Labor & Delivery

For those of you who were curious...here's more detail on the labor and delivery. I was induced on Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30 a.m. They gave me potossin (sp?) to start my contractions. I labored and continued to dilate and around noon my water broke. Shortly after that I received an epidural and it was the best decision I made...I know it's not for everyone, but it was great for me. I continued to have contractions and they'd check me every hour to see how far I had dilated. I was supposed to be dilating 1 cm every hour...but it was more like 1 cm every 2 hours. Example: I was at a 4 at noon and by 8 that evening I was only at a 7. Also, the most potossin they can give you without an internal contraction moniter is a dose of 20....yeah, that's all I know. Anyway, they decided to put the internal moniter in me and by 8 p.m. my potossin dosage was at a 25...and still only 7 cm. My doctor came in around 8 to check me. The situation was that Benjamin was still floating at a -1, I had a fever of 101, my pelvic bone was not any bigger, Benjamin's heart rate was starting to go down, and I was still only dilated to a 7. This was when he gave me the option of having a c-section. He said he didn't want to push me in to doing something that I didn't want to do, but he really felt like in the end this is what it was going to be. He said I could wait it out till I was at a 10, but then I'd probably still be pushing for 2 hours and he didn't know if the baby would even be able to make it through my pelvic bone. He said that he thought that this baby was just too big for my body. Josh and I had prayed and thought many nights about this decision and we have always felt that I would be having a c-section, AND most importantly, we felt good about it. When he gave me the option, I felt at peace and knew that was what needed to be done. They prepped me and then sent my shivering body into surgery. They asked Josh if he wanted to watch and he said he might watch a little. But I was shivering so badly that he stayed by my side and comforted me and tried to help me relax. Finally, the anesthesiologist told him that he might want to stand up. So Josh stood up and watched as Benjamin was pulled from my stomach...er, uterus to be technical. The doctor said that he didn't even have to push Benjamin up to get him out, he just had to pull him down and out of my stomach...that's how high he was. And, Benjamin still had not turned his body for his face to be towards my back...posterior??? I don't remember the term. Anyway, after they weighed him they called him Big Ben. So, that's basically how the whole thing happened on September 30. Prayers were answered and we have a beautiful, healthy baby!