James and I went to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. on September the 9th for an induction. They started me on pitocin around 8:00 and we waited for contractions to start. Dr. Sawyer checked me around noon & I was still only 1 cm dilated. Even though I was only a 1, I was having some serious contractions every 3 to 4 minutes so I asked for an epidural. I don't see the point in being in pain when you don't have to be.
I had the hardest time sitting still for my epidural because of my contractions. James kept reminding me to breathe because I have a bad habit of holding my breath when I am in pain. They told me that the epidural should start working within 30 minutes. Funny, I thought, with Kelton it worked instantly. Anyhoo, 30 minutes came & went and nothing. No relief at all. The doctor came back and re-threaded my epidural and still nothing. It was at this point I began to panic. I was already in so much pain & I now knew that an epidural was not going to work at all. Blast!!! They gave me some phenegran so that I could hopefully "sleep through the pain". Good one. All that did was make my eyes heavy. I could not sit still. I literally went from lying on the bed to sitting up & trying to hold myself off the bed with my arms over and over. I was dilated to a 3 at 3:00 p.m. & the nurse told me that we probably wouldn't have a baby until later that night. At that point, I started crying & moaning. I have never felt pain like that before and it is absolutely impossible to describe. Finally, Dr. Sawyer came in at 5:00 p.m. and I immediately started begging her to knock me unconscious & just pull the baby out. I was completely irrational. I felt like Elizabeth McGovern from She's Having a Baby when they are telling her to calm down & she won't listen. Fortunately, I was dilated to a 10. Hooray. Wait, did that mean I was actually going to have to push this thing out with no pain medicine. All the sudden that hit me & I started telling everyone that I was not going to push & they could not make me. As if that could be avoided. I was trying to think up every possible excuse as to why I could not do this. I couldn't really come up with a legitimate excuse so I finally started pushing. I was assured it would feel better to push than just sit there. Whatever. It hurt even worse. James, my mom and my 2 sisters were in the room with me. Poor Aubin, I looked up at one point and she was at the foot of the bed with tears streaming down her face. She said I made noises she had never heard a human make. Thankfully, I only had to push for 15 minutes. At 5:22 p.m. Jeffrey "Kolt" made his debut at 9 pounds & 1 ounce, 21.5 inches and with a head measuring in at 15.5 inches. Yikes. The weird thing was that as soon as he exited my body, I felt completely fine. Sore, obviously, but the pain was gone instantly. Well, I was able to deliver a large baby naturally, but I would never choose to do that again. Seriously, if my epidural does not work next time then I may take my own hammer to knock myself out. Every contraction, every wave of nausea, every bit of fear...it was worth it because now I have Kolt! WHAT A BLESSING!!!
