The baby is in trouble …
The contractions become stronger over the next hour but then suddenly dropped off when the nurse increased the level of Pitocin in the IV. For 2 hours nothing happened. No contractions, no nothing. Then the contractions came back after the Pitocin dose was increased again. They became powerful and Simone and I discussed the option of getting an epidural. Simone felt the pain but was a little bit afraid of an epidural.
The pain became more intense and Simone decided for the epidural. The nurse cranked up the IV because to get an epidural your body needs to be hydrated properly. The anesthesiologist who was on duty this night came after about 20 minutes and took care of Simone. Everything went well and after about 20 minutes Simone was slowly feeling less pain. The anesthesiologist disappeared after installing an automated dispenser for the pain killer.
Simone was able to handle the contractions just fine. However - the whole night we were fighting with the heart rate monitor for the baby. It (the heartbeat) went up and down all the time and the nurse was assuming that the monitor did not sit properly on Simone’s belly when changing positions. This time the monitor was attached properly and the baby’s heartbeat still went down dramatically with the contractions. It actually went down to very critical levels. The OB on duty came and tried to find out what was going on. It seemed like that the contractions were pushing down baby’s heartbeat way too low. Now even the doctor became concerned. The baby was in trouble.