After a week and a half of false starts, stripped membranes and early morning text messages of "still nothing" we finally went in for an induction the night of January 13th (8 days past due). Our first child had to be delivered via C-section because she was breech and the placement of the placenta made turning her dangerous. I really wanted to avoid having another surgical delivery. Fortunately the staff at UCSF Med Center were supportive of my decision to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and were willing to spend the time needed to slowly induce me giving me the best chance of success.
The first step (after getting settled into our amazing room) was to have a foley catheter passed through my cervix and inflated to 60mL. Then the catheter was taped to my leg to put pressure on my cervix (mimicking the baby's head.) It was stunning how well this worked. Within a few seconds I was having strong contractions. Within a few minutes I was asking for drugs. Which reminds me, Fentenyl is amazing. It doesn't make the pain go away it just makes it so that you don't care about it anymore and it makes everything funny.
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| The view from my room |
Once the foley came out (about an hour later) they started me on low dose pitocin. This went on forever. After lunch on the 14th I finally decided that I was too tired. I couldn't sleep because of the contractions and I knew I was going to need some rest if I was going to push this kid out. It was time for the epidural. I ended up getting the epidural and a spinal at the same time so that I could go right to sleep. I took a nice long nap and watched a little TV.
At 1 in the morning on the 15th the nurses told me it was time to start pushing. I couldn't feel much on account of the epidural so I had the nurses get me a mirror. As I pushed I could see my son's little hairy head getting bigger and bigger. His head was getting close but still not quite crowning. Then during one of my contractions I pushed and all the nurses yelled "STOP!!" His head had popped out. Kevin later said that it looked like a game of whack-a-mole. The doc came over checked his neck for the cord and told me to push one more time.
At 2:36 in the morning on January 15th Johnathan was born.
