How we got our Ellie!

On Monday the 8th we went to the hospital to start the induction process. Since I was not dilated at all they started with two doses of cervical ripening gel. The doses had to be given 4 hours apart, plus I was sleeping in a labor and delivery bed, so lets just say I didn't get any sleep that night. At 8am on Tuesday the let me have my last meal before the started the pitocin ( hospital food, not yummy). So after getting my IV in and everything hooked up they finally started at 9am.

It was a busy day in labor and delivery and the nurses were very busy. So we were left to just hang out until our baby came. At noon they came in and checked to see if i was dilated, but alas I was barley a 1. So an hour or so later they came in and said that they wanted to break my water. I was in shock because I wasn't feeling any contractions at all. So the doctor came in and checked me again and I was still a 1! And they can't break your water till your about a 3. So my decided to try and jump start the process by inserting a balloon in my cervix to help it get things going. It sounds painful, and it is! The best way I could describe it is that it is like a constant contraction (not to mention the nurse coming in very 1/2 hour to tug on it to make sure it had enough pressure!). So after an hour of pain I decided to get a epidural knowing that if I had her vaginally I would be to tired to deal with the pain, or if I had to get a c-section i would be getting one any way.

After Jacob made buddies with the anesthesiologist and in between medical school chats I finally got my epidural. Four hours later they came and broke my water. I was feeling very optimistic at this point, thinking that breaking my water would be the straw that broke the camels back. But 2 hours later I was still only at a 4. The doctor came in and told us that he was pretty sure that my body still thought I was only dilated to a 1 and the only reason I was at a 4 was because of the balloon. So 3 hours later with them pumping the maximum amount of pitocin in, I still wasn't making any progress in fact I was regressing. So at 11pm the doctor decided to call it quits and go ahead with a c-section!
At 11:29pm on November 9th our not so little Ellie finally came to see us! After a very long night and day we were so happy to finally see her. Two weeks early Ellie Mae Burdett weighed 8lbs 1 oz. and 19 in long.