Jeyda Raye Miller, April 14, 2008, 5 pounds, 8 ounces

Throughout my pregnancy my OB had insisted that I had high blood pressure, and near the end of my pregnancy she was convinced it was preeclampsia. Now, I know that many people claim to have "white collar hypertension" but I really do; my blood pressure was perfect throughout my pregnancy when taken at home, and all of my blood work and urine tests came back perfectly normal. There was no convincing my OB of this, though.

So on Thursday, the 10th, my 37-week checkup, my OB, in no uncertain terms, scheduled me for an amniocentesis the following day. This was absolutely terrible. I am not at all a squeamish person or afraid of needles but I just about passed out. The tests came back later that day with an all go for induction.

Saturday, the 12th, I went into the hospital at 7 p.m. Now, let me interject that this was my first child and first experience with all of this. If I could go back I would never have let them induce me when I for sure knew that there was no need.

Anyway, I was hooked up to monitors and IVs and basically strapped to the bed. By 11 p.m. the nurses administered the first dose of prostaglandin ( this is a small pill that they stick up near your cervix in hopes of starting labor). I went in to the hospital at 0 centimeters dilated and 0 percent effaced. Four hours after the first dose of drugs, I was only at 1 centimeter dilated.

Now they continued to administered six doses of the prostaglandin pill with four hours in between to let it "work." I was told that they had never seen someone who needed this many doses before. I guess I became their first!

After about the second dose I was beginning to cramp just enough to not be able to sleep. At 11 p.m. Sunday night (24 hours after the first dose) I was only at 2 centimeters dilated and had not slept a wink. I was crampy, tired and my back was very achy (I had an ever intensifying feeling that little Baby was posterior). All of this I could handle; it was not anything terrible, but my morale was dwindling along with my energy.

After not much luck with the little pill I was put on Pitocin. I was also given an Ambian sleeping pill to try and "rest up" before the pushing stage. I managed to maybe get a 30-minute nap but it's hard to sleep when it feels like there is a knife in your back.

I was checked about two hours later and was at 4 centimeters. At this point I was pretty certain I would not make it without drugs like I had hoped and planned. I decided against an epidural and instead got a dose of Demerol. This was not a wise choice and I would advise strongly against it. It managed to make me incredibly sleepy without relieving any of the pain.

Another hour went by (without sleep) and I was stuck at 4 centimeters. This was about 2 a.m. My poor husband had been massaging my lower back for some two hours without a break. We had bought an electric back massager and he had asked me if he could go get it instead of using his hands and he stopped momentarily; I about lost it and snapped at him to "never do that again." He was such a help, though, and there was no way I could have gotten through it without him.

The doctor decided to use a foley bulb to make me dilate. This is a long stick with a balloon-type thing at the end full of water. They shove it into your cervix to make it expand. This was pretty unpleasant; it burned like hell. I immediately had to get up to go pee and while in the bathroom my water broke. I came back to the bed and had the balloon-n-stick taken out.

The nurses left me to continue dilating. At this point I was exhausted! And I was just about ready to give up. My back hurt so badly and I had no relief in between contractions because little Baby was indeed posterior. In fact, I could not even really tell when I was having contractions because I was in excruciating pain the entire time.

I finally called in an anesthesiologist to administer an epidural. This was at about 4 a.m. She checked me and I had managed to dilate from 4 to 7 centimeters in about an hour's time. I was given the epidural and immediately felt half of my abdomen go numb. Wait... half?! I thought I was supposed to feel relief. The block had somehow only numbed the nerves on my right half and left my left half writhing in pain.

The anesthesiologist jiggled the needle around to see if that fixed the problem. I would lie down and during a contraction jump to a sitting fetal position, groan, then lie back down. This went on for about 30 minutes. Still no relief. So she completely took it out and started a new one. It was bliss! I immediately feel asleep.

Two hours later I was complete and ready to push. I felt a little pressure but the epidural was doing wonders. Four pushes and 10 minutes and my beautiful little daughter was placed on my chest at 6:49 a.m. Monday morning. My 32 hours of labor completely faded from my mind. Jeyda Raye Miller was 5 pounds, 8 ounces.

She is now 6 months old and as cute and charming as ever. Looking back on it, it was all very worth it. I would do it all over again in a second and am actually looking forward to my next birth experience. Although next time, I won't be getting induced.

Kristina Miller