So here’s my birth story...
As the title says, I was 3cm dilated since July 29th, and membrane sweep was scheduled on August 6th. After the membrane sweep, I had no luck. So had to go in again on Aug 13th for another sweep. The next day on August 14th at 7:30 pm my water broke and we went to the hospital in half an hour.
I was sent to triage room where I was put on monitors to check for baby’s heart rate and contractions. I had my first contraction starting at 8:30 pm which were 5 min apart and 1 min long. This went on until 10 pm and then I was shifted to labor room.
From 10 pm to 3 am I went from 3cm to 5cm and my contractions were now 2 mins apart. I was using my breathing exercises to pass through the contractions every time but it was getting painful. So the midwife and nurse suggested a dose of Fetanol and it helped me sleep for an hour. Again after an hour the pain medication effect was gone and they gave me a second dosage. It did not work at all! So after 20 mins I got the 3rd and final dosage of fetanol. It did nothing again. I told them that I will try to manage until I can before I go for epidural as I didn’t want to take it unnecessarily. They started to give Pitocin slowly to make my contractions steady and regular.
By 9am 15th August, I was 8cm dilated and I was getting horrible contractions and I was in so much pain. I literally started to cry and my husband couldn’t see me like that anymore. He and the midwife insisted me to take epidural and get some rest. So I went for it at 9:30am and my goodness! What a relief!! The anesthesiologist looked like God to me at that moment and I couldn’t thank him enough!
so then I slept for few couple of hours and by 4pm the epidural also started to wear off as I was having abdominal contractions along with back contractions. I was crying again and wasn’t able to relax my muscles or breathe properly. I was 9cm dilated then.
The midwife and nurse called in the anesthesiologist again to address my pains, they gave me a different type of pain medication and it took almost 2 hours for the abdominal contractions to get better. By 6pm I was 10 cm dilated and ready to push. I started to push but was unable to do it effectively due to the back pain. They stopped the Pitocin dosage by then.
At around 7 pm all the pains subsided due to the pain medication effect and I started to push. We were able to see the head by 8 pm and that’s when I got motivated to give it all I had. It took 1.5 hours for my boy to come out!
24 hours of labor, terrible pain, baby’s head was a little stuck in my pelvic bone, but it was worth it and magical by the end!