We arrived at the hospital at about 12:15, got checked in and the IV started. I had great nurses who got the IV in first try (thank god no passing out). Got a CBC and blood levels came back okay- green light for the induction. The nurse checked my cervix, still 1cm, and head down- green light for induction. Close to 1am they started the pitocin drip. The contractions felt just like the ones I had been having- like menstral cramps. They were very regular (3-4 min apart) but their intensity remained the same for several hours. Over the course of the night they kept increasing the drip little by little. Toward 7am the pain started intensifying. I knew that at 8am my doctor would break my water, so at 7:30 I requested the epidural. The fluids were started and Iwas ready for the edpidural just before 8, but no anestesiologst was available. They had 5 of them at the hospital at the time, and all 5 were giving epidurals at the same exact time I wanted mine- i figured with my luck something like that would happen.
At 8am the doctor came by and first checked my cervix, 4cm. While checking the cervix, my water broke. This was the first and only cervix check that hurt. It felt like she was elbow deep into my vagina and reaching for my eyeballs. There was some light meconium, so a respiratory tech had to be present for the birth. After my water broke, oh boy, did the pain escalate quickly. I sat in that awkward position with my bare back ready for the epidural and waited. finally the anesteiologist came. just as he was setting up- the unthinkable… a freaking kidney stone! i was afraid i couldn’t hold still through the pain, but he kept telling me that the epidural would make the kidney pain go away. big fat liar. the epidural didn’t stop the kidney pain and barely put a damper on the contractions. So i waited. still not better so another anestesiologist came by. she was much nicer and ended up re-upping my epidural 3 times. she said it didn’t work on me because i am tall (i don’t think i’m really tall, she was just very short). This seemed to work and i was pain free. I took a nap to conserve my energy. The next time the nurse checked my cervix it was 6cm. Then quickly after that it was 9cm. Around 9cm, the damn kidney pain came back. They were afraid to up the epidual for fear i wouldn’t be able to push. So we tried changing positions to affect the pooling of the epidural, and finally found a position that mostly did the trick. and as soon as i changed positions, i was at the full 10cm. Everyone was called into the room and the nurse started with practice pushes. we only did a few practice pushes and her head was crowning! the nurse told me she had blonde hair. the nurse called the doctor, who was in the middle of seeing patients. so i had to sit there with her head crowning, just waiting for the doctor. maybe 10-15 min later the doctor arrived and i was able to push again. It only took one push to get Bella out, she seemed to fly out all at once. The doctor held her up for me to see, and she was just beautiful. And absolutely perfect in every way.
She was passed off to the nursery nurse and respiratory therapist due to the meconium in my water. They did their tests and got her cleaned up. At the same time the doctor was delivering the placenta. To be honest the placenta was worse than Bella. I think something didn’t quite go right with the placenta, maybe it wasn’t coming out on it’s own. But the doctor’s face looked worried and she seemed to be working feverishly down there. I kept seeing stainless steel utensils down there. There was lots of pulling and pushing and prying, and at that point I wouldn’t have been surprised if the doctor pulled out a chain saw. From her chest of tools.
I was given shots of extra pitocin in the leg to help the placenta come out, and eventually everything seemed to be fine. I had the unfortunate chance of seeing the needle as the doctor was sewing up a tear. It was a curved needle that reminded me of an upholstery needle I’ve used on re-upholstering furniture. By the time it was over the floor of the room was covered in blood, and I felt like I had been through a bloody battle with the afterbirth. They quickly cleaned things up and handed me Bella to breastfeed. I was scared for the first time because I wasn’t sure if I knew how to do it right. But amazingly Bella took to it naturally and we worked like a team perfectly. After her first meal, our family was allowed in and everyone got to see our Baby Bella.
It was a beautiful process. Much easier than I anticipated.
