Going into the induction I was only 1 cm dilated, so the plan was to give me two rounds of drugs - cervadil and pitocin - to jumpstart my labor. At the start of the induction, the doctors warned me that it could be quite the lengthy process, although I was convinced Dominic would come sooner than later. Wishful thinking on my part!
At the start of day 1, I felt prepared and ready to evict my little man! My mom, dad and grandma all came with me to the hospital and were in it for the long haul. I was all smiles and posing for pictures, but that would soon change. 12 hours after receiving the cervadil, I was only dilated to a 3, so doctors decided to give me another drug, which they only referred to as "meso", to further dilate me. After 2 rounds and about 10 hours of "meso", the doctors decided it was time to break my water to speed things up. About 22 hours into the induction and I finally started to make progress. Kinda. Around this time I met a lovely nurse who told me an absolutely horrendous story about a fatal cord accident at the hospital. Call me crazy but that's not the best thing to tell a woman in active labor, ready to give birth to her first child.
But at the start of day 2, I was still in good spirits. My water had been broke, I was finally dilated to a 5, and I was having regular contractions that were noticeable but not terribly painful. The birth was certainly taking longer than I expected but up until this point I was still sticking to my "unmedicated" birth plan. At this point I met another interesting nurse who provided me with a little entertainment during my otherwise boring hospital stay. She came in to check on me and she looked at the 3D ultrasound photo I had on my phone of Dominic. "Oh my god, what a cute baby!" she exclaimed. "Looking at his picture just makes you want to pull out your boob and have him start sucking on it" she continued. Umm, what!? Did you really just say what I think you did? My mom and I were both holding back laughter. Where the hell did this hospital hire their nurses?10 hours later, going onto hour 32 of induction, my positive facade started to deteriorate. Rapidly. I was going on 2 hours of sleep over 2 days, and a liquids only diet. I was tired, anxious and in pain. Screw "unmedicated" birth, give me the drugs! I opted for an epidural at that point, and the next 7 hours were glorious. Good-bye pain, hello tingly numb legs!
And then...all the fun started. I started to feel a pressure that was not there before, and Dominic's heart rate started to drop on the fetal monitor, so I called the nurse in. She promptly had the doctor "check me" only to find out that I was (finally) 10 cm dilated! I remember the doctor checking me, then looking at me and asking "So, are you ready to push?" Ummm, yeah, as ready as I'm going to be! I started to have a mini meltdown at that point (Oh, shit! This is about to get real!) And to make matters worse, doc decided to turn off the medication to the epidural before I started pushing so that I could "feel" my contractions and would know when to push. Awesome! What's the point of an epidural if I'm still going to feel a giant baby coming out my vajayjay?
At the start of pushing, the nurse warned me that first time moms typically take around 1 to 1 1/2 hours to deliver the baby once they start pushing. But stubborn old me was convinced that I would have Dominic out in under 45 minutes. Wrong again! I started pushing at 10:54 AM on Friday morning and Dominic wasn't born until 1:36 PM. Over 2 1/2 hours of pushing. On 3 hours of sleep over 3 days. And no food in over 24 hours. I started out by pushing on a bed, the "normal way" but over the course of the next couple hours ended up on a birthing stool and trying all kinds of crazy techniques to get the baby out. Dominic just did not want to come out! About an hour and a half into the pushing process, I started to get very discouraged. So the doctor says, "Reach down, you can feel his hair." So I did, and low and behold I could feel his hair! I thought for sure I was almost done at that point. But no. He ended up getting stuck in the birth canal. For about an hour. The doctor was worried he was too big and that we might have to end up doing an emergency c-section to get him out. But just in the knick of time, just past the two and a half hour mark, Dominic finally made his way into the world. As it turns out, he was stuck in the birth canal because he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice and it was holding him up. Talk about scary! On top of it all I ended up having multiple blood clots and needing quite a few stitches. As one of my friends once said, "It's a lot easier going in than it is coming out!" Ain't that the truth.
But my little man was finally in my arms. It felt great. Although at that point I was completely delirious. No joke. Aside from the pain, I remember very little about what the doctors said to me during the pushing process. Perhaps it was the pain, or the lack or sleep or the lack of food or a combination of the three. But I was completely out of it. When they handed me Dominic for the first time I remember thinking "Oh my God, he's so much smaller than I imagined. And sooo much cuter." He weighed in at 7 lbs, 12 oz and 20 inches long. Horrendous labor aside, I had a perfectly healthy baby boy.
Let me just say, all those women who say that pushing isn't the painful part of childbirth and that it just feels like a lot of pressure are absolutely, 110%, positively full of shit! I used to think that women were just being drama queens about childbirth being painful, but I'm happy to admit I was dead wrong. (It doesn't happen often, so you can quote me on that). I'm here to tell you it hurts like a bitch, is completely exhausting and is far and away the most horrendous (yet worth it) experience I've ever had in my life. The whole thing brought me to one conclusion: Dominic is going to be an only child! Although I'm aware a 42 hour child birth isn't typical. I guess my extra long and horrible labor was retribution for a 9 month hassle free, awesome pregnancy. Either way, I'm not in a hurry to do that again!
All things aside, my recovery process has been fantastic so far. Within 4 hours of delivering Dominic, I was showered, dressed and ready for visitors. Even the doctors were surprised that I was up and around after the ordeal I went through. But I saw no point in laying around waiting to recover. There's no better way to get back in the game than to just get up and do it.
The whole childbirth and parenting experience has been a tremendous eye opener so far. For one, I learned that I'm not always right and sometimes I should listen to what other people tell me. Second, I realized even I have my limitations. I may run around acting like superwoman 99% of the time, but sometimes I just need to slow down and realize I can't do everything, all the time. And lastly, having a child does indeed change everything. Things that seemed so important just a week ago now seem so insignificant. The way I think about things has changed. The way I feel has changed. My entire life has changed. All because of one amazing little person. The feeling is indescribable. It's almost as if I feel like a foreign unknown version of myself. It will take some getting used to, but it's not a bad thing. I often find myself staring at Dominic, just completely amazed that I brought something so wonderful into this world. I love him more every second, minute, day. Having him was hands down the best thing I have ever done in my life thus far. I don't know exactly what the future will bring, but I truly feel like this is the beginning of the rest of my life..."A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bank balance smaller, home happier, clothes dirty, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for."
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