XP: birth story...finally :)

Mrs.Umm

I woke around 2am on Wednesday, with some mildly painful contractions, about 10 minutes apart. After walking, bouncing, gardening (and canning 14 jars of pickles) they hadn't changed, so I headed off to my last OB appointment of this pregnancy. I saw the MW around 5, and then headed to the hospital to be induced at 6:30.? It was 7:30 until I got to the floor, and at about 8:30, they started my IV and the cervadil. The nurse told me that cervadil would ripen the cervix (which was still only at 1cm and 60%) but wouldn't actually start labor. They kept McNugget and I on the monitors for about 2 hours, and then sent me to the floor with a sleeping pill and my IV.? 1 hour later, I was walking the halls with contractions at 4 minutes apart. About an hour into that, they sent me back to L&D to labor. I was already near 4cm, and we thought things might go quick.? A few hours later, and still no progress, they gave me some pain meds so I could sleep. We did two doses (one in the middle of the night and one at 6am) and I got about 2 hours sleep total. The meds knocked me out initially, but did nothing for the pain once contractions started.? At 9:30, they removed the cervadil and started pitocin, to see if that would make some progress. Again, they told me it was a low dose, and it would do things gradually. Within an hour, my contractions were 2 minutes apart and topping out the monitor. I gave in and asked for an epi around noon. I was standing at the foot of the bed, breathing through contractions, and falling asleep standing up in between. My nurse was awesome at coaching me through, but we could both tell that I was too exhausted and not making any progress. After all that, I was still only 5-6cm and 80%. They finally put my epi in around 12:30, and everything changed. I was able to nap, and when I woke up, I was almost 10cm. My OB broke my water, and all hell broke loose. We lost McNugget's HR on the monitor! They tried turning me (luckily I had a "walking epi" so I could still move and feel some). I ended up on my hands and knees, pushing to get him down, when they got his HR again on the internal monitor. It was only in the 70s, so they started prepping the OR for a c-section. Luckily, after a few more pushes and turns, he moved out of the side of my pelvis where he was stuck, and his HR came back up. They left us to rest for a while, and came back to start really pushing at about 3:00. I pushed until 4:30, when they realized that he was stuck again, and no amount of pushing or turning was going to work. I ended up with an episiotomy and a vacuum assisted birth, which DH got to help with. He actually delivered McNugget at the end and put him on my chest. This was absolutely not the birth I planned or imagined, and I'm sore as hell, but I'm so happy and in love. McNugget is amazing, and DH is already an awesome dad.?