Induction story-graduation story and postpartum

Hi everyone! Some of you may have followed my attempt at a current induction story post https://www.reddit.com/r/PlusSizePregnancy/s/NlO5Fg1ORj

But I just wanted to make a separate post to share my story and say we graduated on Jan 8!

Basically, i really wanted to go into spontaneous labor and attempt to have a mostly unmedicated birth.

Baby boy was breech the whole time up to 37 weeks when we had a successful ECV and he stayed head down until 40 weeks.

At 39 weeks we went in for an outpatient induction and a jumpstart on cytotec. I went in and came out 1 cm 50% effaced at -2. We tried to labor more over the weekend, and when we went in for the inpatient induction at 40 weeks. I increased effacement but not anything else. We started back on cytotec for 16 hours (4 doses) and I got to 5.5 cm and avoided the foley balloon (yay!)

I was contracting and getting through the contractions ok, and they let me off monitors and meds for an hour to walk around and get out of the room. Then they started me on the lowest dose of pitocin possible after delaying as long as possible because I was afraid of the pain. The contractions were getting more intense but manageable for 30 minutes when I felt a huge pop of pain. I stood up and my waters broke and gushed everywhere (gross gross) and there was meconium in the fluid. They put NICU on standby and we tried to labor some more without meds.

When I tell you it was 0-100 on pain after breaking man oh man. I tried to tough it out but got IV pain meds and tried to get on gas. The nursing staff ultimately told me it wouldn’t help that much and after two hours of pain I opted for an epidural.

The first epidural failed, I still felt a lot of pain. A new anesthesiologist came in and asked my pain if it was ever at a zero. I said no and he promised to fix it to which he did. Then I was able to relax and labor some more. Nurses helped me with positions to try and get me more dilated, however baby wouldn’t stay on the external monitors. Part of me feels like it was my weight because the monitor would pick up heart rate when pressing down some, but not without extra pressure. We then got an internal monitor and he stayed on for the most part.

I had some breakthrough pain and got more meds, and by then I was at 9.5/90%. With some more position changes and pitocin after I got back on, we were complete.

They prepped my to push for 2-3 hours.

At the two hour mark I was pushing with two nurses and he went slightly passed crowning and was told to stop pushing until the doctor arrived. She was right outside so we were able to continue within a minute but waiting to push was horrid.

Another push and his head came out. Cord was on his neck and she removed it quickly, but then his shoulder got stuck. It became a little dicey and a huge team came in. Someone was pushing on my uterus from the outside while she worked him out, but he did come out and the relief was immediate.

His shoulder was fine and he was healthy otherwise. I tore second degree and got stitched up and delivered placenta quickly and easily.

Fast forward a week and I’m physically feeling good. Healing steady and not too much side effects. Walking and trying to be mobile.

Breastfeeding is harder than I thought. My nipples suck and he has a bad latch so we’re using shields but they are annoying to work with.

Mentally I’m drowning. Working on getting therapy but this is no joke. Also have met with lactation specialist to try and make it better to maintain bf as long as possible but it’s mentally taxing.

My husband is a dream. Had two weeks off so unfortunately most of that was eaten up with the induction, so I’m scared for next week when he goes back. Trying hard to rely on my village. We have a meal train set up and I’m really lucky.

I can try my hardest to answer questions but trying to also stay off social media, it’s definitely affecting my mental health.

TLDR; successfully induced and vaginally delivered with minor trauma, mentally not the best but working towards something better

Good luck to all the others mamas out there. Us big girls got it too!