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Birth Story - Tuesday afternoon - induction

They finally (it probably was no time) got someone who had already given birth moved out of the labor room, so I could move in. They put me in there, and time moved very slowly.

Cat knew that I was terrified of the Pitocin, so she started it very slowly. Every fifteen minutes Mary Ellen would come in to ramp it up. I came to dread her coming in, even though she was so nice, because she was the one making this scary thing happen.

Mary Ellen brought me lunch (an unappetizing cold burger) and Delia went to McDonalds and got actual food for us. I ate that cheeseburger, too, I think. I was trying to eat a lot so that I would have lots of energy, even though I anticipated puking most of it back up.

Time moved very slowly. Now that the initial stress had passed, and the baby had been moving, I was less terrified that he was not healthy. I was lying in the bed, and it was a little boring. Travis and Delia and I talked, and Cat joined us sometimes. At one point, she was sitting with us, then said that she would leave us to talk, and I told her that she could if she wanted, but that she was welcome to stay. She did, which made me happy!

Mary Ellen went off duty at 3:30, and when she said she was leaving I just was so upset! She had been so supportive and reassuring that morning that I had been looking on her as one of my sources of moral support. Terri came on duty then, and it turned out that she was just as great as Mary Ellen, but I remember being very scared when I found out Mary Ellen was leaving.

Sometime during this time, I started to feel the contractions. Previously, as I've said, I hadn't felt any of the Braxton-Hicks contractions, and only knew that they were happening if I happened to touch my belly at the right time. Anyway, they didn't hurt; it was more of a tightening of my lower abdomen, but I could tell that they were happening.

Delia, Travis, and I decided to play hearts, and that's when the contractions started to become noticeable. We only played two hands, and I only remember them as a blur. The contractions weren't painful, yet, but they were definitely getting my attention.

The most irritating part about this stage was the blood pressure cuff. It automatically tightened and checked my blood pressure every fifteen minutes (also the interval at which the Pitocin was ramped up). The darn thing always tightened so tight that I thought that my arm would pop off. It made my veins pop out, and my hand turn blue. Very uncomfortable and irritating, especially on top of everything else!

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