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Here's a quick birth story, in between an endless cycle of cleaning bottoms, feeding mouths, cleaning up spills.... On Friday night having dinner with folks and contractions came AGAIN (those that have seen previous post knows I've been having them forever!)---this time they were different. They weren't more painful, but a lot tighter and my brain kind of drifted when I had them--couldn't carry on a conversation. Finally I just said, we need to go to hospital. They were coming 2 minutes apart and lasting a minute. Husband and Dad were frantically looking up a map to get to hospital from my parents house--it's a 40min drive and they wanted the shortest route. Ironically, with all the twists and turns in the shortest route, we ended up in a traffic jam at 10:45pm at night. Got to the hospital--they said, I was in labour, they're going to keep my overnight give me some pain meds. I believe it was a morphine shot--it hurt more than the contractions, but I kept waking up through out the night with contractions pain. The last time I woke up and looked at the clock was about 4am. When I woke up around 8am, the contractions had stopped. The doc (wonderful new, friendly, nice, competant!) checked me and announced I was 4cm and that he was going to break my water to get things going again. Shortly after the contractions started up, and about 5 contractions in I was like "whoa" I'm not going to be able to handle this for another couple of hours. Since I was laying on the bed the nurses suggested I walk around---I thought this a bad idea since I knew that it would make the contractions worst and I was already feeling that they were too much--. Kind of grudgingly they said I could take a bath. I LOVE BATHS, so the thought of one right now was soooo appealling. The bath was wonderful for the contractions. I could totally cope with them and hubby pooring warm soothing water over my belly and back during them was great. I felt wonderful---I was in control, I was getting through things, and frankly I could've done it for hours. Then the nurses came back...grrrr....they told me I needed to get out of the tub and walk. I told them no. They threatened that if the birth doesn't speed up they're going to have to give me a shot of pitocin. I was furious. I was happy, and now they're forcing me to make things move faster when I was obviously happy with the way things were going. Walking around was sooooo painful. I started not being able to talk/breath/thing through the contractions. I hung on to my hubby---or the bed. The nurses suggested laughing gas, but that didn't appeal to me at all and frankly just made everything worst. The nurses went to lunch and I decided to get back in the tub. Yet again, eventhough they were coming strong I still felt I could handle them. I thought that it was definetly time for an epidural--especially if they're going to be pumping oxytocin. When they returned they put me on the bed, not soon after the contractions became UNBEARABLE (back labour, and laying on your back on a bed--DO NOT MIX)--It was insanely painful. Torturous. They couldn't find any veins and they needed to put the IV in before the epidural. Later my husband told me the epidural guy was waiting outside--and had to go because someone needed help in ER, that if the nurses couldn't find the vein when they did, he would've been gone. I tell you, those nurses poked and proded me with that needle. This was probably the most excruciating pain I had in my life---your innards wringing themselves out, your spine feeling like it's being sawed by a careless butcher...I was panicked--I begged my husband to knock me out---At some point I didn't scream, but just bellowed this note that apparently freaked everyone out. Hubby said the whole room shook. I remember one nurse tell me to "stop it, quiet down"--I just thought "honey, you must be crazy if you think I'm going to quiet down on your behalf". When the epidural kicked in I was in heaven. HEAVEN. Honestly, I felt better than I would've if I wasn't in labour--every muscle relaxed, warm fuzzy feeling all over.I could actually feel the pain in one part--the classic "window" created by the babies head--and eventhough it hurt like HELL at times, I didn't care because it hurt much less than what I had previously experienced. The doc checked me and said that the epi went in just in time because I was fully dilated. So I pretty much went through the whole birth experience without drugs except for pushing. Pushing was funny because my doc and husband and the nurses stood around chatting about BBQ's and dinner. It was just a crazy situation concidering I was laying there spread eagle giving birth and everything was soooo casual. She was posterior so the doc used a vacuum to "help her around the bend". He used a vac, but I didn't tear. (Hooray for good doc!!). She had a cord around the neck like my first. At EXACTLY 4:30pm she was born. She was just this blue organ thing..and then she started moving. I felt like a little kid looking at this amazing thing. I was amazed that she moved--she was a living thing. She was sooo gorgeous. Pink and chubby. She eats really well, she hasn't lost ANY weight since she's been born. For all those mommies that go overdue---my first was 8 days early and she was about 4 days overdue. Overdue babies are healthier, more developed, pinker, happier, easier...should give you some hope! To all the beautiful ladies that supported me, chatted with me, entertained me and amused me---thank you for your time and comments!!! Keep in touch, I'll see you in infant care!! I wish you all a wonderful birth experience and tonnes of sleep afterwards (;