My Induction / C-Section Story

We scheduled my induction to start at 8:00 Sunday night. They had some issues getting the iv in, which caused a lot of blood, which in turn sent me into an anxiety attack (I'm deathly afraid of needles). I was still 1 cm dilated. Cadie's heartbeat went sky-high. She's usually in the 140-150 range, but she was measuring in the 180-190s. They decided not to insert the cervidil and instead monitor me over night and start me on pitocin early Monday morning. Over night, my body started contracting on it's own. The nurse explained that this was a good thing and that my body was doing the work they expected the cervidil to do.

They started the pitocin drip at 8:30 the next morning. They decided to start out slowly, monitor her reaction to it, and then increase it as the day went on. Pretty soon, her heartbeat was rising where it should be and we were a go. By 10:20 my contractions were a little stronger and more frequent. They felt a lot like really bad menstrual cramps and some I didn't even feel at all. I was contracting 2 minutes apart by 1:45 and was 2 cm when they checked. At that check, the doctor tried to break my water but couldn't. She said the bag was too tough, but she felt like she nicked it a little. Contractions were a little stronger, but still manageable. They gave me some medicine via IV (started with an S- forget the name, sorry) which helped me nap through the contractions.

At 5:00, I was breathing through the contractions, but they still weren't quite so bad during the down time. I was sitting in bed when my water broke (my doctor counted 12:00 the official time since she nicked it). The contractions got really painful at this time, so I requested the epidural. It took her many tries to get it in. Every time I would lean down, I'd have a contraction and I had a huge problem sitting still. They finally got it in and the contractions were coming less than 2 minutes apart at this point. My entire left leg was numb, but I could still feel the right. Even worse, I could feel the catheter and with every contraction, it would sting like someone was stabbing me.

I continued to labor until about 10:30. I kept having to switch sides because the pain was so high I was having problems breathing. At this point, the doctor came and talked to me. The epi wasn't helping any and I had stalled at 5 cm dilated. Cadie's heartbeat had started rising again, this time reaching over 200. My body was exhausted and I was running a 102 degree fever. The doctor was concerned enough to highly recommend a c-section, which I agreed to.

They prepared me and DH for the c-section. They buckled me down and started inserting the numbing medicine through the epidural. The doctor started pinching me to gauge how the medicine was working. It took them pushing really hard on my abdomen to realize that they had already cut. Cadie entered the world at at 11:16pm on March 8th at 8 pounds, 6 ounces, 19.5 inches long. DH was completely fascinated with her and all reservations of cutting the cord went out the window. He proudly walked her down to the nursery. She's absolutely beautiful!

Recovery is going fantastic for both me and my girl. I was up out of bed yesterday and even got a shower. I could compare my pains to those of a bad period, but most of the time the pains meds knock those out. I did have an issue last night where my iv infiltrated. My left arm was so swollen, I couldn't bend my fingers. It actually looked like a cabbage patch doll's arm. They removed the iv and my hand has been on heating pads/ice since to try to get the painful swelling down. I always knew it would be the IV that gets me! My girl, on the other hand, has really taken to her formula. Her doctor told me today that she has gained an ounce since her birth, which is rare because usually babies lose a little weight the first week.