10:25am - Pitocin is up to 16mL/hr. Saline is steady at 125mL/hr. We are nearing prep-time for the epidural. Normally when you go have a baby (from what I hear) they pump you full of fluids when you arrive, and then can do the epidural any time they want. In Shannon's case, lots of extra fluid means extra work for her heart, so they don't do that. They do however need to give her a bit of fluid before doing the epidural (which can cause drops in blood pressure). The real impact of this is that they have to give her the extra fluid 30 minutes before they can do the epidural, so we have to plan ahead. Contractions are about 2 minutes apart. Shannon's heart rate drops during the contractions, the baby's is pretty constant.

Shannon now updates me that she's gonna do one more contraction and then hit the button for the nurse to start the epidural clock. She is now dilated to 4cm.

As for how I'm doing, I'm kinda hungry, and we're watching GSN, because the hospital has cable!