My Hospital Induction Story Pt. 1

If a picture could talk! My face in this takes me right back to that moment. I begged for an induction and I had no idea what an induction even entailed. No one stopped to explain it to me either. I had watched the Business of Being Born a few weeks prior and wished I’d hired a midwife but had no idea where to start- so I allowed the thought to leave my mind as quickly as it came.

But here we were at 11pm and Cervidil was being shoved into my vag by a 6’3” man that looked like he could’ve been a line backer in some sort of NFL team (My husband description not mine although I agree).

How did we get here? Well I found out I was pregnant about 1 year after we got married and a few days after my grandmothers passing. We were in OH with family and my cousin who’s a nurse says to me, “You’re probably pregnant”… 2 weeks later, those 2 pink lines showed up and there we were.

I selected my practice of 4 OBs and 2 NPs because my sister in law at the time was seeing them for her pregnancy as well. She liked them and recommended them and that was good enough for me at the time. I’ve always loved a good referral.

Everyone was nice and my pregnancy was low risk nothing crazy or anything. I went to my 4.5 min appts, I peed in a cup, i got weighed, my belly got measured, and I was on my way.

We were living in MD at the time and my mom was back in CA and it was really important for me for her to be there and she flew out a week before my due date. At the time I was that girl that put my baby on a timeline and expected to deliver on my due date. Joke was on me when a week went by and still no baby. Then another few days and still-no baby. I’d cry and complain. My mom came with me to my 41 +5 week Appt and I told the doc “my mom is leaving next week I need to have this baby.” He kindly told me “induction isn’t something we do because family’s in town, but if you’re pregnant still in 48 hours we can schedule it.”

12am on July 9 2015: I’m set up in LD, my husband is there and my mom and they’d slept next to me that night until about 3 am.
3am: I woke up with intense cramps that weren’t letting up. I rolled around to get comfortable and nothing helped.

9am: I had woken up again from what felt like the 100th nap, except this time I was STARVING…I hadn’t eaten anything in 12 hours but ice chips. I’m starving and in full labor. By this time they check my cervix and I’m at 4… I hadn’t seen an OB since the night before and it was the on-call OB…I still had no idea who would be attending my birth.

Pt. 2 coming soon!!