At the Hospital - Continued

Okay, it's been six hours since my last post. There has been far fewer exciting things happening since we arrived at the hospital. I think the baby just wanted to be born at home. Since we arrived Erin was hooked up to a heart and contraction monitor, and the nurse was going to start inducing with Cytotec. We hadn't yet seen the doctor or had her cervix checked.

Erin had bouts of tears every time the nurse came in to progress the pregnancy in a drug induced way. We called in our second line of defense, our Doula Julie. She was very helpful in managing our concerns about our circumstances.

We had the nurse check the cervix and started walking around the hallways for the next hour. During that time Erin received a call for an interview with Discovery Elementary tomorrow. "Sorry, we're at the hospital trying to have a baby at the moment." Oh well, missed that opportunity.

Below is a picture of St. Joseph's Hospital. We're on the top floor looking out toward the Port of Tacoma on the edge of Commencement Bay.

Below is the view from our room. You can see my workplace in the lower right corner of the window. We can see much of the Cascade mountains just up to but not including Mount Rainier.

At 4:30pm We met with our On-Call Doctor, Dr. Ho. She was very pleasant and explained her reasons why she thinks Cytotec is a good choice for us. Also, a bit earlier we ran into our favorite Midwife that eased some of our concerns for the drug.

At 5pm Erin took a half dose of Cytotec and nodded off to sleep. 45 minutes into the medication, contractions are up. Cytotec only needs to be monitored for an hour then Erin can walk around and eat a bit for the next two hours. My sister Pattie arrived and is sharing her birth stories while they walk the hallways together. Erin hasn't needed to use her breathing excercises yet, but it seems that every other door they pass has a woman inside moaning through her pain.

Next, it seems, is more Cytotec as it seems to be gradually increasing the contractions without intense jumps in pain magnatude.

Still more to come...