Documenting the Delivery

My dr. finally agreed to induce me at 12 days past my due date.  The policy at my o.b.'s  office is more of a due "month" than a due date.    38-42 weeks is all fair game.  I have gone late with each of my other babies, I should have known; but I had grown impatient regardless. I was induced with Kate and Anna, so this felt familiar.  It was helpful to have Adam's birth of going into labor on my own by comparison.  I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am, but didn't get pitocin till around 9 am.  I labored till around 3:30 without an epidural, but I was getting pretty worn out and had made no progress so the end was not at all in sight. This was particularly annoying as everyone who had entered the room had made some comment about my body slipping into auto-pilot and that the 4th delivery was sure to be my easiest.   I was pretty disappointed at 3:30.  I did ask for a light dosage epidural.  At 5:30 I was begging for a bolus, a boost of medicine.  I don't have a typical response to epidurals and to be honest I still haven't figured out the best combination of dosage and med.  I knew this going in.  Anyway they gave me a bolus and I was okay for a few moments.  And then something happened.  Back labor.  Oh my.  From 5:30 to 7:30 something not of this planet attacked me.  I really didn't think I was going to survive the process.  Between the back labor and the pitocin I knew something just wasn't right.  I couldn't talk, I couldn't even open my eyes.  I was just thrashing and clawing at the bed rails.  At 7:30 they informed me that I was a 5 and I spit out some disjointed sentence, "I need help.".   They called the anesthesiologist back in the room but I didnt feel any difference in the bolus this time.  I really felt alone as I couldn't talk from the pain and I just knew something wasn't right.  This is when I determined that Hell was trying to claim my body.  Turns out I went from a 5 to a 10 in 10 minutes.  I pushed for about 20 minutes to get my darling Walter delivered in a posterior position with his arms presenting first and crossed.  It seems that when the pitocin and my body determined to get the job done it was going to throw the baby out of my body any which way.  Every other delivery I had a high after delivering my babies, but not this time.  My exhaustion was so severe that I couldn't really feel elated, just relieved that it was all over and that we both survived the process.   I made a phone call about 15 hours after the delivery to our house.  When I came home I heard the message, I really hope I never sound like that again.  It's amazing how good I feel now, bodies are so resilient.