Induction Fail

To say I'm tired and frustrated would be a serious understatement right now. Friends and family have all been concerned and really wonderfully supportive but I want to write everything in one spot for ease of communication because 1) there's a lot of information to give (and yet not a lot at the same time) and 2) developments are slow so I didn't want to contact anyone with full info until I had it myself.

First of all, here are the basics of what happened up until today. On Friday, we were supposed to go for a scheduled induction. The hospital was to contact us late Thursday night with a time and confirmation. My mother in law came over so that she could be here for when we needed to leave Friday, which would likely be early. The time for the hospital call came and went Thursday night so I started tracking down who to talk to. Come to find out, there was a mistake in the paperwork, we weren't on the list to contact and it was a full house so we would need to call the next morning to see if they could take us. Next morning, we called the Labor and Delivery unit at the hospital, the OB's office and the hospital again. We got bumped. No induction would be happening Friday. Instead it was a visit to Maternal Fetal Medicine for a non stress test that afternoon with a follow up at the OB's office for a what to do next plan. My mother in law was willing to stick around so we could do these things without having to drag Dylan along.

The non stress test went fine. My OB was actually sick so we saw one of the heads of the practice. Normally inductions aren't scheduled for weekends but as this doctor was the one on call Sunday, he was happy to put through the orders for us to come in for induction Sunday. We would be called Saturday night with a time. Thursday night repeat and we didn't hear anything so had to call and pester yet again. We were told to call back in the morning for that shift nurse to assess staff and let us know yea or nay. It was a yea, so we went in at 9am for induction.

My in laws both came over Sunday and Mike and I headed to the hospital. We were admitted, got shown to a room, I changed into a johnny, general health questions were asked and then we had to wait for a bit for the doctor's orders for inducement. Once those finally came, the pitocin drip was started around 11am. With pitocin, they start with a low dose and slowly increase. Apparently the increase over the next hour exceeded the baby's preferences because he became unhappy and the dosage was reset to really low levels. Over the next 7 hours, dosage went up and down according to baby's heartbeat happiness. Unfortunately during that time, contractions never became regular. Oh, I had them and plenty of them. They were just not really intense and would come regularly for 4 or 5 of them and then take a big break. By the end of 8 hours on "the drip," the doctor came in for another check. Still only 2 centimeters dilated and thick (ie baby still way up high)....the same I was at my check up on Friday! Grrr!

We were given 3 choices. 1) Stay the course and see if my body kicked into gear eventually, 2) do a cervix ripening, stay at the hospital overnight and start induction again Monday morning or 3) call it a day, get a good night's rest and go in for plan C during office hours the next day. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was very tired so we went with option number 3 and headed home. We got there just in time to put Dylan to bed a little bit past his usual time.

This morning, I called the office after they opened and they said they would squeeze me in for an appointment when I got there. Mike, Dylan and I arrived at the office at 10:45. It was fully of waiting patients. My OB was held up in a c-section for some time so we were all going to be waiting a while. We finally got in to see her around 12:30, gave her the story of the previous day and discussed a new plan. New plan is Thursday, if labor hasn't happened naturally before then, we'll go into the hospital, get the thing to ripen the cervix (if needed....will have an appointment on Wednesday to check if there's been any more progress), get monitored for a couple of hours after administration of medicine then go home. Friday morning, we'll come back for induction attempt take 3. But first, an ultrasound to make sure fluid levels still looked good.

After yesterday's fail, I'm very happy to be able to give mother nature a few more days to do her thing. However, all of this hospital time and tests has been beyond exhausting to do and I'm really over it. I mean REALLY over it! As I said, I'm so grateful for all the concern but it's been difficult, to say the least, to keep all parties informed. So, it was easiest for me to detail it here for all that cared to read.

Until you hear otherwise, no news is no news. I promise to put out email and\or Facebook blasts when anything interesting happens. And, if all out there could cross your fingers and toes that this little boy quickly develops claustrophobia and decides to break out, I'd really appreciate it.