UPDATE: The following is a repost of my birth story. I sound artificially cheery here--maybe I still had an adreneline high, maybe I was delirious with exhaustion, I don't know. While I will say the delivery was ultimately successful, it was a long, hard labor and emotionally draining at times. In retrospect, I wish we knew it was very common for the baby's heartrate to fall during an induction and could have discussed this with the doctor in advance. It was so hard to know what was the right thing to do that day. But ultimately, all worked out well in the end and the baby's name is Matthew, so here is my story:

First, the best part. Our son, Matthew Christopher was born on December 5th. He is adorable, and everything seems to be well with him. He was 8.15 pounds at birth.

As for my labor, I went past my due date, and my doctor had concerns about continuing the pregnancy much longer, so I was induced. DH and I went to the hospital Tuesday evening and as it turns out, LOTS of babies were being born that night. So we had to wait a couple hours before a room was ready for us. Once it was, we went in and I was started on pitocin and hooked up to monitors (to see how the baby's heartrate was and also to measure contractions). This process started around 11 pm. By about 4 that morning, the contractions had become stronger. I was told at the beginning that I could get an epidural at any time with the induction, but silly me, I waited to see if I could deal without the drugs. By morning I was only 4 centimeters, and I decided I could not deal without the drugs, so I got an epidural. Best thing I ever did--I highly recommend them!


After that, my water broke on its own. I thought I wet the bed actually since the nurse hadn't put my catheter in yet, but it was my water. So with that and the epidural, I finally slept for a couple hours.

There were a couple scary points when Matthew's heartrate dropped and doctors and nurses rushed in the room, changed my position, gave me oxygen (to help his heartrate get back up), and a shot to stop the contractions. I was taken off the pitocin both times to give the baby time to adjust. After the second incident, I told my doctor I did not want to go through that again and risk losing the baby. She told me this is pretty normal, and she really didn't feel the baby was at risk, so we agreed if there was any sign of even the slightest dip again, I would get a c-section.

All in all, the labor lasted 22 hours, though as I said earlier, with the drugs, it was very manageable. I was tired at the end even so, and pushing was harder than it might have been, but luckily, our baby was healthy and came through the process well. I wound up needing an episiotomy (my doctor thought I was about to tear). At this point, I'm feeling pretty good, though the episiotomy area still bothers me. I also got hemmorhoids from the pushing, but that's not such a big deal.

Now, I have to say I understand what people mean when they say the love they feel for their children is different for the love they feel for anyone else. The first day or two, I had trouble bonding with him completely, and couldn't quite believe that this was my child. But he is beautiful and perfect, and DH and I are very proud parents.

Good luck to all the expectant Moms out there, and I hope you all have good deliveries and healthy babies also!

Cheryl