Our Failed Induction || Birth Story Part 1
Our sweet baby Theo is officially here, but I'll be honest it wasn't the easiest end of pregnancy to get here. The weekend of 11/3 - 11/5 was a particularly rough one for us. I think I cried more in those days than the rest of my pregnancy, I think the hormones are hit me hard. This story is a long one, but it is part of bringing our son into the world. This is the story of how we had a failed induction, part 1 of our birth story.
Thursday November 2nd:
I wrapped up night 2 of parent teacher conferences which meant day 2 of being gone from home for 14 hours. I came home with a slight headache that turned into the worst headache of my life within a few hours. I tried sleeping but I was so frustrated with the pain I cried. I was worried about popping more pills, so I showered at 2 am. I was provided with some relief from the shower, but I caved and took more meds. I finally fell asleep about 4 am.
Friday November 3rd:
I awoke at 8 to get to my OB appointment. Feeling and looking miserable no doubt, they were concerned the moment they laid eyes on me, my blood pressure was high in the 140/90 range I think. Couple that with a headache and a few other signs, warning flags went up about preeclampsia. I was given 2 options.
1. Go to the hospital and be induced.
2. Go get some blood work done and leave with a prescription for my headache, come back 4 hours later to take my blood pressure again.
First time in my life I said please take my blood & give me all the pain pills. I was alone at the appointment, and overwhelmed at the thought of being induced at 37 + 5 was terrifying. Our home was a mess, my sub-plans were not ready for school, I thought we had more time - so I cried. I cried at the OB, in my car, calling Paul, again at the hospital getting blood drawn (oh those poor phlebotomist, they were so sweet comforting me and giving me juice - which I would later throw up...).
Once I took the pain meds I couldn't drive, so I went to my parents house to take the meds and for a nap before going back to the OB for the test results and to check my BP again. I managed to fall asleep, the drugs took the edge off the headache, but it had not gone away. At the OB I pulled a scary high BP of 190/110. They did a non stress test at the OBs office which looked good, baby was doing fine, but after a consult it was still decided I should go to the hospital for induction.
In order to get the ball rolling, or should I say my cervix ripening, I opted to have a foley balloon catheter inserted at the office before going to the hospital. OUCH. I had a friend who this worked very well for... but holy hell I'm going to avoid it ever again. Basically they got halfway though injecting the saline into the balloon, and I was writhing in pain and getting the shakes. When they finished I ended up puking all over myself. They only had the world's smallest puke containers which I promptly overfilled and splashed on myself. I ended up wearing a gown home because I smelled wretched.
We got home, my mom helped me pack my hospital bag while we waited for Paul to come home. I managed a shower during that time as well. My dad cleaned my car and brought it over from their house. Basically my parents are amazing.
We headed to the hospital finally having accepted that would we soon meet our son - earlier than expected but finally feeling excited. The day before at work I had just been talking with my co-worked who had a baby 2 months ago about how I wasn't ready to not be pregnant. I wasn't ready to not have him on the inside, I was going to miss all of his kicks. It was all happening sooner that I thought. In my mind that was the last car ride before we would meet our sweet boy. (wrong). We got checked in, our room was ready no trip to triage, we did the registration papers, took vitals, and placed my IV. They started pumping me full of fluids, and hooked me up to the monitors. This was nearly everything I didn't want. The IV in my right hand made it hard to do much, it was very uncomfortable and I was swelling up quickly. We ordered some dinner, and tried to relax. I started having another bad cramp from the Foley, and ended up losing all of my dinner - thank God the puke bucket was bigger this time.
The nurses came in several times to re-tape the Foley tighter on my leg. Sometime in the night maybe 2 am the Foley came out while I was trying to pee, which was a good sign because it meant I was dilating, and finally I was able to get some sleep.
Saturday November 4th:
They checked my cervix at some point, I don't remember when. I was 4 cm dilated, at 5:30 the pitocin drip was started. The contractions were minor, but they got fairly regular. By no means were they hard. We lounged, took a nice walk in circles before lunch. Our midwife came in with her daughter who was there to observe a c-section to check my progress. I was only at a 5. Right before walk #2 a code blue alarm went off for the c-section that was going on, so we stayed in our room for a bit until the alarm was taken off. Once it stopped we went out for walk #2, we came back after a few laps because I yet again had to pee. While in our room the code blue went off again, so we stayed in our room. Silently I prayed. I thought I had seen the dad pulled from the OR, and the OB kicked his daughter out of the OR. It felt like a very heavy situation. All of the labor and delivery nurses were in the OR, and the postpartum nurses were covering both wings. At 2pm a nurse came in and shut off my pitocin. Basically they could not monitor everyone with so many nurses in the OR. They were going to turn it back on asap. Asap never happened...
We were out for another walk when we were asked to go back to our room at about 6, they finally had the c-section patient stable 5 hours later and wanted everyone out of the halls before moving her. My parents came at 6:30 and Paul went home to shower, get more clothes and grab some dinner. I can't remember when, but the decision was made that I would take cytotec in up to 4 doses to get labor going, and then start pitocin again in the morning if necessary. The cytotec got contractions going well, they were close together, but still not hard I slept through the without a problem. I was hooked up to the monitors all night.
Sunday November 5th:
During the night the nurse checked my cervix, and I was at 5 cm. I was failing to progress. When our midwife came by that morning she laid out our options. We could start pit again at 12 once the last cytotec wore off and hope it worked, or we could be discharged and go home. If we started pit again, the concern was if it didn't work we would be officially labeled failure to progress and we were headed down the road to an unnecessary c-section. We opted to be discharged. Thankfully they never broke my water, and my blood pressure was lower. I was discharged and put on modified bed rest, more appointments, and several times a day I had to monitor my blood pressure.
We left the hospital feeling all sorts of emotions. I felt discouraged, and like I had failed. The look on Paul's face was sort of crushed. The truth is it was very hard to leave without him in our arms. We went in not realizing an induction can fail, and we could leave without him on the outside. It was hard to accept my body didn't fail and that we made the right choice.
Have you had a failed induction? I'd love to hear your birth stories! Part II is coming soon, as I try and piece it all back together.
