3+1=4

So, um...yeah.  It's been a while, but I have a good reason.  I HAD A BABY!!!!!

The deets for those interested:
Girl, 8lb 3oz, 20in

Healthy and a voracious eater.

For those wanting a few more graphic notes, keep reading.  (sorry for the format)

I guess my birth story starts on July 31st when my midwife stripped my membranes.  Over the next couple of days I lost my mucus plug and had a few moments of 'if this continues we're going to the hospital!'  Then...nothing.  Woke up Friday morning feeling great, planning for my Monday induction.  Went for a nice long walk, took a trip to the coffee shop and then stopped by the grocery store.  By the time I got home I realized that I hadn't eaten very much and decided to make a giant sandwich.  Just as I sat down to eat it my water broke!

So there I am water gushing everywhere, home alone (DH at work, DS with his gparents)...so I called DH and then my OB/midwife practice and they told me to head to the hospital.  At this point I wasn't contracting, but the gush of fluid and the fact that my first labor was short meant things could happen quickly. (Or not so much...)

Checked in at 1:30 and was checked almost immediately by the midwife (5 cm), she ordered pitocin at that point but her order got lost so for a few hours we just sat around while I continued to leak fluid.  Around 5pm she came back and found that I wasn't on pit so she hunted down the nurse and got the IV started at the standard 2/hr dosage.  At midnight I was still not in any pain and my contractions weren't gaining any momentum.  I would have a couple of decent ones when the pit went up and then nothing until the next ramp up.  Checked again...still 5cm.  (Not cool, baby, not cool)

At this point I was starting to go down a dark path mentally.  To not have any progress is really disheartening.  I was starving and tired (couldn't eat or get comfortable) and I was doubting my ability to handle the pain once it actually started.  One of the other midwives shut down the pit drip (I was up to 26/hr) and brought it back down to baseline.  They thought maybe the receptors in my uterus were saturated and that was why I wasn't doing much.

2am and finally my body made it to 7cm...but I still wasn't in active labor!  My water broke 14.5hrs earlier...I was starting to baffle the midwife.  4am rolls around and I still felt fine, so the midwife decided we were going to 'blast the baby out.'  She CRANKED the pitocin up by 6 and within 30min I was begging for an epidural. Poor hubby went running down the hall for help. The waves of contractions were awful, intensified by my hunger and fatigue and I was terrified that I wasn't progressing and didn't think I could put up with these contractions for much longer.  (Side note:  I did NOT get an epidural, I was just ready to stab one into my own spine...)

They didn't think that they would be able to get me to a nice round 10cm, so they were in there feeling around to see if they could manipulate my cervix over her head.  Yeah, that wasn't pleasant.  Luckily that happened and they let me bear down - not exactly relief but it helped!  Really the worst part was that last 30min where I was in serious pain.  I only pushed a few times, but it seemed like it took forever.  I felt like this birth experience was much tougher than my first, DH tells me that from his point of view I did better this time around - I remembered to breathe and my pushes were more productive, etc.  And now that I've had a week or so to reflect, he is totally right in his assessment!

All in all, no complaints.  My 8lb 3oz bundle arrived healthy at 39 weeks and I only had a couple of stitches right down my old epistiotomy scar line.