Epidural...The Best Advancement of Modern Times

God Bless the doctor who created and perfected the art of the epidural.

Labor has been very interesting so far. As Steven mentioned, I began my contractions late afternoon yesterday, July 29th. My water broke around 10:40 pm, followed by frequent contractions. As the intensity of those contractions began to build around 11pm, I decided to take an IV medication, Nubain, for the pain. The first dose worked wonders and I was able to rest until around 2 AM. Steven said I acted "high as a kite" for a few minutes before settling down.

Around 2 AM the Nubain started to wear off and I thought it would be interesting to feel some of these contractions. From 2 AM to 6:30 AM, I experienced some pretty intense contractions. They were typically 2 to 3 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each. I tried a second dose of Nubain but it had no affect on me. By 7:30 AM the pain was more then I had wanted to experience so I requested the life-saving epidural.

The procedure itself was fairly painless (in comparison to the contractions). And after a few minutes I was looking at the monitors and could see that I was contracting, but couldn't feel them!!!! Hallelujah!

I was able to take a nice nap after that. It's currently 9:45 AM, I'm 6 cm dilated without any pain. Next stop....baby!

Lesson Learned: Feeling contractions, over-rated. GET THE EPIDURAL!