October 7, 2011 - Day 0

Hi Ronni Jane,

Today was supposed to be your birthday.  Instead you wanted it on your terms so you decided to come a day after my induction... Here's your birth story.

Danny and I were late of course getting to the hospital on Friday the 7th of October.   I was scheduled to be there at 8am and we showed up more like 8:45 in a rush.  I called the hospital while we were driving to let them know we would be late and they said,  Oh you're still coming?  Ok we'll let the nurses know.. Was there an option for me to chicken out?!  They didn't tell me that.. Anyway in all the rush to get there Danny forgot to pack extra clothes for the days that would follow in the hospital.

So we made it to the hopsital and as we walked the halls to the Labor and Delivery unit my nerves really started to peak, especially since we were late.  We got to the nurses station and I was about to burst out bawling.. Danny had to tell them my  name and info.  Then one of the nurses took us back to our room where I lost it.   I couldn't stop crying... I think partial excitement to meet our little girl and fear of the unknown labor that was before me. 

After a bit I composed myself got in my gown,  Danny set up the ipod with my relaxing "labor tunes" and we took some pics of the room.  Then the "fun" began.   Dr Shaw and the nurse came in to talk to me about the plan.   The nurse wrote happy messages on the white board and her name was Divina Luz.. very appropriate for what I was about to do.. dar la luz.  Anyway they started me on a slow drip of pitocin to start inducing contractions.   The plan was for me to get an epidural once they started getting really bad and then they would break my water.   However the nurse didn't make the pit strong enough and so I was progressing very slowly... so slow that after 3 hrs on the pit they had to come break my water without the epidural at 1:30pm.

Then the contractions really started to kick in... IN THE WORST PAIN OF MY LIFE sort of way.   I lasted until about 5pm and then decided I had enough of the labor experience and asked for my epidural.  The anesthesiologist came super quick and did a great job.  It felt like sprays of water were being flicked at my legs until they fell asleep.  It was a weird but welcome feeling.   My Dr came to check on me around 8pm and I still wasn't progressing!!  She was too high up and didn't want to move down.  So they decided to up my dosage of pitocin. So we waited and waited and then the back labor began at 9pm.. and went onto the next day.... Day 1