Day 1. Thursday, January 11th

Thank goodness Steve took notes as to what was happening and when, cuz its now going to help me reiterate it to you and I was in such a fog there are details I cant remember. As you know, they were going to induce me. Steve and I got to the hospital at about 5:30 pm. The plan was the Dr was going to give me Cervadil, a gel that goes on my cervix to soften it and get it ready for labor. Sometimes that alone will send a woman into labor, but most times it doesn't, its just the start of the process. The next step would have been them to give me a Pitocin drip early Friday morning, that starts the contractions. So, that was the plan. Once we got there, the Dr was minutes away from giving me the gel and he says he needs to check me first because there have been women who have been already dilated 5 centimeters and in that case we wouldnt need to do this. Can you guess what happens next? I was 4 centimeters dilated on my own. He decided to break my water immediately. (And let the nurse know to be prepared because there would be GALLONS as I had so much fluid). A whopping 17 minutes later at 6:30 pm, contractions were coming 3 minutes apart! I could not believe they were coming so fast. By 8pm I was in major pain and requested my epidural. Something I have been absolutely terrified of since I had such a bad experience when I had Zachary. (The anesthesiologist stuck me 5 times because he couldn't get it in the right spot). Anyway, I survive my epidural at 8:30. At 8:45 they start to work a little. By 9 pm, the drugs are wearing off. I could feel the contractions on my right side, but not my left. 9:10 pm Im in major pain and Im 5 cm dilated. More epidural in my IV. At 9:30 pm the anesthesiologist comes back. He takes the catheter out of my back and redoes it with a new epidural. He says I have a twisted spine (probably from my car accidents) and that could be the cause of the epidural not working. 9:45 pm meds starting to work again. 10:10 pm..major contraction pains are back. Damn epi isnt working again! 20 minutes later at 10:30 pm I began asking them to up the dose of the epi and give me more. Dr comes in and checks me at 10:35 pm and Im now 8 cm dilated, and no epidural working, starting to feel nauseous and dry heaving with every contraction that are now coming every minute and a half. Checks me again at 11:10 pm. Still at 8 cm. Still no epi working. 11:20 pm. Another dose of epi in my IV. 11:55 pm~ Damn epi is still not working even with all the extra doses they have put in my IV. Still at 8 cm. I seem to be stuck there. The dr is now making me push to try and get the baby to come down. Now he puts me in stirrups and is making me push that way. So lets review. Ive now been at 8 cms for at least an hour and a half that we know of..maybe more (because before that I hadnt been checked since 9:10 pm), im dry heaving, I have no epidural working, and im stuck at 8 cms without progress. and its almosgt midnight. I was not a happy camper. Stay tuned for my next post (day 2) and I will share what happens next.