My Labour and Delivery Trilogy: Part 2

So, the previous post outlines my induction where I was already 4cm dilated. Honestly at that point of time, contraction was pretty manageable and I thought I could continue like this. Little did I know that once the induction drips were increased in dosage, then all hell broke loose. 

Syntocinon Induction - 1pm

Since I was already 4cm dilated, the midwife decided that the dosage should increase to speed up the dilation and I agreed. Here then, I felt the contraction intensity increased and I became so much vocal in managing my pain. 

The initial contraction was only 4 minutes apart, but this time round, it was almost 1 minute apart! As the contraction waves increases, it felt like very very heavy period pain where I felt like the lower part of my body just decided to collide together. I was thinking to myself: Can I manage this? 

I was using TENS machine to help manage the pain but this level of pain was somehow beyond what I can cope. With such an intense contraction coming wave after wave with just 1 minute apart, even it's just 40 seconds, I felt the fatigue level kicking in and it was then I decided I have to introduce some other pain relief methods. 

Epidural - 3pm

We tried using gas method at first but since it merely distracts you from the pain, I then decided that it's not going to work. I was squeezing my husband's hand so ever tightly for every contraction that comes that I think his hand might break haha 😂

With the increased pain, I looked at the time and thought: it was only 4cm dilated, how long can I go for? I felt I was running against time, and I won't know when the pain would stop. I had a little struggle in my heart, thinking: is it okay to use epidural? But with another contraction coming, that feeling quickly faded and I decided I needed it since I don't think I can cope anymore. We let the midwife knows and she quickly arranged it. 

Epidural was set up! 

In an hour or so, the doctor came and they set me up for epidural. Honestly, I thought I was feeling a bit down that I have to resort to epidural but looking back, it was the best decision that I made it in time. I wasn't regretting that I didn't use it earlier since feeling the contraction was such a painful but unique experience. 

Will I choose to go through the contraction again? Without a second thought, I would tell you I will, even though I just describe it as painful 😂 I thought feeling my body working through every contraction is such an empowering experience. And if I can't cope, I know there's other pain relief method that can help too. 

Epidural - 430pm

The downside of using epidural, however, is that it didn't take effect immediately. And in my case, it's far worse. Well, I was expecting the epidural would take away my pain after 20 minutes (Doctor said it would take 20 minutes to work), but 30 minutes later I was still panting in pain and asking for gas for every contraction. Since I had the expectation that it would work, it really made it so much harder for me to endure the pain now. 

I was in tears and asking the midwife: why is it not working? 

She kept using the ice to touch the lower part of body and confirm that the epidural was ministered correctly but was also equally puzzled that it wasn't working for me. She paged the doctor again. 

Meanwhile, another doctor came and examined me. I was 7cm dilated! But she also told me that the baby was in a posterior position, which wasn't an ideal birth position and they wanted to wait and see whether the baby could turn. 

Finally, the epidural doctor came and told me that I needed a more potent drug to numb the pain. The dose might not be enough for me and hence not working. By then when he gave me the stronger drug, it was already 630pm. Imagine I still go through the contraction for the last 3 hours! I went through it with gas every single time and also with my dearest husband arm haha. 

But this time round, after half an hour, I can clearly feel the difference. My legs were numb that I could not even lift them. And man, it was so so blissful. I finally stopped managing the pain and managed to have a good sleep at 730pm. I was up since 3am already and you can imagine how exhausted I was.