5 Years Ago, Today

It was a Wednesday. I had been in the hospital since Monday noon. A week and a half prior I had had an amniocentesis to check on my son's lung function which turned out to be fully developed. We were told "more bad than good can happen from here on."

I have chronic hypertension (high blood pressure) that I have been taking medication for since I was in my 30s. My first obstetrician did not expect that I would get past Thanksgiving without going pre-eclamptic. I did. The next one (we had moved to California) did not expect that I would get past 34 weeks. I did.

We scheduled the induction at 37 weeks, 3 days (after the above test for lung function). We arrived at the hospital Emergency Room at noon and I was wheeled up to the L&D (labor & delivery) ward. They hooked up a belly band and then took 4 stabs in my right hand followed by another two in my left to get the drip set up (ouch!). I got some stuff stuck up my cooter to soften my cervix and then we proceeded to wait.

And wait.

And wait. Oh, sure, they tossed stuff into the line going into my bruised and battered hand. They shoved more stuff up my wazoo. You could see the contractions on the miles and miles of tape. But really, we just...

Waited.

Until Wednesday. About 2 o'clock. I was sitting in the chair by the bed, alone, eating my lunch. B was out...somewhere. Suddenly...

"Ummm...", she says after pressing the 'Call' Button. "I think my water just broke." Boy, nothing gets by me.

The nurse comes in and ascertains that it is, indeed, amniotic fluid and not that I have completely lost control of my bowel function. I call B and tell him that it could be getting interesting soon. Forty-five minutes later he arrives and we proceed to...

Wait. At least now though, I start to feel the contractions. Hey! This isn't so bad. By 6 o'clock, that had changed. Whoa! This hurts! By 7 o'clock, I was asking for drugs. I wasn't dilated enough for an epidural, so they gave me something that they said they could only give me twice.

Yes. Please. Anything.

Okay, whatever it is made me sleepy. But it didn't really take away the pain. So what we had was me dozing off and then five minutes later I was hanging onto the side of the bed whimpering. This went on for an hour or so. They then checked me again and, hallejulah!, I could get an epidural. The anesthesiologist could be an hour away. Fortunately he arrived in less than 20 minutes with my blessed, blessed epidural.

He proceeds to do his job. B starts asking him questions. I scream to myself, Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Let him do his job! Don't distract him! Meh.

By 9 PM the blessed, blessed epidural had done its job and I was no longer whimpering in pain. We continued watching bad TV until 11 PM, when I was...

Asleep.

To be Continued...