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After a restless night and a yummy breakfast, pit was started around 10am. At first the contractions weren't all that bad- they mainly felt like braxton-hicks all over again; no pain, just tightening. At that point I was thinking, "ahhh this ain't too bad!" Little did I know... We were upping the pit every 15 minutes at that point. However, several hours later (times are fuzzy to me on this) we had to back off the pit a little b/c the ctx were coming too fast. I wasn't meeting my minimum minute of rest between the ctx!
Soon after that, the real pain set in at around noon. Ironically, at this point the ctx were registering on the monitor as weaker than before we lowered the pit, but I was feeling the opposite. For the next couple of hours my breathing exercises and vocalizing along with changing positions helped me out. Finally, at around 4 or 4:30 or so (again times are fuzzy on this one) I caved and took a shot of Nubain. While it didn't take away the pain completely it did take the edge off for a short time, along with making me feel like I was drunk, which made the pain a bit easier. The doc walked in at around 5 or so and stated he would be back to break my water.
Let me back up for a minute here... once that Nubain started to wear off I seriously considered playing the Epidural card. Up to that point I had been undecided about wanting my water broken artificially, but something in my mommy gut said to roll with it (as did with going for the induction as well). I asked to have the epidural first, per the advice of many BTDT friends. Best. Advice. Ever. At about 5:30 or so the anesthesiologist (well, ok- nurse anesthetist) came in and started my spinal tap. While I had several contractions while he was placing it and an awesome nurse to help me through them, the relief was almost instantaneous. I know my DH was in the room with us but at that point things were so fuzzy to me I'm not sure exactly where he was!
Right after we were settled and then chilling out, the doc walked in and broke my water. I was at 4cm at that point (bear in mind that morning I was at a 1- no change from my previous checkups in the office) and fully effaced. My best internal check ever- I didn't feel a thing (although I could still move my legs a little, to both my and my doc's surprise)! A catheter was placed since I couldn't get up to go the bathroom on my own anymore (not like that was an easy feat to begin with since I had clunky IV pole to drag around. Unplugging the monitors was nothing compared to that) and I didn't even feel that. For the most part it was easy street from here... I say for the most part for a reason... when my water was broken, meconium was found, which meant a couple of extra visitors in our room to check on snowflake and suction her out good when she did arrive.
A few minutes later, my blood pressure then dropped and the snowflake didn't care too much for that, so out came the O2 for mama. Fortunately, a few deep breaths and an adrenaline shot for mama later, snowflake was happy again, but not without a production. Silly girl decided to hold us in suspense and almost earned mama another shot, but fortunately they didn't need it. Several position changes later for mama to avoid/alleviate the infamous pooling of the epidural, I was checked again (once again painlessly!) and at a 9. It was estimated I had about an hour left to labor down.
An hour and a half later it was time for some practice pushes, at about 9:30 or so. This is where things started to move very quickly, sort of... A couple of pushes in, I asked for a mirror so I could see her snowy little head coming out. With every push I saw more and more of her sweet hair (lots of it!). After each push, however, she decided to dip back in, basically playing peekaboo with us for quite some time. Unfortunately, my body decided to throw me another surprise and sent me into pukesville not once, not twice, but three different times! As a result I ended up wasting a couple of contractions to puke instead of push. argh! Finally, before I knew it the nurses were breaking down the bed and the doc came in. Lights, camera, action! (okay, no camera, but surely you see where I'm going with this!) A couple of pushes later and her head popped out. I could actually feel the vibration of her head popping out, but no pain, which was weird. At this point the doc instructed me to stop pushing and suctioned her out. A second later, no more pushes and Jessica Nicole entered the world at 11:19pm, after nearly 2 hours of pushing. Turned out the little stinker was OP (sunny side up) on top of the cord being wrapped around the neck not once, but twice- no wonder pushing her out was so much work!
She was placed on my chest for a second while daddy cut the cord and I loved on her for a second before she was whisked away to be checked out by the NICU team. The only thing going through my head at that point was, "WOW. She's beautiful!" and "Is she OK??" After what seemed like an eternity later, Jessica was given a clean bill of health and brought back to me. At that point I was so shaky (don't know if it was nerves, my extreme fatigue from all that pushing or the epidural or even all of the above) I could barely hold her but I was determined to do so! She provided mama a pleasant distraction while the doc stitched up her second-degree tear.
Between the meconium and the peeling skin I later discovered on her sweet hands and feet- and oh yeah, her size(!) it was definitely a good thing I listened to my gut and allowed the induction. Little turkey was slightly overcooked!
The snowy stats of our little snowflake: 8 lbs 2 oz, 20.5" long; 2/5/10 at 11:19pm at 41w 2d.
