Instead, we checked in at 6pm, went through a barrage of initial tests, answering questions, and getting the IV in. The midwife came in about 7:30pm to start the Cook catheter (a most unpleasant experience and far worse than the actual contractions in my opinion). Pitocin was administered afterwards and contractions started pretty much immediately.
Nurses were sympathetic and gave me an Ambien to help sleep through contractions at about 11pm. But, then they started waking me up after the first hour to make me roll to the other side or move in some other miserable position. (Laying in any position that made me comfortable was affecting baby’s heart rate.) At about 3am, I was ready for the Nubain. Contractions were getting worse, still tolerable, but worse. Finally, I was able to get some sleep with that. By 5am, I was dilated to 5 cm and they removed the catheter. By 6am, they gave me an epidural.
I had a short break from the Pitocin at around 8am to give baby a break. His heart rate was still unstable and going down. I was still at 5 cm. By 9:30 or 10am (after reintroducing pitocin), there still was no change with dilation and baby’s heart rate was still too low. We were having a c-section.
Keeping My Marbles 