Thom and I went up early to meet Jon and Aimie for lunch to celebrate her birthday! The food was New Orleans based which the three of them love, I had a salad and bread since everything gives me heartburn at this point. Lunch was very short by the time we got to catching up I had to bolt for the MD invited them to come with and then afterwards we could do something else right? Nope Md said I was dialated a full 4cm head is floating not engaged, I am cont. to have regular contractions but have been for last 3-4 mos. Md asked me to induce she said clinically she would recommend this since I live so far away from the hospital, GBS+ :( which means I need antibiotics 4 hrs before babe arrives, and this is my third baby so concern that I will go fast since I am already 4cm dialated. So Thom and I talked and talked some more I really wanted to go into labor naturally and was not excited to be induced. The other factors we considered: I am eating up my maternity leave being pregnant and I want to have as much time with baby as possible, my dad is staying in a hotel room waiting to leave for Mexico, Nana was suppose to fly out Saturday, and I really want to meet this little one! So we finally after a lot of discussion decided to induce rather than waiting until Monday to see if we could go naturally.
Md called Swedish to see if they are able to give us a room to start the induction, they asked us to come in in two hours. Aimie Jon Thom and I went to Molly Moon to have ice cream my favorite was a honey lavendar ice cream. It was a wonderful sunny day so we went across the street to the park. I was very nervous about being induced given how hard it was with Lauren, so I called a friend who works in Labor and delivery. She answered all my questions about pitocin, epidural, and more. We went back to the hospital and they had us wait again for the charge nurse. The charge nurse said they had eight women ( yes 8!) come in. All of them in labor and they would not be able to get us in for 3 more hours:( So I gave them my cell and said when you are ready call us and we will come in. So I start calling Aunt Missa and Nanna to give them the heads up and organize who will be helping the girls?
We get the call! In the room at 8pm waiting to be admitted! Now I am thinking this is a horrible idea I am going to be in labor all night with no sleep? The first nurse I met did the IV which I think I made her nervous not realizing it of course but I was talking about the veins that the student nurses can get easily pointing them out. She of course had to recorrect and back out to get vein to thread (I think she went between the layers) but did get it in, I helped her with taping, taking her glove off, she seemed nervous and unsure. Antibiotic started and I asked if I could get some sleep as soon as they admitted me since the pit was going to be started in the next half hour.
I was able to relax and focus during the beginning of labor, I could hear what was going on and being said but really did not speak. I spent most my time visualizing each stage, how far and the rotations the baby has to make, I counted heart rate of the baby hoping never to hear late decelerations. I loved my ice water and would drink a lot. I must have gone to the bathroom several times during labor. Then as the contractions were coming closer together I was thinking if I want to get this done faster I need to get up and let gravity move that head down. I do not know how many contractions I made it through standing but that is when the baby moved! All the sudden I had pressure and it really felt like I needed to have a bowel movement, Thom was great he held me up as I kept trying to squat but couldn't get comfortable, I finally decided I needed to push and then suddenly water was every where (Thom describes as a huge water balloon hit his feet)..I hate being wet so I then start repeating " I am wet" over and over which was easier now that some of the urge to push was gone but with the next contractions I moved into transition. I could not talk and was unable to focus, at this point I said forget it and asked for the epidural. My mom said yippee which now I realize it is a mothers need to take the pain away and she was very sweet in the early hours touching my forehead and telling me how good I was doing. In the moment though I yelled at her for saying yippee though... Ok so why the hell did I not do an epidural with the other kids??? What a fantastic option! I am glad I did Hollie's birth natural but with Lauren oh I was in such uncontrollable pain. The anesthesiologist was funny apparently she kept saying that I know what to expect since this was my third epidural (she thought I had one with the other two kids) Thom kept saying no this is her first and then she referred to me as super woman.
My next check I was dialated to an eight but then it took several hours to get the last two centimeters done. My left leg was completely numb, and I had to be put on oxygen twice for the baby, my nurse was very young but seem to know the policies like the back of her hand. Around 6 am I could start to feel the urge to push and was now dialated fully!
Started to fall asleep get comfortable
