Karter's Birth Story

On Monday January 11, 2010 we arrived at the hospital just before 7am for my scheduled induction. I went to Labor and Delivery and they got me set up in my room with all the monitors and such on and told me Dr. Rapaport would be in soon to check on me. My nurse Colleen was very friendly, and we hit it off right away!
At 7:45 Dr. Rapaport came in to check me and said I was a good 3-4 cm dilated. At that time, he broke my water. It was such a weird feeling... I almost felt like I was peeing myself! He told me then that if I was planning on having an epidural, that I should get my IV put in soon. The first time the nurse tried to put the IV in, resulted in a blown vein, and since I'm not a fan of needles, she asked another nurse to come in and try to put the IV in. The second try worked just fine...although it was a little more painful.
The nurse then told me I could get up and walk, which I did for a little while, but it was only Jake and I at the hospital at that time, and he wasn't feeling very well, so he wanted to go back to the room and sit down but he didn't want me to walk by myself, so we both went back, and I just got back in bed and watched tv for a while.
At 11am, the Nurse talked to the Dr. and he decided that since breaking my water had done little to speed up or intensify my contractions that I needed to be started on the Pitocin. It took less than an hour and 2 upped dosages to get the contractions so intense that I was ready for the Epidural. During that time, I had been up sitting in the recliner, just relaxing and watching Ellen and chatting with my nurse. I called my mom and told her that she could start heading to the hospital.
I tried to hold off on the Epi for as long as I could, but I finally asked at about 12:15 if I could get the Epidural, and the nurse checked me and said that I was a "full 4 centimeters dilated" so yes I could get the Epi. She went to call the Anesthesiologist, and I waited and tried to breath through some VERY intense contractions. I tried to stay relaxed, but they were so painful, that my body just wanted to tense up every time I felt one coming on! When she came back in my room, she had me get back in bed so I would already be there for the Epi. The Anesthesiologist came in about 12:30 and by 12:40 I had my Epidural in and I was feeling NO pain! It wasn't easy getting the Epi in though because my vertibrae are "tight". The first try didn't work, so he had to move up a bit farther on my back to try again. When all was said and done, I told the anesthesiologist I loved him, and I told everyone else that "the epidural guy is a god". It was such a weird feeling having the Epidural for quite a while (much different than labor with Chase) before time to push, because my legs felt so heavy!
She continued to up the Pitocin every 30 minutes and I could feel the contractions coming and going, but they didn't hurt.. it was just pressure.
At 2:45pm, the nurse checked me again and I was 6cm dilated. She was supposed to be done at 3, but the nurse taking over was in a meeting with the Head OB nurse, so Colleen stayed on til 4, when Lisa came in and took over.
At 4:30pm, Dr. Rappaport called and wanted to know what kind of progress I was making, so Lisa checked me and I was 9 and 1/2 cm, and still feeling NO PAIN!! She told me that we would be pushing soon and that the Dr. was on his way over from the office.
At 5pm, I started to push. They kept saying that they could see his head and told me that he had a ton of hair. Lisa didn't think it would take too much pushing for him to be delivered, but after an hour, I was almost ready to give up! I just kept trying to focus on getting him out, and at 6:18pm My beautiful baby Karter Jacob weighing in at 7lb 12oz and 20.5 inches long was finally born! Jake gave my mom the Honor of cutting the cord (since he had done it with Chase). Welcome to the World Karter! We are so blessed to have you!