Since I was past due, my doc wanted me to go for ultrasounds/NSTs to monitor the baby. I went in on Thursday and the NST was good but the fluid was 7 (borderline), so they said to come back the next day for another one. I went in Friday morning after having guzzled water like a crazy woman all evening...and it was down to 4.5. They were not letting me leave. Called my husband, who was working from home just in case this happened, called my doula to give her a heads-up, and got set up in L&D. I insisted on being allowed lunch before we started, because I'd already been there for 4 hours waiting on the ultrasound (turns out, somebody was delivering triplets that morning, so the ward was busy!) and I was hungry. They started me on Pitocin around 2:30 or 3pm Friday. I was 1.5/2 cm dilated and about 75% effaced to start with. The first 6 hours were boring - nothing much was happening, and we watched a bunch of netflix. I could feel some of the contractions but they were very mild. At one point, I ordered up dinner, since I'd been told I could eat til I was in active labor, and this sure wasn't very active yet. I got one bite of it before a nurse came in aghast and took it away...apparently they'd authorized lunch on my chart and forgot to take away my food authorization for dinner, so my being able to order it was a fluke. I had to make do with broth and jello, and my husband ate my burger and salad. I was not happy (though later when I was puking I was kind of glad).

Around 9, a new doctor came on call. She took one look at me, said "You're not in real labor yet.", and started turning up the Pitocin more aggressively. Things started getting uncomfortable fast. It was still early, but we called our doula anyways, and she came in just for a little while to bring us a laptop so I could rip my relaxation cds onto my phone - my husband assumed I'd already done that, and I assumed that his laptop had a CD drive (what kind of laptop doesn't??). She stayed for maybe an hour just to kind of give us a pep talk and then went home to sleep until I got into serious labor.

Times start getting pretty hazy after this. Pretty much all my pain was back labor. I spent several hours of the night in bed, dozing between contractions, with my relaxation CDs on repeat. Hot towels on my back were really helpful. Sometime before or around sunrise, maybe, we called in our doula for good. Around the same time I had my bloody show. The contractions were getting stronger and my back pain wasn't going away between them, so I couldn't sleep any more. I spent awhile on the birthing ball, with my husband rubbing my back, which helped for awhile. My doula did some counterpressure which helped at first, but later on oddly made the pain worse. Eventually I moved back to the bed, because I was exhausted and my feet were horridly swollen and I just couldn't stand anymore. At some point in the late morning the doctor came in and checked me, and I'd only progressed to 3 cm and 100% effaced, so they broke my water to see if that would speed things up. By early afternoon, I was moaning through contractions and just miserable because the back pain never let up. I'd hoped to go without meds but wasn't totally set on it, and I was really at the end of my rope. We asked for the doctor to check me so I could decide whether to go for the epidural. I was just shy of 4 cm. I asked for the epidural. It took two attempts - the first one just didn't work - but then it was blissful, glorious numbness. It was defiitely a strong epidural, not a 'walking' one, but all I wanted was some sleep. I got about a 3 hour nap. When I woke I was still a bit out of it, but my doula was asking a lot of questions of the nurses, so I was able to keep up with what was going on without having to expend much mental effort. Baby wasn't tolerating the pitocin well anymore. They needed to keep it high to keep my contractions going strong, but if they did, his heart rate dipped. Around 5pm, the doctor came in and checked me again...and I was only at almost 4cm. I'd made almost no progress, and had been hooked up to pitocin for over 24 hours, and baby wasn't tolerating it anymore. So we started prepping for a c-section.

My son was born at 6:04pm, a whopping 9 lbs and 3 oz. It was probably a good thing we ended up with the c-section - he was big and had big shoulders, and there's a good chance he may have had shoulder dystocia if vaginal birth had worked out. He didn't cry immediately which terrified me, especially since I couldn't see him. In reality it was probably only about 20 or 30 seconds but it felt like forever. They took him to be assessed at the little bassinet right away, and the nurse was standing in my line of sight, which was just torture. My husband was able to go over to him though, and he went back and forth between the two of us. After checking him out they brought him over so I could see him...I had to have my husband take off my glasses so I could focus since he was so close to my face! I didn't get to see him for long, though, because he wasn't breathing right and they wanted to monitor him in the nursery and get him under a warmer. My husband went with him and our doula came in to sit with me while they stitched me up. They ended up having to give me several drugs to stop the bleeding, and then I had to be monitored in recovery for awhile - it was the longest wait ever! But finally I got up to the mother/infant unit and got to hold my baby :) About 10 minutes later a nurse asked if I wanted him to be taken back to the nursery, and I think I showed great restraint by not asking if she was crazy :P

My recovery was rough - I ended up needing a blood transfusion after all the hemorraging I did, I reacted to something in the hospital (pretty sure it was all that tape for IVs and such) and needed 2 courses of prednisone, 6 weeks of creams, and a month of doubled up antihistamines to make them go away for good. My milk production was really low...my son was showing a few signs of dehydration Tuesday morning (he was born Saturday evening), so we started supplementing. We tried a whole lot of different things to increase my supply, but after two weeks I wasn't making any more than I had been originally, and my son's intake was increasing, so we switched to full formula. I think my body was just too focused on trying to recover to have anything left to make milk.

TL;DR: induced due to low fluid levels, back labor, c-section after 27 hours of labor (21 active) with only 2 cm progress.

Postpartum tips:

-If your doctor recommends a blood transfusion, take it right away. I was so groggy and out of it when my doctor tried to discuss it with me that I couldn't make a decision, but once I got the transfusion I felt so much better. I hadn't realized how out of it I was until then.

-The nurses and lactation consultants are awesome. Take advantage of them.

-Pack snacks. Recovery and breastfeeding are hungry work, and you will be hungry during the long, dark night of the closed cafeteria. Plus there's a good chance the pain meds they're giving you are Take With Food. My mom brought us a pumpkin bread when she visited and we ate about half the loaf before going home.

-If you don't want to be going home in stocking feet, pack adidas sandals or something similar. I still can't wear my sneakers, and I'm 9 days postpartum.

-Even if you plan on wearing the johnny the whole stay, pack more than one change of clothes. You never know when, or on whom, Baby's First Poopsplosion will happen.

-Maternity yoga pants are a lot less awesome over a c-section incision, sadly.

-Anything you like that they give you at the hospital, ask for extras to take home. They'll probably be happy to give them to you. My swollen feet are super glad I took so many of those awesome hospital socks!

-Hydrogel nursing pads are the best thing for sore breasts, IMO.