We went to the hospital on Thursday the 17th to have a stress test done to check and see if everything was fine with Clark. I had been fighting a headache for the past day and a half and my blood pressure was above normal so the doctors decided that it was time to induce labor.
The German doctors don’t start with Pitocin like they do in
the states, they start with a pill that I can’t remember the name of. So at 2PM on Thursday the 17th they gave me 50mg and put me on a stress test monitor to see if the contractions would start. Within twenty minutes I started to have contractions that were coming every 3 – 5 minutes apart but were still pretty mild. They measured my cervix and told me that it was 1cm, and that it was soft so they didn’t expect the process to take too long, hopefully we would be in full labor by midnight, that Clark would be around on the 18th. Talk about an excited mommy.
Four hours later, they checked again… 1cm, now up the dose to 75mg… This caused stronger contractions coming around 3 minutes apart. These contractions were still bearable by a long shot and so we started to walk the halls of the hospital, up and down the stairwell, through the wards, and back. My really good friend Jamie came and kept me company. The plan was for her to stay through the delivery to help coach me through the rough patches if Travis got tired. So we walked, and walked, and walked.
Another four hours passed, 100mg, more contractions. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger. I tried to make sure that I kept a relaxed face and body so that the contractions could do their job and open the cervix. My mantra was, “good poop face.” I know this is ridiculous, but really, think about it, you cannot tense your jaw up while saying, “good poop face,” it is physically impossible. After another four hours passed they decided no more pills that I should try to get some sleep and we would begin again in the morning. They asked if I wanted pills to stop the contractions so that I could sleep. I figured that would be counterproductive and declined. Off to our room we go. (the best part about the German health system, at least at my hospital, is that they let the husband stay in the room too. Albeit for a fee, but still) It was now 2 in the morning and they wanted us to be back again at 6AM. So as I lay there trying to sleep while contracting every 3 minutes, I
listened to Travis breath heavily in his bed and waited. I remember thinking that today will be the day that I get to meet my little boy… I’m sorry, you just can’t sleep knowing that something so awesome is about to happen. It was like Christmas Eve hopped up on a vile or two of crack.
6AM 18 Nov: off we go from our hospital room to the delivery room for another stress test and another dose of contraction kickers… This time they immediately go to 100mg… the contractions remain the same. Four hours later they give me another 100mg,
this time the contractions pick up in intensity. We repeat this cycle for the rest of the day, every four hours we get another 100mg of meds and the contractions increase. Sometime around 3pm they check to see how far I have dilated… 1cm… I cry… I cannot believe that I have now been in labor, though not tough labor but still labor, for 24 hours and I have not gotten past a single effing centimeter. WTF???
The cycle continues… Midnight comes and they check me for dilation again. Do you want to guess how far I progressed? ZERO, NADA, ZILCH, NOTHING!!!! Still 1cm. ARE YOU SHITTING ME???? I cry some more… The doctor tells me to go get some rest, come back tomorrow morning at 6 and we will begin again. She follows this with a comment that I imagine she thought she was consoling me with, and here is where you realize that some things just don’t translate… She says, “Don’t get discouraged, it takes some women three days of this to get results.” HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!! I cry harder…
To Be Continued…
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