So the night of September 21st at 6 o'clock, Casey and I arrived at the hospital for my first dose of prepidil (Too Much Information Alert--it is a gel that they insert into your cervix that helps to soften and open the cervix naturally thus inducing labor). This is given in 2 doses that have to be 6 hours apart and then you are started on pitocin. So at 6 o'clock the nurse inserted the prepidil and stripped my membranes. For the first time, I started having gradual, consistent contractions. We then went home to wait and were told to come back at 12:30 am for my next dose.
At 12:30 am we arrived back at the hospital. So far, the prepidil had done nothing but give me consistent, cramp-like contractions. The hospital admitted me to stay and gave me another dose. I sent Casey home to sleep because he was not functioning well and the poor dog needed someone to be with her. Then the nurse gave me my second dose which really got my contractions going. I immediately missed Casey because I was in pain and had no one to complain to. The night passed pretty slowly and I was relieved when 7 am came and it was time to start me on the pitocin.
So at 7 am they started my pitocin drip. My contractions got bad pretty fast even though I was only dialated to a 1 and 80% effaced. I had my epidural around 8:30 am and it was much less scary than I thought it would be. The doctor did a very good job and the only thing that hurt was the numbing shot he gave me before inserting the large epidural needle. The epidural was great and I was finally able to relax and get some rest.
About 10 am, Dr. Harward arrived to break my water. So far I was dialating very slowly, and I was about a 3 when they broke my water. Then we waited.
At 4 pm I was still only dialated to a 6 and the nurses started to tell me that I might have to have a c-section after all. This is because once they break your water, and if they induce you, most doctors don't like you to be in labor more than 12 hours if it's not progressing. So now we faced the fact that at 7 pm we might have a c-section. Well we were very wrong. At 5 pm, Dr. Harward came in to check me and I was 10 centimeters and fully effaced. It was time to push. Everything else went very fast. I started pushing about 5:15 pm and Shelby was born at 6:01 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 inches long. She was finally here and she was beautiful.
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