The Birth Story

Well I'm just going to start at the beginning.. that's a good spot, right?

Monday we went to my weekly doctor's appointment and found out I was still only dilated to 1cm, even though I was 6 days overdue. I talked to my doctor about all the cramping and discomfort that I had been having for the last week, and she suggested that we induce. She told me that I could come in at midnight that night to start the process. Of course we agreed! We couldn't wait to move on to the next step.

That night, we checked in and they started me on the medication to help soften my cervix. Something they called "Miso." This stuff instantly sent me into contractions. They were mild though, similar to regular "monthly" cramping. We spent the next several hours playing the waiting game.. The contractions were constant, and made it impossible to have more Miso. They checked, and I still hadn't dilated at all.

The next midwife (dayshift) suggested a new approach. They have this balloon thing that they insert to actually force my cervix to dilate. This was pretty painful, so they gave me some Phentinol (sp?) This worked for about 2 minutes, and then I puked. So I dealt with the pain for a couple hours. Eventually this really sweet nurse convinced me to try the Phentinol again, this time with some anti-nausea meds. It worked perfectly. I fell asleep and napped for about 30 minutes. Then we spent more hours waiting.

Eventually I made some progress. I was up to 4 centimeters. The balloon thing was removed and I waited with Pitocin for a while. Eventually the contractions got to be more than I was willing to bear, and I got my epidural. More hours of sleeping and waiting.. Then they came in and said they had to put some internal monitors on Jordyn, because they were having a hard time tracking her heartbeat. And then they had to put me on Oxygen, because her heartrate was dropping after each contraction. This got us both pretty stressed out. I tried to relax for a bit, while they kept coming in to flip me over. My epidural kept wearing off, and they had to up in a couple times. Eventually my water broke, and I started to get pretty excited.

Chris left for some breakfast with his Dad while they came in to check me again. The nurse sat up and said "Well, looks like you're ready to go! You're finally fully dilated!" I started to panic a bit.. Chris was gone! My Mom called him and told him to get back as soon as he could. By the time he walked back into the room, I was already pushing.

Only 15 minutes later and they were setting Jordyn on my chest. She cried the instant she came out, and it was the most wonderful sound that I had ever heard. I wasn't sure whether to laugh, or cry. I had completely forgotten that I had spent 31 hours in labor.

So far, she has been a totally easy baby. I'm sure she is probably just teasing us for now.. but I'll take it! =D