The birth

Tuesday night I was upgraded from my antepartum room to a birthing suite. They gave me cervidil to help soften my cervix--ironically, I dilated early with my son (around 32 weeks) and with this pregnancy I was completely NOT dilated/effaced. They kept that in place for several hours and I tried to snooze on and off. I knew I would be exhausted the next day if I didn't sleep all night but it was hard to rest with a nurse coming in every hour, my mind and anxiety in overdrive, plus I had a fetal heart rate monitor on my belly so any time I moved it would trigger an alarm.

Around 4am, the cervidil came out and I was able to take a shower. Then I was started on pitocin to trigger contractions. They started but were very mild. The nurse gave me some kind of drug drip that helped me catch a few hours of shut eye. It was a weird, trippy sleep but I was glad for the mental break. At 7am the hospital OB came in and broke my water. Hello! Cue the contractions. I was dilated to around 3cm but I could tell things were starting to move quickly.

I decided to get an epidural because why not? I had one with my first child plus contractions/labor are not fun. I had no idea how long it would take for my body to get to 10cm and didn't want to be in pain all day. Within an hour of having my water broken, I asked my nurse to call the anesthesiologist. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mishap. It took three tries to get my epidural in place and I ended up with a wet tap--you can google it but essentially they poked the wrong place and spinal fluid leaked which makes the brain sag. It caused the worst headache you can imagine. I couldn't sit up or open my eyes but I also couldn't feel the contractions anymore. Ha! In hindsight, I probably should have tried to go natural. The contractions were hard but not unbearable. Since this was my second birth with a substantially smaller child, my body really knew what to do. By 10am I was fully dilated, but I had no way of knowing these things would happen so I'm not upset nor do I regret the decision.

Thank goodness, delivery was short and went smoothly. Baby was born healthy (no NICU time necessary) and it was such a relief to see her, hold her, and begin bonding. The whole family was overjoyed and I can't say enough about my doctor and the hospital nurses. I was monitored throughout the next day for my spinal headache (no blood patch necessary) and we were both released to go home on Friday. Overall, I had a great birth experience. Did it go according to my plan or how I imagined, absolutely not. But nothing about this pregnancy went as planned or was ever in my control, and that is exactly how it was supposed to be.