The contractions didn't go away and actually got a little more painful. At 11:45 I decided to take a gravel to help me sleep since I couldn't sleep through the contractions. Around 12 I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep and felt a gush. I immediately said to Dan that I'm either bleeding, like I did while in labour with Lauren or my water broke. I got up and went to the bathroom. sure enough my water had broken. It just kept coming randomly too which was really uncomfortable. I called my mum and asked her to come watch Lauren. I also called labour and delivery to let them know I'd be coming back and they were shocked!! We were so unprepared so went to the hospital with nothing.
At the hospital they hooked me up to the monitors again and it was showing 3 contractions every 10 minutes. I was then taken to a room. Unfortunately around 3am the contractions slowed then stopped. I slept until around 7am waking up the odd time with a contraction. Then we started walking the hallways since we knew it was only a matter of time before induction talk would start.
Since I wasn't having contractions anymore they decided to induce me at 10:30 with oxytocin. I wasn't too happy about this as I'd gotten my hopes up of an uninduced childbirth after my water breaking and had heard horror stories of how bad the contractions were. They promised to only use as much as necessary and start very low and slowly increase every 30 minutes so we started the induction. I started getting regular contractions around 1pm and around 3 I started using gas. This is also when I was 4 cm and considered in active labour. The gas worked for about an hour and then we tried fentynol which also worked briefly. I loved both nurses who looked after me. I mainly had one nurse and the other came in while she was on lunch or breaks. Unfortunately because of the induction I wasn't able to walk around anymore. They needed to monitor the baby and my contractions and the portable machine wasn't picking up the heartbeat very well. So I just laid in bed for the most part. That actually turned out to be ok because the contractions got intense fast. I cried much sooner then I did with Lauren during contractions and even joked to the nurse about it in-between. Around 4:30 I decided that the pain was just too much. It was so much worse then with Lauren. I never felt that it was worth getting an epidural with her. The thought of them scare the crap out of me. It seems so unnatural to put a large needle into your spine for any reason. However this time I was very willing. The doctor wasn't going to be in until 5 and there was one other request on the ward then he would come and see me. I literally counted down every 10 minutes. It was brutal and the contractions were pretty much one on top of the other. I didn't feel like I really had more then a few seconds off the gas in between contractions and near the end just kept breathing it in the whole time. Finally around 6 the doctor came in and went over the risks. Just to give an idea of how much pain I was in....... remember how I said with Lauren I never considered it worth the risk of getting an epidural? Well when he was going over the risks I thought in my mind "yeah yeah I don't care if I'm paralyzed just make it stop!" He put the epidural in and after a few minutes I felt my feet go numb. The doctor was still in the room when I felt like it was time to push. The nurse checked me and I was 9 cm. She called the OB who arrived very shortly after and I was 10 cm and ready to push. This OB, who wasn't my regular one takes pride in saying that very few of his patients ever tear and he was very good. He looked me straight in the eye and said that if I didn't want to tear I needed to listen to exactly what he was saying. If he told me not to push, don't push. As much as that was going to hurt it would be worth it not having stitches. 2 pushes and he was out at 6:24 pm. No tearing and at one point he did tell me to stop pushing, which I did and Jack came out all on his own. I'm glad that the epidural hadn't fully kicked in. I'm glad that I was able to feel him come out and I really do believe that the epidural relaxed me just enough to listen to the doctor.
I had mentioned to the nurse to not bother saying what the sex was and how with Lauren I asked 6 times before they finally just showed me. This time she held him up and I was the one to first say "It's a boy!" It's a moment I'll never forget.
We did skin on skin and it took a while for the placenta to come out. He weighed 2664g or 5lbs 13oz.
Since I wasn't having contractions anymore they decided to induce me at 10:30 with oxytocin. I wasn't too happy about this as I'd gotten my hopes up of an uninduced childbirth after my water breaking and had heard horror stories of how bad the contractions were. They promised to only use as much as necessary and start very low and slowly increase every 30 minutes so we started the induction. I started getting regular contractions around 1pm and around 3 I started using gas. This is also when I was 4 cm and considered in active labour. The gas worked for about an hour and then we tried fentynol which also worked briefly. I loved both nurses who looked after me. I mainly had one nurse and the other came in while she was on lunch or breaks. Unfortunately because of the induction I wasn't able to walk around anymore. They needed to monitor the baby and my contractions and the portable machine wasn't picking up the heartbeat very well. So I just laid in bed for the most part. That actually turned out to be ok because the contractions got intense fast. I cried much sooner then I did with Lauren during contractions and even joked to the nurse about it in-between. Around 4:30 I decided that the pain was just too much. It was so much worse then with Lauren. I never felt that it was worth getting an epidural with her. The thought of them scare the crap out of me. It seems so unnatural to put a large needle into your spine for any reason. However this time I was very willing. The doctor wasn't going to be in until 5 and there was one other request on the ward then he would come and see me. I literally counted down every 10 minutes. It was brutal and the contractions were pretty much one on top of the other. I didn't feel like I really had more then a few seconds off the gas in between contractions and near the end just kept breathing it in the whole time. Finally around 6 the doctor came in and went over the risks. Just to give an idea of how much pain I was in....... remember how I said with Lauren I never considered it worth the risk of getting an epidural? Well when he was going over the risks I thought in my mind "yeah yeah I don't care if I'm paralyzed just make it stop!" He put the epidural in and after a few minutes I felt my feet go numb. The doctor was still in the room when I felt like it was time to push. The nurse checked me and I was 9 cm. She called the OB who arrived very shortly after and I was 10 cm and ready to push. This OB, who wasn't my regular one takes pride in saying that very few of his patients ever tear and he was very good. He looked me straight in the eye and said that if I didn't want to tear I needed to listen to exactly what he was saying. If he told me not to push, don't push. As much as that was going to hurt it would be worth it not having stitches. 2 pushes and he was out at 6:24 pm. No tearing and at one point he did tell me to stop pushing, which I did and Jack came out all on his own. I'm glad that the epidural hadn't fully kicked in. I'm glad that I was able to feel him come out and I really do believe that the epidural relaxed me just enough to listen to the doctor.
I had mentioned to the nurse to not bother saying what the sex was and how with Lauren I asked 6 times before they finally just showed me. This time she held him up and I was the one to first say "It's a boy!" It's a moment I'll never forget.
We did skin on skin and it took a while for the placenta to come out. He weighed 2664g or 5lbs 13oz.
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