Birthing The Dude- Day 2

But of course I didn't have time yesterday to do Day 2, so I'll just segment the writings today, or write Day 3 tomorrow. We'll see how the day goes. :)

Back to the story...
Around 5 or 6 am my dad called, panicking, worried that he missed something. Nothing had changed (still 1, maybe 2 cm at this point). I told him not to panic and to take his time getting back up to the hospital. Less than an hour later, he walked in the door. By this time, I think I had already started my second bag of pitocin. They were also worried because my contractions were frequent (as in, they never stopped. 20 seconds in between the end and beginning of each one, at the most) but they weren't hitting the intensity they wanted. They gave me more stadol and I passed out again. When I woke up, I noticed that both times I had been given the stadol, my contractions slowed down and weakened. Considering how slowly I was progressing, I didn't like seeing that. I decided not to take any more stadol, and only go for the epidural if I really needed it.

Somewhere during this day, I think early in the morning, they broke my water. It hurt like hell.

In the early afternoon, the doctor told me that if I didn't progress in the next hour, that I was going to have to get a C-section. They had already turned up the pitocin to near max level in order to try to get my contractions going. The stadol set it back, the fact that my body just wasn't ready to be in labor set it back. But they only had 2 more strength levels to go before they hit the max level. (You can't go over a certain level, because otherwise, once you deliver, the pitocin won't have any effect and the contractions won't continue and they need to in order to shrink your uterus back down- I think that's how she explained it.)

**This will be jumping ahead, but it doesn't really fit anywhere else. At some point, The Dude went into a bit of distress. They practically stopped the pitocin to calm down my uterus for a bit. Since they knocked it down so much, they were able to slowly build back up and that solved the pitocin problem mentioned above.**

Anyway, at the news that I was probably going to get a C-section (Let's be real, in 17 hours, I had progressed ONE cm. It was going nowhere.) I was devastated. I didn't want a C-section. For one, I wanted to be able to eat, 2, I didn't want to be completely numb and have to wear the compression boots, 3, I wanted to eat real food-not jello for 24 hours, 4, if you have a C-section, you are pretty much always going to have a C-section, 5, I have a tattoo on my lower stomach and hip, and a C-section scar would have totally ruined it. The last reason sounds silly, but I love that tattoo and yeah, I didn't want to have a scar going through it. I was so bummed at this point. I knew that when they checked me at the end of that hour, I was going nowhere.

Luckily, when they checked, I was at 3 cm. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to keep me from having a C-section. Pretty soon after that, the rest of my water broke. I was miserable at this point because Jude would only let me lay on my left side. His heart rate dropped if I tried to lay any other way. The contractions were still not too intense, but were so frequent. They literally didn't stop. I was having one, continuous contraction. At hour 19 after being induced, I finally asked for the epidural.

This was a big step for me. I am so claustrophobic and I have Restless Leg Syndrome and I absolutely freak out if I am held down or can't move a part of my body. Knowing that with the epidural I wouldn't be able to move my legs ALMOST kept me from getting it. If the labor hadn't been so drawn out, I might have endured. But I wanted the damn meds. It was a great feeling to be able to relax. It was also great because I couldn't feel the pain in my left side from having to lay on the same limbs for hours.

At 6:24 pm (thank you facebook status updates), I was in hour 21 after being induced, on my 3rd bag of pitocin and still had my trusty oxygen mask on. A couple of hours after this, John and his mom were in the room. I fell asleep with a neck pillow on (you can see it in the post before this one) and with the full-on oxygen mask. When I woke up, I forgot that the epidural had been administered. I freaked the eff out. I couldn't move my legs, I had a huge plastic mask on my nose and I had that damn pillow wrapped around my neck. I threw the neck pillow across the room, pulled the oxygen mask off and started crying. I begged John to come move my legs. He sat at the end of the bed and moved them in a bicycle motion for me. After about 10 minutes, I finally calmed down. I also felt kind of crazy. But can you blame me? No food or water for a day and a half, I couldn't get up out of bed (I think I got up twice to use the restroom but once I got the epidural, I was bed-ridden) and the labor was going nowhere. The nurses came and talked to me and told me to just let the epidural wear off a bit and I would be able to move a little. Wiggle my toes, etc.

I got a bit luckier (?) than that. Since I was stuck on my left side, the epidural drained to my left side (yes, gravity pulls it down). This left my right leg able to swing freely. It was the greatest feeling in the world. I could only barely feel the contractions, AND I could move one of my legs. This also left my left side completely numb, but I didn't care.

Finally around 10:30 pm, I hit 4 cm. The nurses and doctor all got excited and said labor usually progresses very quickly from that point. I got kind of excited but was beyond getting my hopes up. When I was induced at 8-9pm on November 30th, all the medical staff said "Oh! You're going to have a December 1st baby." John's mom (jokingly- at least, I hope) said, "Can you hold it for one more day, so he can share a birthday with his dad?" When she said that at the beginning, I just looked at her and laughed. "Absolutely not." Well, when I hit just 4 cm at 10:30, I knew that The Dude was going to be sharing a birthday with his daddy. Happy birthday sweetheart!

So by midnight of Day 2, I was celebrating that fact that I had progressed 3 cm in 28 hours, and that my son and my husband would share a birthday. And, that I had managed to escape a C-section for the moment. That night was pretty restless and scary, but I'll get in to all of that on the Day 3 post (later today?)