Birth Story of Landen

I went in for induction at 9:30am on January 30, 2009. We wanted a room with a tub so we had to wait another hour for that so it didn’t actually all begin until around 10:30. They took me into the room and hooked me up to everything and we waited for the mid-wife to come in and get things started. Around 11:30, a midwife that I hadn’t even seen came in and checked my cervix, said I was a little more than 1cm dilated and 75% effaced. She inserted Cervidil in to my cervix, which is cervical ripening medication on a string. I started having contractions right away and at that time they were only 2 minutes apart. I could feel them and they were minor period cramps that I could handle. 2 hours later, she came in and checked my cervix and I hadn’t progressed but I was still having contractions that were effective. She took that out and told me that we were going to wait about an hour to let that medication leave my system before trying something else. She came in about an hour later, which ended up begin around 4pm, and my cervix still hadn’t changed but I was still having contractions that were tolerable. She inserted a foley bulb, which is a balloon on the end of a tube; they put that into my cervix, blew it up like a balloon and injected water. She said when that fell out, my cervix would be at 4cm. Around 8pm, that fell out when I was peeing. I started having stronger contractions around that time. At around 8:30, the midwife came in, this was another midwife b/c they had done a shift change, and checked my cervix, I was finally making progress, I was at 4cm. She then broke my water, which felt pretty crazy. I got to take a shower at this time because I was feeling some pain and I thought It would make my contractions feel a little better. After she broke my water, I would gush every time I had a contraction or had any type of sensation. I was starting to have pretty hard contractions. At this point they didn’t give me anything else to push labor along because I was having regular contractions 1 ½-2 minutes apart. They were trying to see if my body was going to start doing everything on its own. Around 3am I was in A LOT of pain and very uncomfortable. They checked my cervix and I was 5-6cm along and I was so discouraged, tired and getting very annoyed at everything. I asked for pain medication through my IV so I could get a couple hours of sleep. They gave me staydol and I was feeling wonderful. I hated to do that but I needed sleep if I was going to make it to the pushing stages. I could actually feel the contractions and pain but I didn’t care…it was a weird feeling. 2 hours later when I woke up and the staydol had no more effects on me and I was feeling the contractions very hard and I was around 6-7cm “the midwife said”. I decided to get an epidural because I couldn’t stand being in that pain and knowing that I still had HOURS to go. They gave me the epidural around 5:30-6am. I slept, they came in and out checking my cervix, nothing was happening. They placed an internal monitor inside to monitor the size of the actual contraction so they would know how strong they were and if my cervix should be dilating with these contractions. They were strong on their own but not strong enough so they gave me pitosin and upped the dose every 20 minutes or so. Around 12:30 the OB Dr came in to talk to me about everything. He checked me and said that the midwives were saying I was further along than what I really was. His check was 4-5cm; the midwives were saying 7cm. I was so aggravated and upset at this point but glad I got the epidural because my body just wasn’t working right. My contractions were very strong and hard enough to dilate the cervix but it wasn’t happening. He said that after 2 more hours of the pitosin and no change we would have to do a C-section. 2 more hours and A LOT more pitosin in high dosage I wasn’t any further and he said that my body just wasn’t going to dilate anymore and I needed to go to the OR. They put a cap on me, dressed Tyler in scrubs, dumped some nasty medication down my throat and I was laying on the OR table totally numb. It was scary and I made Tyler tell me stories to keep my mind off of people digging around in my belly. They calculated that Landen would be 7 ½ lbs so that is how big they cut the incision, they had a really hard time getting him out of there since he was a whole pound bigger! All I could feel was a lot of pressure. The most amazing thing was when he cried, the best feeling in the world! Tyler got up and went to cut the cord; all I wanted was to see my baby. He peed all over everyone when he came out. He was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and his little face was so peaceful when he looked at me. So that is our story, everything else was just recovery and being miserable in the hospital. We are so happy to be home and loving every minute of it.