Our Birth Story
I woke up at 3:00 am on Saturday, April 22 to go the bathroom when my water broke. It wasn't a huge gush, but a slow trickle, so it took a while for it to sink in that this was it! I called L&D and they told me to get ready and come in. Anthony still hadn't gone to sleep for the night, so he went to bed to get a few hours sleep. Meanwhile, I cleaned the house, showered, and packed.
We got to the hospital around 8 am and were checked into a room. The nurse hooked me up to a contraction monitor and a baby heart beat doppler. My contractions were still very mild, in fact I could barely feel them. Luca's heart beat was perfect. I was dilated 2 cm at this point. At 9 am, they started an IV with Pitocin to help induce my contractions since I still wasn't get strong ones and my water had been broken for over 6 hours. (They like to deliver the baby as soon as possible after your water breaking to avoid infection.) Within minutes of starting the pitocin, I was having strong, regular contractions. I was amazed at how quickly they were painful and hard to get through. At 10:30, I was dilated 3 cm and asked for an epidural.
The anesthesiologist arrived at 11 am. At this point, I was shaking uncontrollably, but the nurse said this was a normal effect of labor. I thought it would be hard to do the epidural with me shaking so badly, but he managed just fine. The initial "prick" hurt pretty badly, but after that I didn't feel much. They finished and laid me on my side. It was amazing to feel my legs slowly grow warm and tingly.
After this, I tried to get some rest, but just couldn't sleep. The effects of the epidural, although good because I couldn't feel my contractions, were actually very uncomfortable. I was stuck on my side and I couldn't move my whole lower half. I started to get very nauseous and my back started to ache from being in a strange positions. I had progressed to 4-5 cm around 1 pm, but that's were I stalled.
By 5:00 pm, I still hadn't progressed and my OB said she would give me until 6:30 to dilate further, otherwise we needed to do a c-section. Everyone, the nurses, OB, and me, thought that's what would happen. By that time, I wanted to say "bring it on!" because I was so miserable and tired. But, 6:30 rolled around and I had dilated to 7-8 cm! Everyone was completely shocked. My nurse said she was about 90% sure I'd end up with a c-section.
By 7:30, I was dilated to 9 cm and at 8:00 pm I was 10 cm and ready to push. I was so glad to have gotten to this point, but I was utterly exhausted and didn't know how I could go any longer. I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and hadn't eaten in 24 hours. Plus, the nurse told me that most first time moms push for up to 2 hours!
But I had no choice. I wanted to meet my son. So I started pushing at 8 pm, my OB came in to help at 9 pm, and little Luca came into the world at 9:37 pm. It was truly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. There were many times I wanted to quit and couldn't believe what I was going through, but in the end, I can't imagine anything more rewarding. Luca started screaming even before he was all the way out and they laid him on my chest right away. It was the most amazing feeling to see this little baby that had been growing inside of me for nine months now crying in my arms. He is so very perfect. :)
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