Adrian Michael's Birth

I arrived at the hospital at 5:10am to be induced. After about an hour of getting settled I was finally given an enema and the fun began!! They started the pitocin at 7am and shortly after my doctor came in and said that he was going to do his rounds at the other hospital but would be back shortly to break my water. The pitocin contractions were fine and I managed to stay in control. I didn't find them much worse than the Braxton Hicks I had been having for weeks. Oh, I was having Hicks contractions every 5mins when I got to the hospital and I was already 2cms and 80% all this 11 days early! after the pitocin was started my Doc had said that I could have an epidural whenever I wanted it. I wanted to try without but I wasn't about to put myself through sheer Hell. At this point though I could easily live without anything. At 8am my doctor came back and broke my water and boy did my world change. The second contraction after he broke my water felt like my baby was trying to break out through my abdominal wall. I instantly asked for the epidural knowing that I wouldn't be able to handle this for hours! Unfortunately the anesthesiologist was in a c-section so I had to wait. I didn't feel this was such a problem as I figured I was supposed to endure a little bit of pain. After about three of these contractions at 2mins apart they started double peaking and running together or irregular gaps between them, but never longer than 2mins. Just as I thought I was going to go nuts a whole gang of friends show up with some I hadn't seen since graduation 2yrs ago. I thought this was the worst thing that could possibly happen but it actually turned out to be the best. No matter how much they pissed me off by tickeling my feet during a contraction, or telling jokes, and telling me to breathe ( I am f**king breathing ) it was a great distraction and I got through it a lot better then I was coping with just my husband. Although this seemed to be lasting for hours the anesthesiologist arrived 45mins after my water was broken and quickly put me out of my misery. It would have been better without the three contractions I had while he was putting it in but my husband was great at helping me stay still. Luckily it took effect straight away and I was almost instanly relaxed again. It's amazing how quickly you can calm down after enduring the most excruciating pain available. I did however get nauseated and so I dozed. Every time the nurse came in I told her that I could feel a slight pain in my cervix. No doubt this too would have been murder were it not for the epidural. So at 1hr later she checked me and I was already 8cms and 100%. Another 20mins and I was complete apart from a lip that she said I could probably push through. She said that first she wanted to call my doc. Unfortunately he had things he needed to finish at the office so I would have to wait a little bit. I didn't have a problem with this as I had not yet (and would not) felt the urge to push and I figured that the longer I waited the less I would have to push as my baby would continue his descent with or without the doc. The doctor arrived at 12 and after a few pushes decided that my baby was coming out sideways and he would need to do an episiotomy and try to turn the baby using forceps or vacuum. He did the episiotomy and told me to push ( I was getting about 5 pushes per contraction as people would forget to tell me to rest! ) but before I saw him get out the vacuum I heard him telling me to stop pushing. It wasn't, however, until I heard him suctioning the baby that I realized what he had said so I continued pushing for a little bit. My little boy was born at 12:25pm Aug. 17, 1998 without the aid of forceps or vacuum. I only pushed for about 5 contractions and after the epidural I felt very little. His only problem was that he inhaled what they stated was a record amount of amniotic fluid and had to spend a few hours in NICU under an oxygen hood. Daddy still got to give him his first bath ( in NICU ) and I got my baby back at 7:30 that evening.