nurse told me that if I wanted an epidural I needed to get it now. Well I could stand the pain at that time so I opted not to do it. But I did request hourly doses of iv fentanyl for the last three hours. It did not really take away any pain but it gave me a sense of relaxation that allowed me to keep composure. Pearl was born at 11:08am and shortly before that I thought I was feeling pressure and I was starting to get anxious as the pain got worse and worse. Having my cervix checked was becoming excruciating. My nurse checked me one last time and Iwas at a 9, sensing my anxiety she kept her hand in through the next contraction hoping to get me to 10cm. She then let me do a practice push, and it became apparent that we were ready to deliver. I think I had manged to push some of Pearl's head out on my first/practice push so she called to her co-workers to get the doctor and come help. My nurse proceeded to hold Pearl's head as we waited for the room to crowd with staff. I wanted to push SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO badly and could feel/sense Pearl's head at the opening. As soon as the doctor arrived I watched intently as the staff helped him gown up and as soon as he sat down and started approaching me I let her rip (literally) On the first contraction I think I delivered the whole of her head, the doctored suctioned her and then on the next contraction I delivered the shoulders and all the rest of Pearl! AMAZING!!!
When I dreamed and decided to deliver without an epidural I never thought past the delivery of Pearl's body. I had prepared myself for her body being the grand finale of pain, but in reality I still had the placenta to deliver and then stitching up to endure. OUCHIE!
