Went in for a Check up and Got Induced ...

It all started on Tuesday, September 11^th. Since I was 2 days past my due date, we had an ultrasound scheduled in the doctor’s office at 3:30pm to make sure everything was still ok to continue the pregnancy. Of course, Mike was running late and I was already in the ultrasound room when he arrived. He arrived just in time for the ultrasound tech to tell me that my fluid was low. I didn’t know what that meant but she left the room to ask the doctor if she should continue. The doctor said she should and I got 6/8 on the rating scale. I lost the two points for my low fluid. The doctor then put me on a non-stress test for about 25 minutes. In that time I had 4 contractions. None hurt but they were happening pretty often. The doctor came back in the room and said that there appears to be no reason to continue this pregnancy since I’m already past my due date and that we should go to L&D right then to be induced tonight and that we shouldn’t even stop at the house. I was in shock. It was not what I was expecting at all! Walking out of the office I was having a mini panic attack. I was supposed to go to my parents house but called and said they needed to do more tests and we would be late. I did call Denise and tell her what was happening. We went up to L&D and they got us in a room pretty quickly and on the same non-stress test monitor. The doctor came in after a while and we discussed induction and other options. I chose just to be induced. They also said I could get an IV all night long and hope the fluid levels rise but most likely that would mean I would just be induced in the morning. They said my fluid levels weren’t that low, they like them to be at least 5 and mine was at 4.8. Most people’s are >10 though. They said inductions could take days and I won’t be able to eat the whole time, so they said get a nice dinner in me now and I will be induced after that. We called my parents and they brought over the meatloaf and I ate that for dinner and it was an excellent dinner! Mike went with my dad back to our house to pick up the baby bag and car seat and drop of his car since we had both cars at the appt and also to shower and change. My mom stayed with me at the hospital and at about 8:45pm, they started the Pitocin. They started it at 2 mL/hr and upped it every 30 minutes by 2 mL/hr. When I arrived, I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Within an hour I was having regular contractions about 5 minutes apart but they still didn’t hurt. I had to go to the bathroom all the time it felt like and a lot of them were for #2. It was an endeavor to go to the bathroom with all the cords and IVs but Mike helped me and it worked out pretty well. By 2:30am, I was in serious pain with contractions every minute and a half. I wanted pain relief at this point. I asked Mike to call the nurse and at first he just said to wait for her to come but she wasn’t coming and so I asked him to please call. He did and she said she would be by shortly. After some time she still wasn’t there, so I asked him to call again. He did and she finally came. She checked me and said I was between 3-4 cm dilated. I was very disappointed by this because I was in so much pain and I hadn’t dilated at all. I thought that would mean I would be on an epidural for days potentially. So they offered Stadol which is an IV medication that would “take the edge off.” I decided on that because I didn’t want the epidural for such a long time. But then Jemma was sleeping and they cant give me those meds when she’s sleeping. They were trying to wake her up by having me drink cold juice and pushing on her but it was taking forever. It was over an hour now since I decided I wanted medication and I was still in serious pain so I asked if I could get the epidural faster. They said that the anesthesiologist was in a C-section and I could get it when she gets out. They said it had already started but could take up to an hour. I was getting very anxious at that point and I said just to give me whatever I could get first.