My Pregnancy Journey Part III

On Tuesday June 16th at 10 am I had the first application of the inducing gel. They said if it didn't take effect in 6 hours I would need a second application. The hours passed on by and there was little to no effect and so at 4pm I had the second application. By the time Luca was able to come to the hospital after work around 7:30 pm the gel was definitely having its effect. 

Around 10pm they brought be me to a separate room to monitor the baby and the contractions. They said the contractions I was feeling were just a side effect of the inducing gel but not labor contractions, which was pretty disappointing to hear. They wanted to make sure baby was ok, but he kept falling asleep and so they couldn't get a good reading of his heartbeat and I was in pain and the contractions were getting stronger and so I had hard time staying in a good position to get a good reading of baby. 

After a little less than 2 hours of drinking sugar water and moving around in different positions, the whole time attached the monitoring machine with wires all around me I was tired and fell asleep. When I woke up about 20 minutes later the real contractions had come on and boy did it hurt! 

The nurse had come in to check something and I refused to move because of the pain and finally they pronounced that I was officially in labour. I was all set on having an all-natural birth but with being induced that had already changed but I really didn't want an epidural and was hoping that I wouldn't need a c-section. 

However, after 10 minutes of excruciating pain and having the nurses suggest that I have an epidural since the contractions could continue like this for another 6 hours and me trying to ask how much an epidural would actually help, I decided that I would succumb and have it. 

In Italy you're supposed to sign up for an epidural, take a course, and meet with an anesthesiologist first to make sure everything is ok and it used to be a 1,000 euro fee. So one of the nurses said she was going to measure me before getting the anesthesiologist and sure enough I was already dilated to 10cm. So I went from 2/3 cm to 10cm in 10 minutes - I wonder if that isn't a record. I started pushing and there wasn't even time to move to the delivery room. 

After about 30 minutes of labour T. was born healthy at 12.52 am on Wednesday June 17th weighing 5lbs 7 oz.  

He's been our joy and such a delight since.