Blathering On

Elizabeth had a pretty rough night as there are things they do to get the induction process moving that were very painful.  I was concerned that she was going to have to suffer through that intense pain the whole night.  After a couple hours, however, her water broke and she went on some pain medication (not an epidural) and things smoothed out.

It was comforting to meet another couple just like us when we were waiting.  Actually, they were the induction scheduled at 8:30 (we were 6:30) and we probably chatted for 45 minutes or so.  That gives you an idea how long we were waiting.  The other couple was also past 41 weeks with little progress.  In the interim, we watched another couple arrive after us and get assigned a room long before us.  When we inquired, we were told that inductions were lowest on the list, beneath women arriving at the hospital in labor and pre-term women.   However below us on the priority list are are elective inductions, people who just decide they want to induce, even though it was not deemed necessary by her doctor.  In fact, they were possibly going to tell the scheduled 10:30 induction that their appointment would be postponed due to lack of available rooms.

So as of 8am, Tuesday morning, things are progressing, albeit slowly.  We decided to postpone an epidural because Elizabeth is still fairly comfortable through her contractions (she is now, anyway).  My favorite aspect of this very nice room is that there are multiple computer monitors which show the real-time status of women and their babies in twelve rooms.  You can see the contraction patterns and the respective baby’s heartbeats.

We’re on our third nurse now.  Our first one , Diana, was drawn away at about 3am when her other patient went into full-on delivery.   Basically, the nurses get assigned two women and they become permanently assigned to the first one who actually delivers (until their shift change).  So as I dozed off in the hubby bed, I noticed a new nurse, Tracey, come in.  She saw us through until about 7:30 when there was a shift change and we were introduced to Lisa, who is assisted by Ashley.

Who's Who. If you know anything about inducement, then you'll be able to interpret the "plan" section.