My husband and I arrived at the hospital at six o’clock in the morning for my planned induction. My throat was so sore I could hardly swallow and my husband was coughing and feeling horrible as well. Was this really a good idea? My doctor talked to me and confirmed my own thoughts. If this was a viral infection I was only going to feel worse in another week. I sucked on ice chips, began the Ptosin, and prayed for the best.
My labors have all been slow. The nurses never believed me when I told them I didn’t expect to deliver before six o’clock and maybe not until eight. They nodded their head like they must to all their ignorant patients and said, “This is your fifth child? We’ll see about that!”
At about 11:00 the contractions were getting hard enough to make me ask for the epidural. As they were preparing to insert the needle my husband who was supposed to be my stability began coughing uncontrollably. I had to kick him out and hang on to the nurse! The first time the catheter was inserted I felt pain all the way down my back so he had to do it again. Would this never end? I was having to consciously breath between contractions. The anesthesiologist finally inserted the epidural, and I waited for relief to come.
I always tell the nurses that it takes more to get me numb than the average person and of course they never believe me. Finally, after an added shot of medicine to the epidural I found some relief. The strange thing was that it completely numbed my legs but I could still feel the contractions. For a while they were only mildly annoying, but as things progressed I felt the contractions in earnest. I pleaded for more medication. The anesthesiologist supposedly gave me another dose, but I did not feel any relief and the contractions were coming harder and closer together.
Around 2:30 my nurse came rushing into the room, checked the baby’s monitor, turned off the Ptocin, and quickly got my doctor on the phone. My baby’s heart rate had gone dangerously low for long enough that they were beginning to take action toward either delivering right then or an emergency C-Section. My nurse had me change positions and as I did my baby’s heart rate slowly went back to normal. Evidently he had descended too fast. The nurse thought we would have a baby within the hour, but with the Ptocin off pretty much nothing happened for the next couple of hours until they finally turned it back on.
By around five o’clock in the evening I was in terrible pain, sick, tired, and hungry. I kept telling my nurse that the epidural wasn’t helping. Finally, the anesthesiologist came in just in time to see me completely lose it with a contraction. I didn’t scream and yell though if I had had to endure that type of pain for hours I probably would have. I was not prepared for the pain. The nurse told us I didn’t have much longer so the anesthesiologist finally came to my rescue and gave me a dose that killed the pain and allowed me to give birth in moderate comfort. Bobby was born at 6:52.
Click here to keep reading about what I went through Postpartum.
I’m linked with Baby Link-Up and Women Living Well.
Congratulations! He looks PERFECT! Hope you get over the cold and soon!
Oh he is SO cute! Congratulations! Isn’t it funny how nurses/doctors treat you like you don’t know anything and then act surprised when things go as you predicted? We’ve had some interesting adventures in pregnancy/birth because they didn’t listen to me. Now we have some funny stories though. Need more guest posts? 😉
Congratulations!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your story! Congratulations! He is such a blessing! My biggest irritation at the hospital is the nurses and on-call dr’s who pretend they know me…but don’t….luckily we have only had a few nurses/dr’s we had to set in line and had some pretty good experiences…now if we would remember to put a do not disturb sign on our door…can’t stand the constant interuptions!
I had two failed epidurals when giving birth to Pierce, which is what made me decide not to bother w/ the twins and just go natural.
Glad Bobby arrived safely and you didn’t have to do a c-section! 🙂
Congrat’s Esther! Bobby is adorable! He’s a good size too. Great job!
Being induced is no fun. At all. With our first I was induced – the doctor had told me to bring some videos to watch that night. Was she joking???? I had no desire to watch videos.
Glad you didn’t have to have the C-section; he’s a good looking baby boy!
You are making me nervous for my delivery in Feb. 🙂 Glad it all worked out so you didn’t have to have the c-section!
Thinking about some of your past stories, your deliveries have certainly not been a breeze. Thank goodness everything turned out okay! You’re a hero. 🙂 And he’s beautiful. Congrats.
He is beautiful! I hope you are feeling better – and able to enjoy your little man 🙂
wow… what a birth story! I love reading birth stories… even with the pain, they are all precious with a precious gift at the end!
…and yet, they’re always worth it! Congrats!
Congrats I just had a baby boy 8 lbs 11 oz, my epidural was just fine, but our hospital stopped doing catheters and makes their patients use bed pans (booo)would have much rathered a catheter especially since they did one after my birth anyway. Glad to hear everything went well.
He’s such a cutie! I also had an epidural that didn’t take – it’s agonizing to feel all the contractions but not be able to move around and ease the pain because your legs are frozen from the epidural!!
I’m happy the doc gave you something in the end, though. Maybe next time if you hit them over the head (you can blame it on labor) they’ll listen the first time you tell them…
He is perfectly beautiful! (bummer on what you had to endure!)
Oh, you poor woman!! I was hoping the birth wouldn’t have been as bad as this! How awful! At least it’s over. This story reminds me of my first delivery, which was horrible.
Congratulations! He’s gorgeous! major case of baby envy here even with the tough labor story.
Doctors can be so frustrating sometimes. I remembered telling the nurse my baby was coming and she says no I don’t think so and when she looked she was like OMG I can see her head. Um really? did you think I was making it up??
Loved reading your birth story, painful though it was. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your adorable son. I love his IRL name – it’s the name of my first son. 🙂
Im so sorry you had to endure that for so long, and that it wasnt helping, much! my epidural didnt take with my second kid, but i went from 5cm to delivered within 40 minutes… so i only had to live thru it that long… (which felt like an eternity!)
but hey, “its only one day out of life”.. and now that is OVER and you have your sweet new boy to enjoy.. and what a DOLL he is!!! congrats again, so glad everything turned out okay in the end with no C!
CONGRATULATIONS! I haven’t officially said that yet. I’ve been checking you out like always, just haven’t commented yet. I’m so excited and happy for you! (Not so much the long labor and crappy epidurals.) Isn’t it awful when the medical staff doesn’t pay attention? My husband helped my midwife prep for and deliver one of our babies, because the nurses didn’t come in when we told them I was ready to push the baby out. Oh well! My husband had fun delivering the baby.
Oh my goodness, having a cold and giving birth at the same time sounds really challenging! Thanks so much for sharing your story with the Tuesday baby link up community!