Side note before I continue: My goal is to just get this out. Apologies for the minimal editing I'm doing here. If I took time to do very much of that, this would never get written.
I was moved to labor and delivery on Wednesday morning, December 18th. It was at this time that the doctors on the high risk floor decided collectively that the process of attempting an induction should begin.
Since I was nowhere near ready physically to give birth, I needed medication to soften and efface my cervix. I was given a fairly mild drug called cervadil, inserted in the cervix, to do the job. We were told that it each dose takes 12 hours to do it's full amount of work, and that it could take up to 3 doses if it was going to work at all. If not, we'd have a cesarean. So, we were prayerfully in line for the long haul. I was honestly very thankful to have the time to get used to being induced - to rest physically, and prepare mentally and emotionally for the impending labor. It wound up taking us 2 doses of cervadil - just about 24 hours - to do the job. After that, I would be put on a very low and slow uptake of pitocin (labor inducing medication).
Before they began induction, I was given an epidural. This was something I had wanted to avoid initially, but preeclampsia is one of those rare cases in which an epidural is actually preferred for medical reasons. A side effect of the epidural is lowering blood pressure, and this was very favorable for my situation. If at any point during labor my blood pressure had risen severely, it would have been an immediate, 'Let's knock her out and get this baby out NOW' kind of situation. Needless to say we agreed to the epidural.
I was told it would be helpful to have my water broken, in order to potentially get the process going. Looking back, had I been in my right mind (remember the magnesium was taking it's toll), I would have rejected this procedure, at least at first. However, for whatever reason I wasn't thinking clearly, and chose to allow it. I can't remember if I'd been on pit. yet or if my water was broken first. Anyway, it was very painful and the most awful part of the whole process for many reasons. Yes - it was even more painful than labor, and this is not because Jeremiah was small (smaller babies actually hurt quite lot, contrary to popular belief). I won't go into any more detail than that here because it's too personal to share on my blog. Suffice it to say, that part sucked and I don't wish it on anyone. 'Nough said.
(If you consider yourself a friend and want to know more detail on the aforementioned, I'm okay with sharing in person, but I'm not going to write about it, at least not today.)
Wait a second. I thought you had an epidural, you ask. I did, but the pain relieving part had absolutely no effect after the first hour, and since it took a while to get the Dr. in the room to perform the above procedure, it wasn't working at all then, not to mention labor itself.
Anyway, so the water was broken and pitocin started at 1 unit per hour, which is the lowest dose possible, as well as safe, for inducing moms with preeclampsia. You see, while the epidural helps, pitocin is actually bad for the mom's blood pressure (if I remember correctly), so the lowest dose possible to cause labor and delivery is best.
I don't really remember the time of day, but labor was officially induced sometime in the later afternoon on that Thursday. It took several hours, and they tried to shut it off once to see if my contractions would continue. Unfortunately, turning off the pit. meant labor failed to progress, so we had to start it up again beginning with the 1 unit/hour to get a good progression of contractions. Late in the evening of that day, I finally, truly began to progress in labor.
Additionally, I had to labor in the bed for the entire labor. With preeclampsia, even just getting up to go to the bathroom can raise one's blood pressure, and we couldn't take that risk. So much for those Bradley classes and all we had learned on positioning to ease labor. The good part though? We had our relaxation technique down pat. Even though I was in a lot of pain as labor progressed, I was truly able to manage it well and it didn't seem that bad, except for the very end - but I'm getting ahead of myself here.
To be continued...
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