I was admitted to Memorial Hospital on Tuesday evening (11/2) for my scheduled induction as Luke still hadn't come on his own. The plan was to give me Cervidil overnight, begin the Pitocin drip the next morning, and baby Luke would arrive sometime that afternoon. Well, that's sort of what happened. Once I arrived that evening and was given Cervidil, I almost immediately started feeling contractions. About an hour into them, one of the anesthesiologists came in to give me some bad news. Basically, my platelets were too low for me to receive an epidural so I would need to quickly come to terms with the idea of natural birth. As you might imagine, this was a little upsetting considering my whole birth plan was an epidural. I had seen natural childbirth several times while in school and made the decision at that time that I would take the less painful route:) To say I was blindsided was an understatement. My poor nurse that night felt so bad for me and printed off everything she could find on natural birth techniques. Mark and I spent the next several hours on the internet googling natural birth and giving me pep talks. At some point later that night the on-call perinatologist came in and said he'd like to try giving me some steroids IV which can sometimes bring up the platelet count. The deal was that if they increased by morning I'd be able to get an epidural before they started the Pitocin (which is known to make labor more intense) I thought this sounded like an excellent plan but still spent the majority of the night planning my strategy just in case things didn't work out.
The next morning I got my blood drawn again and waited for the news. About 30 min later the whole anesthesia team walked in (which I knew wasn't a good sign) and told me my platelet count had actually dropped and that they couldn't safely give me an epidural. I couldn't believe my luck. Within the hour my nurse came in and began the Pitocin. Fast-forward several hours of steadily increasing contractions. My obgyn came in and said she was in the process of consulting with several hematologists and the anesthesia team about my situation. She didn't seem to think the drop in my platelet count was too significant to not get an epidural. I found out later that there was a group of several MDs all in the hallway outside my door trying to decide whether or not to give me one. Meanwhile, I was dilated only 4 cm but definitely experiencing what full blown labor feels like. It was about 4pm when one of the anesthesiologists finally came in and told me he'd give me an epidural as long as I understood all the risks, etc. "Blah, Blah, Blah" is really all I heard as I was not in the mood for conversation and would've probably agreed to have my arm amputated at that point if it meant getting an epidural.
Once it was placed, I felt as if a switch had turned off. Instant pain relief! Amazing. I spent the next hour or so watching The Golden Girls, chatting with family and waiting to dilate some more. After a little while my MD came in and said she thought his head was too big to get through and that I would need a C-section. Luckily I had already prepped for that possibility and was completely fine with it. So we waited another 2 hours for the OR to clear out (there were 4 other unscheduled C-sections ahead of me!) and then it was our turn!!!
The longest day of my life ended at 8:51 pm when Mark and I heard our little boy's first cries. It was a truly unbelievable feeling that I know neither of us will forget. Everything was such a blur but I'll always remember that moment and seeing Luke for the first time. God is good:)
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