I was 11 days past my due date and my doctor set my induction date for the following Tuesday, 9/19. She scheduled me for a CST (Contraction Stress Test) on Friday, 9/14. They couldn't get me to have enough contractions in ten minutes so they hooked me up to a breast pump to stimulate contractions. I finally had three contractions in ten minutes and they let me go. From then on I began feeling more contractions, although they were not too painful.
The next day they started to get painful and my husband decided to take me for a car ride on a dirt road to get my labor going. I think he was more impatient than I was! So off we went and BOY WAS IT BUMPY! My contractions were weak but coming every six minutes by Saturday night, so I called my in-laws who live five hours away and asked them to head on over. They drove all night long and got there at about 5 a.m. the next morning, just as my husband was leaving for work. We all went back to sleep and tried to get some rest. I got up around 9 a.m. and showered. My contractions were increasing in pain, but still not enough to go to the hospital. Then, while in the shower I felt some water trickle down my leg that was a different temperature than the shower water. I didn't think too much of it and finished in the shower, then when I got out and got dried off the flow increased and I realized my water had broken. I called my husband and told him to come home. Then I woke up my in-laws.
We got to the hospital at about 10:30 in the morning on Sunday, 9/16. I got admitted and settled into a room and by then my contractions were pretty painful. The nurse checked me and I was only two centimeters and 50% effaced, which is what I had been at my last doctor's appointment. I labored on until about 10 p.m. and the doctor checked me again. It had already been over 12 hours since my water had broken and I was only at four cm but I was 100% effaced. I really didn't want any medication for pain and hadn't had any up till that point, but decided since I was making minimal progress and they were going to administer pitocin, I would get the epidural. I felt so much better and was able to get some rest until about midnight.
Then I started to feel a lot of pain again. The doctor gave me several shots and administered more drugs but NOTHING was working and the pain continued to get more intense. He checked me and I was at about 9-1/2 cm and he wanted me to try and push through it. I tried and pushed hard with a lot of pain for an hour with no progress. The baby was only at zero station. The doctor told me he could let me push for another two hours, but he didn't think I could do it because the baby was just too big. He suggested a c-section and although I really didn't want one I agreed to let them take the baby out any way they could!
I don't remember much after that. They wheeled me to surgery and I remember being surprised to see my husband because he's pretty queasy about blood and things. Then I remember feeling some pressure and them telling me the baby was out and it was a perfectly healthy boy! He weighed in at 9 lbs and 2 ounces. OUCH! I am a little girl and I don't think I could have delivered him at that size.
It's exactly one week later and James Alexander Young is still as healthy as ever. It's been tough recovering from all that pushing and the c-section but we are making it. We think he's a great addition and even though we're lacking in sleep, we're making up for it in love.
