At 8:00 am on June 13th, Dr. Brown ( the best ob/gyn EVER!) came in to see me and notify me that the foley bulb wasn't placed right and I was still only 1 cm. My pitocin was at 20mU already and we were going on 12 hours with NO progress. I broke down and cried. I was thinking of the nurse curse again and how my chances of getting a c-section were pretty high. After 2 abdominal surgeries, I did not want a third. So Dr. Brown placed another foley bulb. Finally at about 4:30pm it came out and I was what we on L&D refer to as a "foley bulb 5." Meaning I was 5 cm but not in active labor. The midwife talked with Dr. Brown and we decided to turn off the pitocin and try cytotec again. At 8:00 the new midwife came in and told me I was still 5cm and wanted to break my water. At this point my epidural was becoming less and less effective. The CRNA had to keep redosing me every 3 hours. I started crying. I was hungry, nauseous from not eating, uncomfortable and felt like I would never get into active labor.
At about 11:00 pm I was checked again with no change in dilation but my contractions indicated I might be starting active labor. I was in a lot of pain and told the CRNA I was ready for him to redo my epidrual. He told me he figured I would probably end up with a c-section and wanted to wait to do a spinal when we got back to the OR. I was starting to give up hope. I finally got a few hours of sleep and at 3:00 am on June 14th, the midwife checked me and I was 7 cm! Yes! No c-section for this gal. I was so happy but then my epidural wore off again.
Around 5:30 am I felt lots of pressure down there. I call my nurse, Pat, and with a huge smile she told me I was completely dilated!!! She took care of me both nights so this was an accomplishment for us both. At about 6:00 am I started pushing. After an hour of pushing, I needed a break. I was in pain and wanted my epidural redosed. 45mins after the redose, the pain was back. I guess I was going to get my nautral childbirth expereice afterall. I pushed and pushed until I threw up, several times, but she just didn't want to come out. I begged Dr. Brown to use a vacuum but she said I could do it on my one. I wanted to give up so many times but I knew from what I had told my patients, there is only one way out and one way to get there.
Finally, after 39 hours of induction and 2 1/2 hours of pushing, Kevin placed Karlie in my arms at 8:22 am on June 14. I remember dreaming a few hours before her birth that he handed me a girl. And it was!
It was so amazing to meet this little person who had been putting her foot in my side and doing flips for the last several weeks of pregnancy. I was too tired to cry at that point. I got her to latch to my breast and looked down at her and lost it. I finally had my baby. We were all so tired. Kevin, Mike and my mom had stayed by my bedside the entire 39 hours. I remember wanting pancakes, french toast and hashbrowns, all the stuff I couldn't eat when I was pregnant due to the GDM. But when I finally got my tray I was too nauseous to eat! It was dissappointing, especially since I wasn't able to eat for the last 2 days.
After a day in postpartum we got to go home. I'll have to write about that tomorrow. I need to get some sleep before Karlie wakes up to eat in a few hours.
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