We went to St Mary's Hospital in Troy at 5:30 pm on Tuesday April 3rd to start our planned induction. After getting started with Cervadil, we rested and waited for the action to start. At 6:30 am on Wednesday April 4th, I was having some contractions about 3 minutes apart from the cervadil but I couldn't feel them and they weren't progressing the labor enough on their own. Around 9 am I was started on the IV and pitocin. They started low doses of pitocin and kept upping them but for hours I still didn't feel the contractions. By 5:30 pm on April 4th, I was over 100 units of pitocin and maybe 3cm dilated but still feeling nothing, so my water was broken. Within about 30 minutes or so I felt the contractions hard. The epidural was in by 6:45 pm. I had a strong epidural (unlike last time) and could not feel my feet and legs at all. My blood pressure dropped dramatically and I was given something to bring it back up to normal while under close watch.
By about 10 pm I was 10 cm and even though I couldn't feel the need to push at all, my legs were held and I was told when I was having a contraction from the monitor so I could try to push. I didn't think I would be able to do it with the lack of feeling, but I remembered how to push from last time and it did the trick. After about 5 hours of labor, I pushed for about 20 minutes and Caitlin Elizabeth arrived at 10:23 pm on Wednesday April 4, 2007. Rick switched places with our doctor, Rick's sister Pam, and helped pull the baby out and cut the cord. It was scary for a minute because the cord was wrapped around her neck three times and then they found a true knot in the cord - which happens in only about 1% of births and can often be deadly. I was losing a lot of blood so I was given a shot in the thigh to control it and a few stiches where I tore. The baby was cleaned up and given to us to meet our precious little girl. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was a long 22 inches.
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