Fourth Labor, One Hour, 38 Minutes

By Betty

At 38 weeks we went to the hospital to be induced because of high blood pressure. We filled out the paper work and they hooked up the IV.

I had asked to get the epidural before they started the Pitocin because I knew how natural birth felt and never wanted to do that again. They said it was fine as this was a fourth baby.

After my epidural they started my Pitocin at 11:22 in the morning. The first contraction was about noon on the monitor. At 12:35 p.m. they checked me and I was at 4 centimeters dilated so I sent my husband out to get lunch. He came back 10 minutes later and I told him I was in pain and needed more medication.

At 12:50 p.m. a nurse ran in the room because the baby's heart rate was low and asked how I was. I said I needed more medication and that I wanted to push. She checked me and yelled out the door for the doctor to get in the room because the head was coming out. The baby came out before the doctor could make it in the room. I was trying not to push and just to breathe so he could get in the room, but even without pushing there was no stopping the baby. So he came before the doctor was able to get there. Thankfully, he was perfectly healthy and weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

We had fast labors with the other boys but they were three and four hours from the time they started the Pitocin until delivery, so we were stunned that it happened so fast this time! Next time we will also ask for the epidural before the induction starts because the pain was wild even with the epidural!