Morning has broken (but water has not...)

At 1:00am, we were pretty comfortable in our luxury room when the doctor came in to try to break Silvina's water. She tried with one tool, but it wasn't working. Then she got another one in case the first one was dull, but that didn't work either. Finally she got a different tool, and I got the impression that it worked.

They stuck a heartbeat monitor on the baby's head and at about a quarter to two in the morning, they put an IV in Silvina for hydration and oxitocin, another kind of drug to induce labour. That one seemed to be working well because at about 2:20am Silvina was feeling contractions.

During the night we could hear some of the other women going through their labour pains. One lady was screaming her lungs out and puking her guts out. She must have been inside-out when she delivered her baby! I didn't say anything, but I was not looking forward to seeing Silvina go through that...

I fell asleep sometime after two, and woke up just before 7. While I was sleeping Silvina said that the doctors came in again to try and break the water - unsuccessfully. Just before 7 the doctors checked Silvina and found her to be 2 cm dilated, but the baby was still high.

At about 8:30 am an older guy walked into the room and looked around. He was wearing a striped jacket like the ones the waiters from Ed's Warehouse Restaurant used to wear, and an ill-matching tie. I thought he was in the wrong room, but then he was followed by a host of doctors and understudies. He said hi, and some other things, and left. The other doctors then checked the position of the baby with an ultrasound.

At about 10 am Silvina ordered the epidural. She didn't appear to be in much pain, but she too heard the cries of labour from the other women in the ward and didn't want to wait until it got to that point. A girl who I would say was in her mid-twenties entered the room and proclaimed that she was the doctor who would be administering the epidural. For some reason, maybe her demeanor, her youth, or her crazy coloured hat, I didn't have much confidence in her. She said how important it was that Silvina tell her how it was feeling so she could position the needle correctly. As she was putting the needle in, Silvina was saying that it felt too much to one side. The doctor gave a puzzled look and said "ohh". No adjustment, no explanation, just "ohh".

Anyway, the epidoral seemed to be working because Silvina was not feeling any more pain. At about 10:50 another doctor came in, checked Silvina, and this time was able to break the water.