Baby Update

Here are the details of our failed induction on Sunday:

We woke up early, at 5 to get ready to head in to meet our baby. I was feeling slightly excited, but mostly disappointed that my hopes for an all natural childbirth were out the window. Right away I could feel that the baby was up higher again, not putting any pressure on my pelvis or back. I thought this was a bad sign. We called the hospital, and they were ready for us right away at 7:30am. So we woke up Myah, packed a few last minute things and headed in to the hospital. We checked in and got an awesome, sweet nurse, Susan, who asked all of the typical check in questions. Of course, I broke down when she went over our (now significantly changed) birth plan, and had a good cry, true pregnant style.
The midwife, Kathrine came in to check me and get things rolling. (We found out she had literally not left the hospital all weekend because of deliveries). Of the four other women in the L&D unit, Kathrine had two others laboring. Anyways, I was dilated to slightly less than 2 again (although mostly effaced, soft and ready), and the head was high in the pelvis. Kathrine was positive and thought we needed nothing for cervical softening, so we could start right on pitocin. She mentioned that most likely, things would progress slowly, until either my water broke or she would have to break it, at which time things would intensify quite a bit, and the baby would come down. They wanted my contractions to get 2-5 minutes apart, strong and painful before breaking the water, though, because having as much fluid as I did meant that there is a greater risk of cord prolapse (requiring an immediate emergency c-section!).
So......pitocin got started at about 9 am, and I was already having mild contractions every 10 minutes or so on my own. 10 am, 11 am, 12pm, 1pm all rolled around, (Phil and I watched Twins, played cards, and watched episodes of the Office on our laptop) and slowly the pitocin was being increased. I hardly felt any difference, and really stayed comfortable the whole time, which made me mad. I kept saying, "bring on the pain". The nurses and Kathrine had been checking in with us, and at around 2pm I had my membranes swept. It was terribly painful again, but worth it. After that point, I was up to the highest dose of pitocin and started having what I would consider mild-moderate contractions, finally every 2-3 minutes apart. This was all a good sign, and I was thankful that things seemed to be moving forward.
However, at 4pm Kathrine came back to check me again with the news that I was only dilated to 2-3cm, even with a couple hours of good contractions. The problem continues to be that the baby's head is high and has way too much fluid. While she was checking me, (with the new nurse putting incredible downward pressure on the top of my abdomen to push the baby down), she said that she was still able to turn the baby's head if need be, if we break the water. However, she felt the risk of breaking the water was high due to cord prolapse when the head is able to bounce around that much.
She suggested having one the OB's she is affiliated with try a type of water breaking that midwifes do not do. It is done with a needle, and is a controlled artificial rupture of the membranes, in hopes that the amount of fluid released at one time can be controlled to encourage a good head position and prevent the umbilical cord from coming down before the head.

Of course, those doctors were gone for the day, and Kathrine suggested that we give my body a rest until Tuesday, and start right away with the water breaking. She felt that the cervix would be even more ready on Tuesday, and I may even be able to avoid the IV pitocin altogether, which I would prefer. However, I felt defeated. They took me off the pitocin, and of course I continued to contract all evening and overnight (what I perceived to be even stronger than with pitocin). Luckily I took Tylenol PM so I slept between bathroom breaks.
So here we are again, waiting for baby Tacos....