Cervidil is my Friend: A Birth story

I knew for a few months that my doctors wanted my delivery be a scheduled induction. The process they explained was something like this: Cervidil for 12 hours, followed by Pitocin for up to 20 hours. No food or drinks, only ice chips. No getting out of bed, not even to use the bathroom. If the baby didn't come within 20 hours of Pitocin or if his heart rate dropped they would do a C-Section. I was not thrilled with this plan. But I didn't have much of a choice. All I could do was go with the flow, hope for the best and use the power of positive energy to get me through it.

So that's what I did. I excepted that the situation was beyond my control and at 12pm on 3/22 I checked in to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital with a hopeful heart and a smile on my face.

Nothing happened right away. I didn't even put on my hospital gown until 2pm. Abe took notes throughout the night which helped us remember the sequence of events. I'm so glad he did, otherwise the whole experience would be a big blur. This is from his timeline:

2:20pm- I was 1cm. This was great because it meant that my body had already started the labor process on its own. If my induction had stayed on the original day 3/26, I probably would have gone into labor on my own.

3:05pm- Cervidil was inserted. It would be left in for 12 hours as planned. Cervidil looks like a little shoe string. They insert it into the cervix and it secretes prostaglandins to help the cervix soften and dilate.

4:45pm- I started to feeling crampy. I later learned those "cramps" were actually contractions. I was allowed to get up and use the bathroom as often as I needed. I was so relieved to be able to get up and move around.

7:00pm- My contractions were irregular, coming about 3-6 minutes apart. At this point, I thought we might be able to have him by midnight and he and Abe could share a birthday. (Just like my mom and I) But the nurses let me know that the doctors would rather he come in the morning. I was afraid that not being able to eat or drink anything would make me feel weak. But honestly, I was not hungry and eating ice chips was plenty.

10:00pm- Painful contractions coming regularly convinced me that I should get some pain meds and potentially sleep so I'd have energy to deliver in the morning.

10:45pm- I was given a half dose of Nubain to help me sleep.

11:30pm- The second half of the dose was administered. They told me it would last 2-3 hours. The Nubain definitely helped me relax and made the contractions bearable, but I could not fall asleep. I shifted from side to side, listened to his beautiful heartbeat on the monitor and talked to him to prepare him for what was to come.

2:00am- On the dot, the meds wore off. From 2-3am, I breathed through contractions and listened to my iPod. The contractions were coming at a very consistent pace of 2 minutes apart.

3:00am- The nurse removed the Cervidil and checked my cervix, I was only 2-3cm. The contractions were VERY strong. Knowing that I had 7cm to go and feeling the unmedicated pain of consistent contractions I requested an epidural. The nurse said it could take an hour before the anesthesiologist was available to administer the epi.

3:20am- My water broke on its own. I was in A LOT of pain.

3:30am- The nurse checked me, 4cm.

3:45am- Insanely strong contractions 2 minutes apart. I'm dying for the epidural and the anesthesiologist is no where in sight. They strapped oxygen to my face and it made breathing very distracting. I reached into my deepest depths, trying everything I could think of to get through it. I remembered holding ice in my hand during our birthing class. I tried deep breathing and even howling. Abe squeezed my feet during contractions in an effort to displace the pain. Nothing worked, I was convinced I would die.  The Doctor told us that when my water broke the cord got pinched and was causing additional pain.

4:00am- EPIDURAL, hallelujah! Seeing the anesthesiologist was like seeing an angel! But the 5 minutes it took for him to get set up felt endless. Luckily he was good at his job, sweet relief.

4:20am- The doctor checked me, 8cm dilated! But she told me that his heart rate was dropping and if that continued they would have to do a c-section. I told her no and I told Santi to get ready. We were going for it!

4:40am- It was like troops deploying, so much hustle and bustle, the doctors started yelling "GO, GO, GO..." they needed to move me to the delivery room. Abe scrambled to gather our things as we would not return to the labor room and we had to have all of our belongings with us. Once we were in the delivery room, Abe furiously tried calling our parents who where asleep just a few miles away. Unfortunately, our LA rental house has really bad reception and no ones phone could get service. So it was just me, Abe and 10 doctors.

4:50am- The doctor told me that his heart rate was dropping and my contractions were slowing down. They might need to use the vacuum. Instead, they started Pitocin, which helped my contractions pick back up and thanks to the Epidural I could not feel their strength. I said out loud, to my son, "Santiago, my love, you have 10 minutes, you need to be here by 5am or else they are coming in to get you." He is a great listener and very punctual.

4:57am- Santiago Banks Aguilar was born. Our lives are forever changed. We are madly in love.

Thursday, 3/22 12pm to Saturday, 3/24 10am