Birth Story Part 3

We loaded up the car and headed down the driveway to begin our 20 minute journey to the hospital.  I was excited and nervous, but I felt great!  I didn't feel like anything was wrong with me, but all was not well.  Now they were going to induce.  I had read so many books on labor and delivery when I was pregnant and being induced was the one thing I knew I did not want.  However, I also knew the gravity of the medical situation I was facing and the neccessity for the intervention.  I kept focusing on the optimal end result, I go home: a healthy mother with a healthy child.  I don't remember our conversation as we drove along.  Perhaps I was reitterating to Terry my wishes for labor or maybe we were talking about our soon to be born daughter either way the talk did little to calm me.

Upon arrival at the hospital we parked in the garage and lugged our bags (yes multiple, we didn't know how long we would be there) up the elevator and across the building to the check in location.  They settled us in a room, not a birthing suite just a holding room, to stay the night.  The plan was to insert the Cervidil and wait, and wait, and (you guessed it) wait - until morning and see what might happen.  Not long after getting to the room my parents arrived.  I was told to undress and get into the hospital gown and then climb into the bed to be stuck, poked, prodded, and monitored.  It was kind of like being the subject of a sick science experiment.  Everyone sat around watching as the nurse dug first in one arm and then the other to find a vein for the IV.  I didn't realize how swollen I was until I saw how deep they had to dig and still could not find a vein.  I was patient and understanding as the nurse searched in my swollen arms with her needle.  Then she found a nurse friend to help her continue the great hunt for my veins.  As the second nurse tried first one arm and then the other, my patience was wearing thin.  It didn't exactly tickle!  After the second nurse attempted her second dive in my second arm, I finally insisted they put the IV in the bend of my arm.  Not a good place for an IV as it restricts your ability to bend your arm, but I didn't even care.  I only wanted to stop being a human pin cushion!

Now, to get down to business.  My sister and brother-in-law arrived a little while later and my family sat around the small table in the room looking at their laptops and chatting while watching TV.  What did people do before wireless Internet everywhere?  They performed one last ultrasound to check the position of the baby - yep head down - she's a good baby!  Then began the slow process of induction.  At this point I was having no contractions, the time was 9:00pm.  There wasn't much to see or do but wait, they would do nothing more for 12 hours.  Jen and Kevin went to get dinner and perhaps I ate something - I don't really remember.  I was focused on the task.  I remember going to the bathroom a lot and having to disconnect and reconnect the monitors.  After a little while of waiting and realizing there was much more waiting ahead, Jen and Kevin went to our house to spend the night and my Dad went back home promising to return in the morning.  My Mom would NOT be leaving, I didn't mind.  She slept on the little couch and Terry curled up in bed with me (love those huge hospital beds) to spend a restless night.  Our last night before we saw our baby girl.  It wasn't a great night.  I went to the bathroom - a lot (did I already say that, well it needed to be said again) and I began to have contractions.  It was a long night and when morning came I felt as if I never went to sleep at all.