My Baby Story - Part III

11:00pm - We had been walking the halls since 8:30pm. While I was walking, I timed my contractions at 3 minutes apart. Once I lay down however, they slowed to every 5-10 minutes. The Doctor checked me and I had not dilated any further. At this point, they wanted to keep me on all of the monitors so I was to remain bed ridden. They tried 3 times to get an IV in me and this was more painful than the contractions. They finally had to send in the nurse supervisor.

11:30pm - DG and I started to joke about my one runaway nose hair and how I had forgotten to take care of it that week. I thought it would scratch up the baby's face once she got here and I snuggled up to her.

1:15am -Since I had not progressed any further, the doctor came in and gave the ok to start the Pitocin. I already had an IV, so they started with a small amount.

1:30am - DG started blogging. I dictated my post from the bed. I also had him send an email to my book club to let them know that I would not be there that night.

2:00am - We took a nap for an hour.

3:00am - They upped the Pitocin level and my contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart, but totally bearable. I think this is when I started bragging that I could do this all night and day if I had to. The nurse just laughed.

3:15am - For the 5th time that night, I tried to take off my bra. Unfortunately it was caught up in all of the wires, monitors and IVs that I was attached to. By now it was unhooked, hanging off both shoulders and uncomfortably binding. I was never able to get it off.

3:30am - I called my mother (2 hour time difference) because I knew she would be up. Little did I know that she had been pacing nervously all night. We had not spoken since 8:00pm, so she didn't know what was going on. I gave her an update and we chit chatted about the weather for awhile.

4:00am - They upped the Pitocin level again. My contractions immediately went from a 4 on the pain scale to a 10. My pelvis felt like it was about to crack in half. I got that wild crazy look that you see in the movies as my entire body convulsed and tensed during each contraction. I was no longer in my body, but hovering over the bed.

4:20am I lasted through about 6 contractions and my whole body was violently shaking when I looked DG in the eye and told him that I needed an epidural.