Due to his diagnosis and also our living one hour (without Bay Area traffic) from UCSF, we planned for a scheduled induction on August 6. On August 2, I started feeling painless contractions that started at the top of my uterus. They lasted one minute each and were spaced out 3-4 minutes apart for the two hours I tracked. We were told to make the drive to UCSF L&D. Upon arriving, I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, but contractions had slowed down a lot. The midwife told me that we should go for a two hour walk, get lunch, and then come back to see if there was any progress. After coming back, my cervix remained pretty much the same, except a little softer. We were told to stay in San Francisco and not go home, in case things got going quickly and we couldn't get back from home in time. The next day, I came back for more monitoring, but there were no contractions at all. I did not get my cervix checked at that point. I really missed my toddler and asked if we could go home since they weren't planning to induce early. We got to come home!
On August 6, we drove up to San Francisco for dinner before induction time. During the drive and dinner, I felt painless contractions about 5 minutes apart. 9:40 PM- I was still 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. My membranes were stripped at this time. 10 PM- I received two doses of misoprostol (prostaglandins). I started getting contractions soon after and they started hurting a decent amount. August 7 at 4 AM- I was only 3 cm dilated and my membranes were stripped again.
7 AM- I started getting pitocin. 9 AM- received epidural. 11 AM- I was still just 4 cm dilated and feeling pretty frustrated. At 1:40 PM, my water broke on its own. At 2:10 PM, there were several waves of back to back contractions and this stressed baby out, causing a few heart rate decelerations. About six medical professionals rushed in to check what was going on, I was put on oxygen, taken off pitocin, and my husband was told to suit up and be ready to rush to the operating room (it was always the plan to deliver there so there was more space for baby to be immediately evaluated by the NICU team). I was 6 cm dilated.
3:10 PM- the amazing nurse working with us emptied my bladder manually and in doing so, the baby was able to drop further down. A midwife was also serendipitously in the room so she checked my cervix and it was fully dilated. She had me do a practice push then told me it was time to go to OR for delivery.
3:22 PM- get to OR. 3:27 PM- After less than five pushes that weren't even done simultaneously with contractions, Ripley is born. Ripley was put on my chest for a short minute then taken for evaluations. At 1 minute, he was given an APGAR score of 8 and at 5 minutes, a score of 9. He was 6 lbs, 4 oz and just over 19 inches long. I was able to go to NICU to properly meet him around 6 PM.
