Monday, October 17th, I had an OB appointment (which I informed the office earlier that if I was present for - one day prior to my due date - I would cry). I learned that I was still only dilated 1.5cm (for three weeks running), and it was looking like that wasn't going to change any time soon. I was SO done being pregnant. We set up an appointment for the 20th to be induced. I prayed every night right up until the 20th that I would go into labor on my own. It never happened.
Thursday, October 20th came in what seemed like a lifetime. Once again, it was so odd to travel to the hospital knowing I was nowhere near going into labor. When I got there, I warned them all about my passing out fiasco with Boston. Luckily it never happened this time. Although my blood pressure did at one point drop to like 50/38 or so...
By 8:30 am, we are ready to get started. Dr. Hughes came in and broke my water (no pitocin). He informed me it was, in fact, a good idea to induce, as he noticed meconium when the water broke. Lovely. It only took a few minutes for me to start going into HARD labor. It was the craziest thing ever, and I think I seriously stressed my nurse and the rest of the staff out. Because before I knew it, I had like fifth million ladies hovering over me (just like I did when I fained with Boston) trying to figure out what the crap was going on. They lost the feed on Savannah and couldn't track her heartrate, and I felt like I was in la-la land the contractions were so hard and right on top of eachother. Apparently, in a manner of minutes, I went from 1.5 to almost 4, and the baby had dropped completely. Just with breaking my water. My contractions were about one minute apart, and lasting for quite awhile each. They gave me a shot to slow me down. That was the most intense pain I have ever felt. I thought I was a lucky girl, since only a few minutes into "labor" they called for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in, and I thought, man, we're golden. We're going to have this kid in an hour!
Well, several things went wrong. My contractions still would not relent. They were way too close together, so I had to get another shot to slow them. Then my epidural didn't work. Over the course of about six or so hours (maybe more) I had a total of five separate epidurals. Five times of making me sit up (and hold still for heck sakes) during full on contractions while they tried to make it work. Each session of giving me the epidural took about a half hour or so. I have never been poked so many times in my life. They kept numbing only my right side. The first anesthesiologist tried three times (over the course of a few hours) before he called in another guy to try. It took him two times to hit it right. Apparently I have some sort of separation in my vertebrae that blocks the left from the right where you would normally give the epidural. So they had to get above this separation. Anyway, a million hours later, I was dilated to almost 8, and now I was numb and ready to roll. I told them a few hours into it that I didn't care anymore. I would just do this thing natural at this point. They wouldn't let me, though, since I had a previous c-section. They needed to know I was numb if they had to do emergency surgery. But I guess I now have the privilege of saying I know what "natural" feels like (except for the actual pushing the baby out). I don't care to ever be "natural" again, thank you.
Shortly after the fifth and functional epidural, my blood pressure dropped (which I knew was happening and warned them - hey, check my BP, I feel weird - and sure enough it was 50/38). So I got to get another shot, this time to increase my blood pressure. Finally at 6pm, it was time to push. And at 6:50 pm, I got this little girl!
She looked just like Boston when she was born, except for the little cone head, which went away in a few days. So the finally tally: 19.5 inches, 8 lb 8 oz. We've got a little fatty! We just love this sweet little girl.
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