UPDATE: 11:57 PM – Major progress! They were able to unstick the stuck cervix and break Elise’s water. She dilated to 4cm almost instantly.

ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE: Just wanted to give everyone an update on how Elise and the baby are doing. The quick version: we are back at the hospital and in labor after a 3-hour break at home following a failed induction on Friday and Saturday. Elise is resting comfortably and is on Pitocin to speed up her labor. The baby is doing great, aside from her stubborn refusal to be born.

Detailed version after the jump …

We came in to the hospital on Friday night to start the process of inducing labor. Elise was given Cervidil when we got here, and the original plan was to start Pitocin on Saturday morning. Around 5 AM Saturday, Elise started having strong contractions on her own. The contractions convinced our midwives to hold off on the Pitocin. Their hope (and ours) was that the labor would be strong enough to cause some dilation. Unfortunately, despite increasingly intense contractions, Elise was still not dilated at all at 3:30 PM. She was in a ton of pain at that point and frustrated by the lack of progress.

After getting some pain medication, we spent about 45 minutes discussion our options with the midwives, who were also conferring with our doctor. Their recommendation was to wait until bedtime, then start Elise on Pitocin and also give her a shot of morphine, which they thought would help her sleep. Unfortunately, the morphine had no effect, but the Pitocin did, and Elise was once again in a lot of pain. Since she still had not dilated at all, we decided to stop the Pitocin rather than try to force her into labor without being able to get any rest first.

We had another conference this morning and decided to get another kind of cervix softener and then leave for home, with the hope that the softener plus gravity might cause some still-elusive dilation. We were both frustrated to be leaving the hospital with the baby still riding in the womb rather than in her car seat. But hospitals are inherently stress-inducing places and we were glad to get a break.

We got home at 12:30 PM today. Elise took a bath, then we had some friends over to provide some much-needed distraction. At 2:30, Elise started to have strong, frequent contractions. We came back to the hospital at 4:00 – still no dilation, but everyone was encouraged that the labor seemed to be picking up. Elise started an epidural a few hours later, and Pitocin shortly after that. She is now resting comfortably.

The plan as far as we know it is to let the Pitocin work, and possibly try other methods to get some dilation. Elise’s stubborn cervix has become quite the legend amongst the labor and delivery nurses here, but we’re hoping that some progress is finally being made.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been praying for us! I’ll try to post another update here if something major happens … like a baby being born!

-Peter