Labor Day, Part 1

A long time ago (about a year ago, in fact) I promised to post the story of Anna's birth day. Believe it or not, I did actually write it all out then (in a sleep-deprived haze), but we had so many pictures and other stories of the cute little bundle to tell that it never got published.

Since today is the official anniversary of that big event (and tomorrow my little baby will turn 1, sniff sniff), I thought now might be a good time to actually get this posted...if for no other reason than to remind Mom and Dad why we won't be doing this again anytime soon. ;o) (P.S. - Please forgive the rambling, I really did write this right after we got home from the hospital and I left it mostly intact in the interest of posterity).

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The 25 Hour Day

A little belated, but I promised that I would post about Anna's Birth Day and the story of her eviction, so here it is for those of you fortunate enough to not have to listen to me spin this yarn in person. ;o)


We headed in to the hospital on Monday the 11th and by the time we got checked in, dressed in that exquisitely fashionable hospital gown and the IV hooked up (possibly one of the worst parts of the whole ordeal, she had a heck of time finding a vein) it was about 9 PM. We started off with two "doses" of Cytotec, which is a small pill inserted next to the cervix that is designed to get the process moving gently (ha ha) in the hopes that your body will have time to adjust and do the appropriate moving and stretching. The worst part about the Cytotec is that you are supposed to lie flat and not move for two hours after they put it in, which is a challenge when you're 41+ weeks pregnant. :P


Around 7 AM the next morning the doctor checked me and I was slightly more dilated, but my cervix was still posterior and turned to the right...in other words, totally cock-eyed. So, they broke my water, which made me feel like a living impersonation of the Trevi fountain, but it did start some stronger contractions...still no Pitocin at this point, yay. Unfortunately, the contractions started dying down, so around 9 AM we caved and started the Pitocin.


Those of you who know me well know that I am something of a medical anomaly when it comes to strong medication...I'm allergic to morphine/codeine and Novocain just flat out doesn't work on me. So it's no surprise that the Pitocin, upon entering my bass-ackwards system, did exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to--it stopped the contractions dead. So they cranked it up. And cranked it up again. And again. And finally it kicked in! And then OMG it kicked in! The contractions started with a vengeance but thankfully my cervix finally started to turn and move to the front. Around 2 PM I was 3 CM dilated and my cervix was almost straightened out...I made it another hour and another centimeter before finally asking for the epidural.

I should say here that the breathing exercises, different body positions, and focal point exercises (mostly the Olympics on TV) that we learned in childbirth class worked really well for me in controlling the pain up to the 4 cm/17 hours in labor point...after that, I started to get the shakes and while I was still "ahead" of the pain, it was fast approaching the point where it would no longer be in my control. I knew that the epidural would take a little bit to kick in (not to mention the hospital had a life flight "code blue" or some bad color situation just as I asked for the epidural so the anesthesiologist was a bit delayed :P) so I asked for it before I was beyond the point of being in control, right around 3 PM. By 4 PM the epidural was in place and by 4:30 I was blissfully able to rest for the first time in what felt like forever. We didn't originally want to do an epidural if we didn't need to, but with the induction/Pitocin and the length of the labor, it was the most blissful thing in the world at that point...


...to be continued.