Henry's birth story: Part 2

We got all checked into the hospital around 1030 PM and the nurse asked me if I planned to get an epidural. I still really hoped that if I got enough sleep that night I might have the endurance to get through labor naturally, so I told her no, although in the back of my mind I was really doubting myself and my ability to make it through. She told me I wouldn't be able to eat after midnight because they would be inducing me at 6 AM, so I decided to eat a chicken salad sandwich and a larabar to try to give me energy for the following day.

As I was taking my first bite of my larabar, the nurse was administering a cocktail of benadryl (for the itching) and ambien and demarol (to help me sleep) into my IV. Within seconds my itching was gone and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I really had to fight to stay awake long enough to chew and swallow that one bite of my larabar. As I was drifting off to sleep I turned to Ben and said with slurred speech, "I'm so glad we decided to do this." Relief at last.

However, shortly after I fell asleep, Ben and the nurse noticed that the monitor showed me having contractions every two minutes. I truly believe that my body was in so much distress with the PUPPPS that it could not go into labor on its own, and as soon as the medication enabled me to relax, my body kicked into labor.

The contractions started waking me up shortly after and I would try to relax through them and then go back to sleep until the next one. Occasionally, I would look up at the monitor to see if the contractions were registering, but I couldn't tell if they were because it was dark and I didn't have my contacts in. I thought to myself, "Oh no, I am feeling these contractions and needing to relax through them, but they aren't even strong enough to show up on the monitor, I am not going to be able to do this naturally!"

Around three in the morning, the benadryl wore off and I started itching again. I had Ben go get the nurse to give me more, and I told her that I thought I was having contractions, but that they weren't showing up on the monitor. As it turns out, they were showing up on the monitor, I just couldn't see them. I got my ipod and listened to my hypnobabies as I continued to work through my contractions during the night.

At 6 AM, the nurse came in to hook me up to pitocin. I told her I felt like I was having fairly strong contractions and I asked if she would check my progress before hooking the pitocin up in case my body didn't really need it. She agreed, and I was shocked to find out that I was dilated to a 6. I told her I didn't want the pitocin since my body was already doing things on its own and to my surprise she said OK and that it was my right to refuse anything I didn't want.

To be continued...