Labor Until Potocin

The first 11 or so hours of labor weren't that bad.

After I was put in my labor and delivery room, the nurses strapped me in to monitors for a little bit, asked a bunch of questions, and inserted an IV. The IV sucked. It was uncomfortable.

The labor and delivery rooms at my hospital are pretty nice. They're big, with a chair that pulls out into a single bed for your support person, a jacuzzi tub, a birthing ball, a rocking chair, and a big bed that converts into lots of different positions for the mom.

It was around 2 am when the midwife said that I would have until about noon to make good progress in dilating, otherwise I'd have to start pitocin to speed my labor along. Since my water broke, they wanted Elise delivered within 24 hours, to help prevent infection.

So, aside from the IV, the only other especially uncomfortable part of early labor was when the midwife checked me at one point, told me that I was about at 3.5 centimeters, and then stretched my cervix with her fingers until I was at 4 centimeters. Yee-ouch!

I should have tried to sleep while the labor was still pretty easy. But I was too excited. Husband and I watched some "Arrested Development", my mom arrived at the hospital and stayed with us in the labor and delivery room, I took a jacuzzi bath, Husband ate about 7 protein bars, and time passed slowly but surely. The nurses came in every hour or so and hooked me up to the monitors for about 15 minutes to make sure that the baby was okay. Also, I walked around in the halls with Husband, to try and help progress my labor.

By noon, my labor was a lot harder but I could still talk through the contractions. I wanted Husband to push on and rub my lower back, because that's where it hurt. The nurses were concerned that I might be having back labor-- meaning that the baby could be facing the wrong way as she was coming down into my pelvis. But that turned out not to be the case. Or if it was, she turned around the right way before she was born.
Before the pitocin, I spent a lot of time in the rocking chair, on the birthing ball, or on my hands and knees in the bed. I felt the need to move my hips during contractions.

Once they gave me the pitocin, however, everything changed. The pain was a lot less manageable.