After days of breast pumping, bumpy car rides, spicy food, mass amounts of herbal tinctures, even castor oil, I checked in and received Cervidil to start things. It was Monday, April 21 � 17 days past my due date.
At about 10 a.m. I started having contractions, which remained about 10 minutes apart until that night at 2 a.m., when they started coming every couple minutes with increased intensity. This continued all day and through the afternoon. At about 3 p.m. they started coming one on top of the other. There was just so much pressure, I began to lose it. At about 8 p.m. I still hadn�t progressed past 4 centimeters dilated, and my cervix was swelling. The baby had also turned posterior.
At 9 p.m. I (sobbing) agreed to an epidural. By 11 p.m., things hadn�t progressed at all. My cervix was still swelling. I was a basket case. Thank God for my husband and midwife, who never left my side through the whole thing. I was told the baby might just be too big. I realized my body was saying the same thing. My whole body was shaking as my baby was delivered by Cesarean at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning. Before I could see him, I heard everyone talking about how huge he was � 12 pounds even, 23 1/2 inches long (and after I had given myself a strict diet forbidding sugars and dairy, so as not to grow that baby too big)!
His footprints didn�t even fit in the squares on the certificate. The doctors remarked on his health � no diabetes � and he wasn�t fat, just big!
He's now 3 weeks old, and I�m still healing emotionally as well as physically. I guess it was my first lesson of parenting. Those kids have their own ideas of how they want things, and sometimes you just can�t do anything about it!
This story was written by Amy