I was told not to eat or drink anything (not even water) starting at midnight Tuesday morning (the 11th). After some delays with getting my room ready, we finally arrived at the hospital at 9:45am for the scheduled induction. We were shown to my labor and delivery room and I changed into my gown. I signed all my consent forms, and had blood drawn (had to draw from a vein in my thumb, because my other veins were too small since I was dehydrated). Dr. Greggs got there and checked my cervix. There was no change in dilation or effacement since the week before (1.5cm, 85%), so she placed Citotec pills onto my cervix at about 12:20pm. At around 1pm I was in a lot of pain and called my nurse. She checked and determined that I was reacting to the Citotec by having contractions 1:30 minutes apart, and because I had no time to relax in between them I was not dilating. After consulting with David and the nurse, I decided to go ahead and get the epidural (because I had still not made any progress). I was very scared of the epidural, but the anesthesiologist did a wonderful job. The IV he gave me beforehand was the worst part, since he used the same vein in my thumb where the blook had been drawn earlier. I had to bend over in a really uncomfortable position to get the epidural, but it was just a pinch and a 4-second cramp and it was over. He was very quick and efficient and talked me through the entire process. I felt great after that. I couldn't feel any pain from a pinch to my foot or leg, just pressure, and if I concentrated hard, I could move my legs a little and bend my toes. I was given a little button that let me "control" my epi to a certain extent; if I started feeling any pain, I could push the button and get a little more. It was great.
Unfortunately, the epidural slowed my progress even more. The doctor came in to check me again at around 7pm and I was only 3cm dilated, and 90% effaced, so she went ahead and broke my water. Well, within a few minutes I started to feel the contractions. I could feel the pressure when they started and stopped. Soon it turned into very real pain, and I started pushing my little epidural button every minute. An hour later I couldn't take it anymore and called my nurse. She checked me and I had progressed to 7cm and was 100% effaced in one hour! The epidural wasn't keeping up with the contractions, though, and I was again getting to where I couldn't relax in between the contractions, so they decided to "up" my epidural... twice! I ended up not being able to feel anything at all. That was the only time I was really really scared. It was like, "This is what it must feel like to wake up and be paralyzed". I couldn't feel pressure or move at all, no matter how hard I concentrated. But David and everyone were really supportive and even made me laugh to get my mind off the scary lack of feeling. Although I was progressing rapidly, the baby wasn't descending through the birth canal as quickly as she needed to, so the nurse and David helped me move into "rolling" side positions to "open up" the birth canal and help the baby's descent. By 10pm, I was at 9 cm, and fully effaced. At around 11, the doctor came to check me again. She put her hand down to check my cervix, then made a funny face, then looked under the sheet. David was standing across the room, having just walked our visitors out the door, and he looked too, and he made a funny face. I asked what was going on. David just said, "I see hair!" The doctor confirmed that the baby was indeed crowning, and things moved very quickly after that. The nurses came in and started setting the room up for the birth. The lights came out of the ceiling and the baby area came out of a cabinet in the wall. At around 11:30 the nurse had me try a few practice pushes. I couldn't feel my contractions, though, so she had to tell me when to push. I couldn't feel anything, but I held my breath and did what I thought was pushing. She quickly told me to stop, because I was pushing too well! It took the doctor almost another hour to get all set up and ready, and I started pushing for real at 12:20am. I pushed through the first contraction (three pushes of ten seconds each), and the doctor said I was indeed a great pusher. With the second contraction, push #1 got the baby's head out, push #2 the doctor loosened the cord that was around the baby's neck and rotated her shoulders, and push #3 she was born at 12:25am! I cannot describe the feeling when they placed her on my tummy, it was amazing. David and I were both crying with joy to see our daughter's face for the first time. She was just beautiful!
The nurses took her to the side and cleaned her up, while the doctor was stitching me up. Gracie had swallowed some amniotic fluid, so the nurses had to spend some extra time with her, but they got it all out and she had no lasting effects from it. They gave her back to us about 45 minutes later, and we were able to spend a very special half hour alone with her, and made our first attempt at breastfeeding. Afterwards, we let the family in that had been waiting in the waiting room during the birth. We all visited for a little while, then David and the rest of the family followed the nurse to the nursery so she could do Gracie's bath and evaluation while I got all cleaned up. Everyone went home around 3am and they wheeled me into a post-partum room for the rest of the morning.
I hadn't eaten or drank anything for well over 24 hours by this point, so they brought me a bunch of graham crackers and juice. The room we were in was in the overflow post-partum wing, so we had two beds, which was really nice for David. It took awhile for Gracie to be released from the nursery so I could feed her because her temperature dropped dramatically after her bath. They kept her in a warmer for awhile, and finally brought her to me after about 3 hours so I could feed her. They had to take her back to the nursery afterwards, though, because her temperature was still not as warm as they wanted (although they told me this was pretty normal). David went to sleep pretty quickly, but my nurse kept coming in every 20 minutes to check on me, go over paperwork with me, and give me medicine so I didn't get much sleep at all.
At 7am the cafeteria opened so I ordered myself a huge breakfast. We got up (after that monster epidural I was finally able to walk on my own by 8am) and took showers (that was the best shower of my life). We had some visitors that morning, and around lunch-time, a room opened up on the main post-partum floor, so we were moved up there. We got to keep Gracie with us throughout the day, which was nice. She passed her hearing screening with an above-average score, and we worked on mastering our diapering skills. We continued to have visitors throughout the day, and finally settled down to sleep around 11pm. I decided to have the nursery keep Gracie again that night, so I could try to get some more sleep. Of course I was woken up to feed her every 4 hours (although I insisted on this, I didn't want her having any formula at all) and to take medicine.
The next morning they said I was ready to be discharged, although I could have stayed another night if I wanted since Gracie was only technically born the day before. We went ahead and decided to go home, and waited for Gracie to be discharged by her pediatrician (my pediatrician, Dr. Clifford!). That happened around lunch-time, and after paperwork (birth certificate, discharge instructions, etc.) and another great shower, we were all packed and ready to go by 3pm. The nurse wheeled me downstairs where David had the car ready and we were off! Gracie was home for the first time by 4pm, 40 hours after she was born.
Hopefully next time I go into labor on my own and don't need to be induced. That's the one thing I wanted to experience, the contractions of early labor and knowing that the baby was coming on its own. I really enjoyed having a bunch of people visit while I was in labor. It made the 12 hours go by fairly quickly. It was very important to David and I that we were the only people present when our child was born (aside from the doctor and two nurses), and we will definitely have it that way again. However, next time we will definitely limit the post-partum visitors to a certain time period during the day. We enjoyed seeing everyone, but we were never able to rest and really suffered because of it when we got home. We really should have stayed that extra night, but we had no way of knowing just how crazy it would be at home. I will still insist on having the baby brought to me to breastfeed, and will still have the nursery keep the baby at night. So, overall, it was a great experience, and we can't wait for #2! (;D)
Sitting up, unsupported!
Nothing back there holding her up, it's all Gracie!
