It sure took a lot to convince little Brandon that life would be good on the outside. After 3 treatments to try to help him along, the doctors finally scheduled an induction for Sunday, August 11th. We were confident we would be holding him by Monday night. We arrived for our scheduled cervadil induction on Sunday night. I was 1cm dilated at that point. The cervadil brought on irregular contractions but not much progress. After 12 hours, I was just 2cms dilated. At about 3am, the nurse rushed in because Brandon's heartrate had dropped from the 140s to the 40s. I wasn't really aware of what was happening (it all happened way too quickly). She gave me oxygen and started my IV within minutes. His heartrate recovered slowly... but dropped again one more time during the night. They gave him one more chance before pulling the cervadil... all was well after that. That was one of the scariest parts of the whole experience... Brian and I sat in silence for about 2 hours -- just watching the monitors... His heartrate dipped occasionally with contractions, but not significantly, so we continued with the plan. At 7am, despite making no progress, they hooked up the pitocin. My mom and Brian's mom and dad sat quietly at the hospital for about 12 hours on Monday, finally leaving around 10pm (when it became evident that there would be no baby that night). On Tuesday morning, after 31 hours of labor and no pain medication, I requested a check. I learned that I was STILL just 2cms. I had had enough. Everyone agreed that this baby just wasn't going to come on his own. At about 3:30am, they turned off the pitocin and started prepping me for my c-section. Mom and Brian's mom and dad were called and they all arrived at about 5am. They dressed Brian in some nifty scrubs, which he (of course) kept. I was wheeled into the OR to get my spinal (after that, I felt the best I'd felt in months, I must say). Brian arrived a few minutes later. I was pretty freaked out at that point. I could feel a lot more tugging and pulling than I thought I would. When you see c-sections on TV, they always seem to go pretty quickly -- so I wasn't expecting all the prep work she had to go through to actually get to the baby. Eventually we heard, "the head is out..." and he started crying. The cord had been "wrapped tightly" around his neck, which we believe is what caused the drastic dips in his heartrate. Brian went over to have a look and I just waited. Pictures were taken. Eventually they brought him to me (and of course, he's the most beautiful baby EVER). Brian disappeared with the baby and I was wheeled to the recovery room. I was there for a little over 2 hours before I was allowed to go to my room and meet the baby. I always had visions of a c-section being the easy option (I was obviously naive)... I was upset that I had to go through 31 hours of labor just to end up with a c-section, but I'm thrilled to have him here either way.