Labor

The contractions started to get really sharp and painful on the way to the hospital. I told her daddy to park in the parking garage and I would walk into the hospital. I had this overwhelming urge to want to be tough. I could have been dropped off at the front door and wheeled up to the third floor, but walking felt more empowering. I remember being in the elevator with several people and even though I was in really bad pain I wanted to stand there and look like it wasn't. Once we got to the third floor the nurses set me up in a room so that they could check to see how far I was dialated.




The contractions just kept coming and they were starting to take my breath away, but nurses checked me and said that I was only two centimeters dialated so they were going to send me home. I was so disappointed when they told me that. I was in so much pain I couldn't think how I was going to handle going home.

Luckily, my doctor happened to be at the hospital so she came in to check me. She said that I was three centimeters dialated at that they were going to go ahead and get a room set up for me. I was so grateful at that point, but also scared that labor was really happening and there was no turning back at this point.



Once the new room was set up they asked me to walk down to the end of the hall. I remember the contractions had spaced out just a little bit but I knew I didn't want to be walking when once came along. I changed into my gown and her daddy held my arm as we walked down the hall. He was trying to be real careful and walk slow, but I felt a contraction coming and I was like "lets go now" and was pulling him along behind me.




When I got into the bed my doctor came in to check me again and I had dialated to 5cm. I couldn't believe I dialated 2cm in less than 30 minutes. The nurse tried to give me an i.v., but she couldn't find a vein. After many attempts they had to call the lif flight crew to come down and get an i.v started. At this point all I wanted was an epidural. They said that I couldn't have an epidural until I had an i.v in for about an hour. I think mentally I lost it at that point. My contractions were every 2 minutes and were lasting almost two minutes each time. I barely had time to recover from one before the next one started. The thought of having hours left to deal with this horrible pain made me want to give up and I lost all strength to deal with the pain. I became emotional and I just wanted it to be over.


They finally got an i.v started and I couldn't wait for the anesthiologist to get there. The epidural was started and I thought "yes! I can take a break and enjoy what is left of my labor."


Unfortunately, the epidural didn't work. They said it would take about 20 minutes to take affect, but the contractions became stronger and more painful.

The doctor said I had dialated to 7cm, but that I had stopped dialating. By now it was some time after 9:00pm. The doctor decided to put a catheter in to empty my bladder so that the baby would drop lower and maybe help with dialating. When the nurse went to put the catheter in I jumped from the pain. She was like "you can feel that?" I said yes and she looked at the doctor and said "I don't think the epidural is working" Are you serious...you think I am moaning and groaning for the fun of it....geez. Shortly after that I began to have the urge to push.