Ok, while Erin is sleeping and I am actually coherent I figure I ought to explain a few things. The reason that we had to be induced was that her water had been ruptured for so long. It ruptured Saturday night around 11:00 p.m. but only a little. Sunday it was still only slightly ruptured so we did not go in to the hospital until 6:00 p.m. When the Doc confirmed that her water had broken he explained that from the time the water breaks the chance of infection increases hourly. Because of this, even though she was not dilated, they needed to induce right away to begin the birth so as to ward off the chance of infection. As I explained previously, the induction caused very bad contractions, and beyond that Erin was beginning at a dilation of zero but with very bad contractions. That means that if she had decided not to get the epidural she would have been in the type of pain most women experience only after 8 or 9 centimeters dilated for the entire time that we were waiting for her do dilate from zero to ten. That is 12 to 20 hours of pain usually reserved for the end of the labor and delivery process. You can see why we decided that the epidural was best.
All that aside, Erin was handling the pain fantastically well. All of the nurses were impressed with her self control and ability to cope. We had a bad incident around 9:30 where the epidural was not enough but the button she has to get more was not working. She tried the button for a while as the pain grew very bad and the nurse had to scramble to find a new button thinger to plug into her epidural medicine. After getting a button that worked it was still 15 more minutes before things started to go back to normal. Since then we are keeping better tabs on her drugs.
At 10:00 a.m she was five centimeters dilated, so she is progressing well and we are hoping for a baby this afternoon.
5 comments:
I TOTALLY know what you mean about pitocin causing super strong contractions--not that I had any pretext of not having an epidural but after my water was broken it was just TOO Much (and I think I was at like a 4...and just like-how much of a wimp am I for not being able to take it??) Good luck with the rest of labor!! So excited to see the little wheeler!!! (and I'm happy for you guys that you get to have the baby at least a few days early...being late just gets really old)
2 things
#1: This is probably the most you have blogged.. in umm... ever.
#2: It has been a couple hours since we have received an update and we are kinda going crazy..! Hurray up already!!
Still. Waiting. Come on, it's not like you have anything better to do besides blog!
Too bad you cannot send empathy quite so easily through the email. But my thoughts have been with you both all day. I have lived through three very painful labors and epidurals that didn't work. However, in the end, when you count all five fingers and five toes and hold the precious life for the first time, it makes it all worth it. (P.S. Taci posted a picture of the bundle of joy and I must say one word "CUTE!!!!"
I think congradulations are in order! :D thanks for the play by play! Sounds like you'll be cute new parents!
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