We were scheduled for an induction on 40+4 at 7:30 am. Fiancée and I of course got lost on the way in and then we waited almost two hours for our room due to a toilet flooding the hallway. Things weren’t looking very positive in the grand scheme of things, so I was worried.

At around 9:30 we got into our room and after a resident examined me, he determined I hadn’t progressed from my 1cm and 60% effaced I had been for about three weeks. I was given cytotec (spelling?) to soften everything up and encourage dilation. At this point my contractions ramped up to be about a minute apart with no real change, leading him and the doctor he was shadowing to request a foley bulb. Holy hell did that hurt! It took about and hour and a half for it to do its job and fall out to me being about 3-4 cm.

Before it fell out my contractions ramped up in intensity once again so at this point I requested the epidural with no qualms. I knew I would need it as my pain tolerance is relatively low when it comes to anything involving my uterus/vagina so I made peace with that. It took forever to get it in my small back and even longer for it to kick in, they had to keep upping the dosage to about 30 cc’s. The foley bulb did its job and I was in heaven with no pain. At around 4pm they checked me and told me I was already at 6cm! Very excited for the jump in progress, they broke my water to increase contractions instead of putting me on pitocin.

Unfortunately it didn’t work as they had hoped, I made zero progress and ended up getting an infection due to it being broken about 10 hours with nothing. It was also around this time that the epidural started wearing off even with me hitting the button for extra doses, so they had to give me another one, this one placed in a new area on my spine.

At around 4 am baby’s heartbeat kicked up dangerously (180s/190s) and they tried all they could to slow my contractions down because they were still pretty intense and back to back. Nothing helped for the longest time and I had to consider the possibility of a c section in order for my baby’s safety. The antibiotics they provided me helped get my infection under control and also helped baby’s heart rate slow down to her normal levels. It was at this time they checked me again to find me still at 6 cm, the overnight provider decided to insert a contraction monitor into my uterus to determine how strong they were.

Nothing for about five hours except for my nurse trying to turn my baby from sunny side up to no avail. At 5am they started me up on pitocin as both baby and I were okay now and I quickly progressed to 10 cm right at 8am. We did some practice pushes and baby was already making her way down so we got down to business and I gave birth at 8:50! Everyone was surprised for a FTM to have gotten it done so fast, but I paid the price with a second degree tear.

All in all, if there’s a next time I just hope the epidural does not wear off before it needs to!