Labor and Delivery

OK… the big question everyone wants to know is how labor was! Well, I will just start from the beginning. I went to the doctor Tuesday at 1:30, not expecting any progress, and knowing my blood pressure had been spiking. The doctor had been watching me for several weeks because the bottom number would spike! So he came in and I immediately knew he was uncomfortable with what he was about to say. He checked me, said that I had no change from last week, and he thought I could be developing toxemia. He said that because of the risk factors and that I was 39 ½ weeks it would be best to induce labor. I was immediately overwhelmed, but was happy to hear I would meet Allie Grace soon. So we checked in the hospital around 8:30p.m.! My water broke around 2:30 a.m. and I was having small contractions! (this was all me and no drugs!) They did not start the drugs to induce until 5:30 Wednesday morning. After about 30 minutes my contractions began and they said everything looked great. So the waiting began and so did the breathing through the contractions. The doctor came in around 7 and I was dilated 2 centimeters. Every few hours they would check my progress. Around 12 noon I had dilated to about 3 ½ centimeters. They did not want to increase my drip because my contractions had reached the point they should be to push the baby out! Around 4 I got the nerve to ask for the epidural! So the nurse called the doctor and he came right over. He had a lot of problems putting the epidural in and after three tries was finally successful! He told me it would be about 15 minutes before the drugs would kick in and he would be back shortly to check me! He came back about 30 minutes later and I could still feel everything on my left side. So he increased my dosage and we all prayed it would work, but it did not! Due to the fact I had been in labor for hours and had no progress at all, he said it was time to consider a c-section. He apologized he had put me in that position, but felt it would be best for me and the baby. There where two women in front of me due to have a c-section. Thankfully one of them had eaten on her way to the hospital and could not have her surgery! [I know that she was not happy about that, but it helped me out greatly.] So they came and got me around 5:45 and had to give me a spinal because the epidural did not take full effect. The story comes to an end hear with the birth of Allie Grace at 6:30p.m. on Wednesday, May 25th 2005! We stayed in the hospital for three days and came home on Saturday. Today has been spent resting and recovering from the whole experience.