The plan was to do Cytotec overnight, and start Pitocin in the morning. I was only 1+ cm dilated and 50-75% effaced, so I wasn't going anywhere on my own. We picked up Chik-fil-a for my MD friend, who was deck doc that night, so we hung out and visited for a while while she ate. The night was uneventful, and we started the Pit in the morning. Even though I didn't progress AT ALL for most of the day, it went pretty quickly. I had contractions that I could feel (but definitely tolerate) and we went on like that all morning. Around lunch time my MD friend came in to check me (still 1 cm) and break my water. Apparently they could not up the dosage of Pit without placing a fetal monitor so she did that as well. I had done okay up until that point- but the monitor put me over the edge. I don't think that breaking my water hurt, but the monitor sure did. I started to cry and had a hard time stopping.
T and P's mom came by in the afternoon to visit. Around 2:00 we decided to do the epidural- the one time P had left the room all day. I had to text him to tell him what was going on and he came back in a hurry. Ironically, I was least worried about the epidural and it was probably the worst part about the whole experience. I had a great anesthesiologist who narrated the whole thing very well. But, as he was doing something and giving me the rundown of the possible side effects ("sometimes our patients will feel a jolt of electricity running down their leg or in their hip and this tells us we got it in the right spot") I would experience that side effect. I was fine with the needle placement but when I got that jolt of electricity running down my left leg I started to cry- it just took me by surprise. Then, as the medicine began to work he said I might experience dizziness, nausea and ringing in my ears. Check, check and check. They had me lie down on the bed and I have no idea what they were doing but I do know that my BP went down to 74/38 and I thought I was going to die (it was 140/90 when I was admitted). The MD was really fantastic about explaining what was happening and assured me I would be better in less than two minutes. I remember thinking "Two whole minutes? I won't last" but he was exactly right- I was better very quickly. It was pretty terrifying though. It makes me mad that something I was so NOT worried about turned into a pretty scary experience and next time I will be way more nervous about getting the epidural.
So, after the epidural everything was peachy, as it often is. I am not clear on why you'd want to experience the pain of childbirth- I loved that epidural. From 2:00-6:00 I progressed to 4 cm and when my nurse checked me she did something to make me 5 cm. (Literally, it went something like this: "Well, you are a little more than 4... just a second... oops... now you are 5!") Then around 9:00ish she checked me again and I was 9+ and she thought I should get ready to push. My day nurse had guessed that I would be having the baby in the wee hours of the next day so I was completely surprised. The baby was not facing the right way though, so they had me on my side to encourage it to turn (which it did). I started to push around 10:00. It sounds so strange, but the pushing was really liberating, and I would almost say it was fun. It reminded me of when I was training for the Mini Marathon- I would be doing a 10 mile training run and think that I couldn't possibly take another step (much less run another mile) but I would do it. That was exactly how pushing felt to me. They gave me the option of resting or pushing and I remember looking at the date on the clock and thinking "I really want this baby to be born on the sixth." I had re-upped my epidural though and couldn't feel anything so I was not sure I'd be a very effective pusher. But apparently I was, and at 11:27 on March 6th Grayson was born. The weirdest thing about pushing was that while I didn't feel any contractions I did feel a hot, searing pain in my left hip socket every time I had a contraction. It was the only way I knew it was time to push. The MD and nurse both said it was odd, but something had to be pressing on my sciatic nerve to cause that sensation.
It was an amazing, surreal experience. All my worries about bonding were unfounded- I was pretty enthralled with him as soon as I met him. It was very, very weird. P went over to the warming table while they cleaned him up and held his hand and took pictures. Frankly, I remember snippets of what happened after he was born but nothing very clearly. I was so tired and hungry. P took a little video of when I got to hold Gray for the first time and I'm so thankful he did- I just don't remember that time very well. After things had calmed down a bit we worked on getting Gray to nurse, which took 40 minutes or more to even get him started. He would latch well but not suck, for some reason. I just kept reminding myself to calm down and not get nervous about it as that wouldn't help one bit. He eventually got the hang of it though.
They took Gray to the nursery from 2-4 AM while we were supposed to sleep. We just talked and talked- I probably got less than an hours sleep. The next day was pretty hellish, since I was so exhausted. I remember people coming into my room to see me and I would be squinting at them, trying to focus on what they were saying. That day was pretty much a blur. I did make a point of getting up and taking a shower in the morning, which probably did help. I was definitely in some pain but wanted to be mobile as soon as possible.
The whole experience was really, really positive. P and I had fun, believe it or not, and laughed a LOT that day. I had never been in the hospital before (much less been in any type of significant pain) so I had no idea what to expect. I had some great nurses, one of which I just loved (luckily, she was my labor nurse). As much as I hated pregnancy, the birth was really a great experience and Gray is pretty darn cute.
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