I found out I was pregnant in March of 2009, at the tender age of 18. I was so confused about how I felt... I was happy, and scared, and worried, and nervous. It was a lot to feel at once. Everyone was so happy, and supportive. After a while, I was so happy. Pregnancy seemed to agree with me. Besides a few weeks of some morning sickness, everything went well. My first ultrasound at 18 weeks was perfect, and the tech was able to tell me I was definitely having a little boy, and that he was doing very well so far.
I had a few minor issues, though. At my 26 week ultrasound, the tech noticed I had a shortened cervix, which can sometimes lead to early labour, so I was put on bedrest and categorized as a high-risk pregnancy. I also had to have 3 steroid shots, over a span of 36 hours, to help develop the baby's lungs and heart and muscles in case he was born early. I had to go for ultrasounds every 2 weeks for about 8 weeks. There were no changes to anything, and since nothing else was awry, I was taken out of the high-risk category.
At every doctors appointment, my blood pressure, and the baby's heart rate, were always excellent. Towards the end, my weight gain started to drop, to the point I had lost weight at a few weighings, and my belly seemed very small, which worried my doctor... so now I had to go for something called a non-stress test. That basically means that I had 2 disks strapped around my belly... one to measure my uterine pressure, and one to measure the baby's heart rate to see if he was going into distress when I had Braxton Hicks contractions. All four of these tests I had over a 6 week span (from 34-40 weeks) had great results. And my last ultrasound I had (around a week before I was due) showed that the baby was healthy and very well developed.
Everything over the next week went well... but I had a feeling that I was going to go way past my due date. Four days before I was due, when I saw my doctor, I asked her when I could be induced, and she said I should wait until after my due date before asking about it, because I could go into labour on my own. Well, I didn't. I saw her 3 days after my due date, and my usually low blood pressure was quite high, so she said I was to be induced the next morning when she was on call at the hospital.
After waiting more than 12 hours for my induction time, I headed to the hospital for 10pm, with my sister, and my doula meeting us there. I made it with 3 minutes to spare, and was put into a delivery room right away. My water was broken at 10:30, hoping that would start my labour. It didn't, and I got my IV put in at 11. Towards midnight, I got into the tub to labour in the water instead of taking any pain meds. I stayed in the water for about 5 hours. When I got out, I was told I was 5cm (I had started at 2cm). Deciding that I couldn't handle another 6 hours of the pain, I opted to have an epidural. The anesthesiologist came in around 5:30am, and as he was leaving the doctor came in and after checking, told me I was ready to push. In 15 minutes, I had gone from 5cm to fully dilated.
After about 10 pushes in 2 minutes, my son was born at 5:41 am, weighing almost 8 pounds. It was scary and crazy and absolutely beautiful, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
I went in expecting hours and hours and hours of labour, and hours of pushing, but I was pleasantly suprised. One thing I was not prepared for was the pain. With inductions, you go from no labour to heavy contractions in a matter of minutes. It's really intense. I was not expecting that, and I will never again ask to be induced. But me and my son made it through happy and healthy, and that's all I can ask for.
