Sorry, Nate!
I was one week overdue when my doctor decided to induce labor. I had gestational diabetes, and as he was going out of town in a few days, he didn't want to leave me to a back-up doctor.
Jack and I went to the hospital at 12:00 midnight on 8/22/90. They were very busy, so we had to wait until 2:00 a.m. to get a room.
I changed into a gown and a nurse (Debbie) put the EFM (external fetal monitor) on me. After taking some info and goinf over my birth plan (we discussed how things had to be different due to the induction), she tried to start an IV for the Pitocin. On the fourth try, she made it. In actuality, she realized she had been successful the first 3 times, but she kept expecting blood to come out, and it didn't. The whole procedure was excruciatingly painful.
An internal exam showed me at 3 cm dilation.
From 2 am to 8 am, despite contractions off and on, which were painless, nothing appeared to be happening.
When the shift changed, our new nurse, Gloria, checked me and found I was almost 4 cm. She changed Pit bags, which I inadvertently pulled it out of connection 1/2 hour later. She came back and checked the Pitocin and discovered the problem. I had no contractions forororororororort he time it was off. She said that was probably good, and she was going to suggest I be unplugged and walk some to give the uterus a rest, but that was already done.
She hooked me back up and decided to break my water and attach an internal monitor.
Again, nothing much happened, so she was in at 10:30 and upped the Pitocin. Right away, contractions began that I had to breath through. Not really painful though (except for when she had to reattach the internal monitor and her hand was caught inside during one.)
I only had a few when I was up to 5 cm and decided an epidural. The anesthetis came in and gave it to me at 11:30 and I had no more pain. Dr. Milgram and nurse Lila came in and checked me.
Things progressed with another check at 1:00 showing me at 8 cm dilation. At 1:30 I felt pressure, and Lila came in to check before Dr. Milgram went to do a C-section. She felt I was fully dilated and went to get Dr. Milgram. He came in, checked, and said I could push now.
With Lila pushing on my abdomen (unwelcomed) and me semi-sitting, I pushed. Dr. Milgram did a late episitiotomy and at 1:45 pm Nathaniel Taylor Martin was born.
I recall looking down and seeing his head and then his body slide out. It was a wierd feeling.
The nursery people in attendance cleaned him up and brought him to me. We had 15 minutes or so to bond and I nursed him some.
Then he went to the nursery and I was taken to recovery. At about 5 pm I went to a regular room. I was starving, as I had missed all meals for 24 hours. Dinner was at 5:30 and they finally brought Nathaniel to me at 6:00.
He was taken back at 7:00 to be circumcised, and as soon as I could walk, about 8:30 pm, we went home!
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Addendums after the fact, on 12/17/02
Dr. Milgram looked at Jack once and said "Hard to believe that's the same thing you kiss, isn't it?" (Referring to my bloody and gaping vagina)
When Dr. Milgram took off his gloves he accidently snapped me "there" with one. The nurse gasped and he said "What? She can't feel it anyway..."
(While you may think those horrid for a doctor to do, his humor was one thing that really made us like him. A lot.)
Going home, I didn't have the right sanitary napkins so we stopped at a store. Jack would not go in for me and buy those things. So, having just had my kid that day, I went shopping for supplies. The checkout lady asked when my baby was due. I said I'd just had him. Heh.
