August 28

As the story continues.....

Neither the mother- or the father-to-be slept much the night before they were to go to the hospital. After waiting all those months and finally knowing exactly when it was going to happen. The excitement of it all was overwhelming. All the pages and pages of books of what to expect 'when labor starts' and 'if the water breaks' were all disregarded. When to call the doctor? The hospital? Can I drink and/or eat after labor starts? They were prepared.....but prepared for (ta da)....the normal. Having an induced delivery wasn't the normal. Not unusual by any means, but just not the 'normal'.

(Remember that this is before the day of digital images.)

Mom and Dad arrived at the hospital at 8:00am and were admitted by 8:10am. They were escorted to Labor Room #3 and settled in. They labor room was set up to make them as comfortable as possible. They had no idea yet that it was going to be a very, very long day.

It wasn't until after lunch that things actually got started. The fetal monitor was placed at 12:25pm and then the pitocin drip was started by IV. Contractions began by 12:45pm and continued to progress. They kept remembering that during the classes they were told to keep walking and doing things as normally as possible for as long as possible. There Mom was, laying in the bed with an IV in and a fetal monitor on. All it took was for Mom to have to go to the bathroom for them to discover that as soon as the pitocin was stopped, even for the short walk to the bathroom, that the contractions slowed down. So Mom went to the bathroom only the one time after things got started.

There was no spontaneous breaking of water. It had to be done by the doctor at 5:10pm and things became more active after that. The fetal monitor beeped and recorded each and every contraction. Dad was able to coach Mom through the contractions and alert her when things were starting or letting up.

The afternoon was a long one and very tiring for each of them. They had no idea that things were going to take so long. They also didn't know that so much of the day would be so different from what they had been prepared for. By midnight, dilation was at 4-5centimeters and there was still no baby. August 28th had come and gone.

(to be continued)