Birth Story, Finally

Even though I'm not caught up on what I have to do, I thought I would post my birth story while I still remember.

I had my regular OB visit on Monday the 13th, she said I was 1 1/2 dilated and very soft, she stripped my membranes and sent me on my way. I bled significantly after the appointment and had some noticeable contractions, but nothing came of it. She also scheduled an induction for the following Tuesday night and a NST for that Friday. All this got me very depressed, but I knew I would be pregnant for another week at the most. That night I walked to Bingo and tried to stay active, but still nothing. Tuesday was a normal day, but I did mow the lawn and shovel some landscaping rocks. That evening my back was really hurting, I wasn't surprised since I had engaged in strenuous activity. I stayed up late (after 1 am) talking with my husband about stuff. At about 4 am (now Wed am, my due date) I woke up and my back was really hurting. I went down and laid on the couch, but still couldn't get comfortable. I went back upstairs and tried a bath and then a heating pad and I started to think maybe the back pain was coming and going but nothing consistent. After the bath I was able to go and lay down in bed for awhile longer and actually fell asleep. It was now after 6 am. At 6:25 am I was jerked awake by an intense back pain and I began to think, I wonder if something is happening!! I went downstairs with the heating pad and watched some TV in the recliner. (my husband does not do well with no sleep so I wanted to let him get as much rest as possible). Now I was pretty sure I was having contractions. At 6:45 I called my sister who lives about 5 hours away to tell her I thought something may be happening. I told her to go to work but call me about 9am and get an update. During our conversation I had several contractions, in that I had to stop talking but they were really short (no more than 15-30 seconds). After I hung up with my sister I started watching the clock are realized these contractions were only 5 minutes apart. Just before 7:30 I called my sister back and told her she should head south, I was fairly sure this was the real thing. I told her if everything stopped, I would call her again. I watched some more TV, the contractions kept coming, very sharp, short and regular. Now the sequence of events of the next few hours is sort of fuzzy. At about 9 am I called my mom and told her I was in labor so she should come. I think between 8:30 and 9 I called a friend so see if she would be home in case my sister didn't make it here before we had to leave for the hospital. Between 9 and 9:30 my husband woke up and I told him I was in labor. He said, do I have time to take a shower. I said, definitely, the contractions are five minutes apart but really short. He said, five minutes apart, shouldn't we go to the hospital. I said, oh we are fine. I want to wait for my sister to get here. She should be here by about 1 pm. :) Shortly after that my daughter got up and I fed her breakfast and helped her pack a bag to bring to Joanna's house. She packed about a week's worth of clothes but I was in too much pain to really care. I remember getting back in the bathtub before 10 am and calling my dad to see when my mom had left. I remember telling him I had to go to the grocery store and I was going to bake chocolate chip cookies before we went to the hospital. At about 10 am my husband convinced me it was time to leave but I said I just wanted to get in the bath one more time. I was lying in the bath and I realized the contractions were now 2 minutes apart! At this point I decided my husband was right and we better go. At this point our builder shows up and asks my husband if he can ask me a few questions :) My husband said probably not a good time and came in to ask me where we wanted him to put the driveway, I didn't really care at this point. I think we finally got in the car shortly after 11 am. We stopped at my friend's house to drop off my daughter. She said, what are you doing walking, get in the car! Driving was horrible. I told my husband not to make any turns or go over any bumps. When we started to drive to Rochester I realized I was going to have to have probably 11 contractions in the car and I was now paranoid my water was going to burst all over the seat. It was at this point that I realized that I should call my dr's office to warn her, but I couldn't get myself together to do it. The drive in was okay, I was definitely in active labor. We got some strange looks while stopped at the light. My husband wanted to drop me off, I insisted on going to the parking garage with him. We parked and I had to walk to the elevator, then he put me in a wheelchair and went quickly as I drew more stares and breathed through more contractions. We showed up at the PRU (it is now just before noon) and I had tears running down my face at this point. They called upstairs without talking to me, said we have a woman in active labor what room is available. They brought me straight up and the doctors were already in the room. Everyone was nice, they told me I had to change. Which I somehow managed. The resident checked me, said you are 9 cms, I could break your water and you could deliver right now. The attending calmed him down, said we have some time. Asked if I wanted an epidural. I tried to imagine sitting up and getting medication as I laid in the fetal position clutching the siderail of the bed. I declined. I had three more contraction about a minute apart and said me water is leaking. The nurse said you need to roll over, I said no. She said you really need to roll over, I did and my water broke. I said I need to push!! They said okay. The resident checked me and said, I was complete but the baby was still quite high. I began pushing and holy mother of god was that excruciatingly painful. I had a 4 degree tear with my daughter and pushing against that scar tissue was horrible. The doctors were nice trying to numb it and massage mineral oil into it and make it stretch, but OOWWW!!! I don't really remember, but they claimed I pushed for about 6 contractions, they were so short I could only get two pushes in. The nurse asked me to guess what I was having and I said I would guess boy. Before the last contraction the attending doctor said "If I was a betting man I would say you are going to have this baby in the next contraction" That gave me the little bit of extra to push longer and out came my 8lb 10ounce son. It was now 12:31 pm, we had been at the hospital for just over 1/2 an hour. The resident clamped and cut the cord, spraying blood everywhere (never asked my husband if he wanted to cut it) and I demanded to have him on my chest. At this point my doctor walked it having rushed from her lunch break to almost make it. I had a second degree tear back along me old scar tissue (oww). My doctor was going to cut to the side so I didn't tear so back but she didn't make it... My son nursed immediately for about 2 hours. When he was done they brought us up to the other floor after I spread blood all over the delivery room while walking to the bathroom. I had a really hard time trying to pee and they almost had to cath me, but I eventually managed. I was happy to avoid any IVs or medical interventions and just took some tylenol the first night for the pain. We checked out the next day and have been home ever since. And there it is.