the rest of the story

I know some of you are interested in the details of Tessa’s birth while most of you probably aren’t… so if you’re not, stop reading! :)  I went in for my appointment Wednesday afternoon to get my membranes stripped again.  I asked her to strip them well because I really wanted to have this baby ASAP so I could get to my brother’s wedding.  Well she said that I was a 5 almost 5 1/2 cm!  She said that she would check and see if the doctor at the hospital would admit and induce me for advanced dilation.   Sure enough they told me to come on down!  We arrived at the hospital around 7:00 and put me on the monitors.  I was having contractions (from the membrane stripping I’m sure) but I wasn’t in labor.  So they gave me 3 options, I could either 1) have them break my water, 2) start on pitocin, or 3) both.  I decided to have them break my water since it would make my contractions less painful than pitocin would if it put me into labor.  I didn’t think it would work since my water broke with Sophie and I didn’t go into labor.  So I figured I’d end up with the pitocin but wanted to give it a try.  They broke my water at about 8:00 and I started having stronger contractions soon after that.  The nurse said she’d check me again in 2 hours… I thought that sounded like a long time but didn’t say anything.  Well as they contractions were harder to handle I decided it was epidural time!!  So I ordered the epidural and the nurse checked me since I was in so much pain and found that I was at a 7.  It seemed like FOREVER but was probably more like 30 minutes until the anesthesiologist came in.  By that point I couldn’t maintain my composure during contractions at all and lost feeling in my hands since I was having such a hard time breathing through the pain (I didn't know that’s why they teach you to breathe).  After my epidural was in I was at a 9!!  I can’t believe I almost did it all on my own, but I was glad I got the epidural, being in pain is fun… but I’m no martyr and would rather NOT. :)  Tessa was born at 10:39 pm.  No episiotomy this time but I still needed stitches for some tearing. I am glad that they let me come in and get induced since it seems my body was ready and we would have been hard pressed to get babysitters set up and drive to the hospital without much notice otherwise since it was all over in 2 1/2 hours!  I am recovering quickly and am looking forward to seeing our family on Saturday!!