Epidural

The epidural was the best and worst part of the labor. Once they moved me from triage to the labor room they asked if I wanted my epidural. The nurse basically said that if I'm getting it anyway why should I wait until the pain gets worse. I saw her logic and said yes to the epidural. My doctor had already instructed the nurses to start Pitocin. It also seemed like standard practice (with my doctor anyway) to use Pitocin no matter what. Maybe this was because I had planned on the epidural and that can slow contractions. The nurse also said that once they gave me the Pitocin the contractions would get strong fast and that it was a good idea to have the epidural before they started that. The anesthesiologist must a been a newbie! He had an extremely hard time getting the needle in the right spot. He had to try many times and that pain was terrible. I was squeezing Kaleb's fingers just about off and when a contraction hit too...I thought I was going to die. Finally he gets it in, but shortly after my entire right side was dead numb. The left side was a little numb, but I could still move my leg around. I did not like that feeling plus it made me nautious. When the nurse came back to check my dilation I was at a 10. We decided to try and start pushing, but because I was so numb I couldn't lift my legs or feel the contractions. Kaleb was helping lift my leg, but it felt to me like a 300lb blob. The nurse suggested we reduce the epidural and give it a little while until I got some feeling back. After a couple of hours I had some feeling back and then it was really time...at least I had no pain!