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Home › Stories › First Baby › Long Labors > Long Labor, Happy Ending

Long Labor, Happy Ending

By Gillian

At my 38-week check-up I was told that I was already 2 centimeters dilated and that I definitely would not go over my due date.

However, I was still getting impatient to see my little one and was desperately trying to move things along. I was drinking raspberry leaf tea, taking marathon three-hour walks, and using contraction-stimulating oils in my baths. My mother, who had just retired, suggested going out to see the latest Harrison Ford movie, stating that if the baby was a girl, she would surely come out to see Harrison Ford! Well, that afternoon after the matinee, I went into labour.

Mild contractions came every five minutes or so from about 4 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. the next morning when I finally woke my husband and we went to the hospital. I was admitted at 4 centimeters dilated and was quite pleased that I had gone almost halfway without much discomfort. At about 10:30 a.m., the nurse examined me and broke my water (or so we thought) and my husband, my mum and I all took bets on when the baby would come. A few hours later I was started on Pitocin to move things along.

At one point the baby's heart rate dropped and the Pitocin was stopped, only to be restarted again once everything settled down. We played the waiting game, largely pain free, until 9:30 p.m., when my nurse started to become concerned that my water had broke 12 hours earlier and we were yet to see any progress. I agreed to an internal monitor to measure the strength of the contractions. When it was being placed my water broke for real!

Because I was so pumped full of Pitocin, I went from 5 centimeters to 10 centimeters in 45 minutes, with no break in between the contractions. Much to my personal disappointment, I had an epidural. It had become a little too hard to cope after being awake for 36 hours and not eating for a good 12 hours. By the time the epidural took effect, it was time to push. I have never felt so powerful in my life. What an exhilarating experience! Our little girl was born at 2:15 a.m., almost 30 hours after the epic began, and weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces. To this day I think about her birth all the time and am constantly amazed by my own part in the miracle.

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