I had to be induced at 37 weeks due to a severe lupus flare. I went in at 8:00 Sunday night and they started a tiny dose of cytotec. At 2:00 am, they started pitocin. It made me have contractions 2 minutes apart, but i was still only dilated a fingertip. Early that morning I felt some wetness and realized there was a ton of blood everywhere. I was so terrified, but baby looked great on the monitors and the nurse reassured me that some bleeding was normal and was probably due to my low lying placenta. They kept upping the pitocin and I finally got an epidural. At first it only took on one side, and it took a lot of poking to get it to work. It was amazing! I couldn't even feel my contractions anymore, which were severe and still 2 minutes apart. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and gradually dilated. By that evening, I was feeling beyond miserable. Throwing up, headache, and started feeling tons of pressure in my back. By that point I was 9 cm. But then the epidural stopped working, and I was only numb from the hips down. The contractions were excruciating and one on top of the other. They kept checking me for the next 3 hours and I was not dilating past a 9. I always swore I'd never be one of those people crying and yelling while giving birth, but I literally could not help it. My doctor started getting worried about get I wasn't progressing and decided we needed to do a c section. The anesthesiologist kept pumping in so many different kinds of meds but none of them made any difference. They had to put me to sleep under general anesthesia. It was so scary, but I woke up and heard those words "you have a healthy baby girl! You're a mommy!"'and couldn't stop crying. She was 7 pounds and 20 inches. They said she couldn't descend all the way in the birth canal because she had the cord wrapped around her neck, arm and leg. I'm so glad we did a c section because I don't want to think about what would happen if I had to push! They took me back to my room and she latched on right and we got to do skin to skin before they took her back for her bath. She is so gorgeous and sweet. When she was on my chest she was just so content and sucking her little fingers and staring at me with her pretty blue eyes. It was by far the hardest day of my life, but it was so worth it. Now we are in the hospital recovering. Hannah is already so loved and has had non stop visitors. So far she's an angel all day when her friends and family visit, but likes to keep mommy and daddy up all night. She decided she has to be held all night or she will scream all night! Here are some pics from her first day
Peaceful after a feeding.
Relaxing with daddy
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