Well, I am back home from the hospital and thought I would start on my birth story. Madelaine Sydney Noel weighing 6 lbs 3 oz at birth was born on July 25th at 1:48pm. My labor started probably around 6pm in the evening of the 24th. I first felt that I might be going into labor when we were eating at the Golden Corral. I had cramping, a low back ache and braxton hicks contractions that were coming every 10 to 15 minutes apart consistently. We went home, played some cards, sent McKenna to bed and I kept track of my contractions up until bedtime (11pm), which were coming every 10 minutes apart consistently at that point. Once in bed, they went to 4 minutes apart and all of the sudden I felt a kind of 'thump' sensation by my cervix and then had leaking, and once I stood up a gush so my water had broken and I knew we'd have a baby that day. Since I couldn't sleep through the contractions, I went downstairs to get through the initial labor. I also wanted to labor at home as long as possible and let mom and Noel get some sleep. I figured I could hold out until 7am or so, but by 4:30am they were intense enough and coming about 3 minutes apart, so I went up and woke Noel. I got to say, "It's time to go to the hospital, honey!"

We woke mom up to let her know we were leaving and then headed to Mercy Hospital where we planned to have the baby. We got in and they strapped me up to the monitor and we could see the contractions. I also had to pee in a cup and they checked the fluid that was on my pad to make sure it was amniotic and it was. So they got us into one of the nice birthing rooms with a jacuzzi tub and an extra 'bed' for the dad for spending the night. Once I got settled in that room, one of the nurses came in after calling my doc and told us that we actually needed to go to St. Lukes Meridian hospital to have the baby if we wanted to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) since that is where my doc works on friday... or else, if we wanted to stay at Mercy we'd have to do a c-section. So, after Noel convinced me that I did indeed want to do a natural birth (during contractions I was saying I wanted a c-section LOL) we headed back to the car, me being in much more pain by this time. I was blowing and panting like a dog through those contractions with a fair bit of moaning going on as well. By the time we got to St. Lukes and got checked into triage I was begging for an epidural.

They say that because my water broke fully this time around, my contractions were more intense. I don't remember them being so intense with McKenna. They finally put me into a labor and delivery room and I asked how long for the epidural and they said half an hour. I watched that skewed clock on the wall like a hawk, calculating how many contractions I'd have to get through before the anesthesiologist arrived. I was 6 centimeters dilated by this time. When we left Mercy I was only 2 centimeters, so my progress was going fast. My visualizations of waves were not working at all. All I could do was grab Noel's hand and do a bit of yelling and deep breathing. So the anesthesiologist arrived and got me prepped and I had to say that getting the epidural was not that painful. It was harder holding still during the contractions, actually. Once it was in, I needed to lay on my side for awhile and was told it would take about 20 minutes to take effect. And once it did, it was heaven! No pain, just some pressure that was very doable!

So I was able to relax and enjoy the last part of my labor. I went to 7 and then 8 centimeters and then back to 7. I knew that getting the epidural had the possible chance of slowing down my labor, so they gave me some pitocin which I really wanted to avoid, but they gave me the lowest possible dose and it was enough to get me back to 8 and then 9 centimeters dilated. Then Dr. Kaiser showed up and examined me and said he was able to actually push the cervix and get me to 10... so they waited a bit more and he said he would do a quick surgery and to wait to push until he got back. The surgery took 45 minutes (it was a tubal ligation) and by the time he was back, the nurse could only get her finger in me up until the first knuckle before bumping into Madelaines head. I had to lay like that for about 10 minutes waiting for the doctor and then he was there and telling me to push. I pushed through two contractions and we were able to see the head crowning, then it would slip back. He had me push through one more contraction and said if I wasn't able to get her out he'd help with the vacuum, which is what ended up happening. He tried once and it slipped off, but with the next push, he got it seated properly, snipped me a little (episiotomy) and then helped pull her out as I pushed and out she came. I can only say it was an overwhelming feeling knowing that I went through labor the 'natural' way, despite all of the interventions I had. It was awesome when they put her up on my belly right away. It's what I wanted with McKenna and couldn't have due to the c-section. After we looked at each other for awhile they took her and did their stuff minus the eye drops, which I wanted to delay so that we could see each other, and then I nursed her successfully right away. I hardly had to do anything at all, she just latched right on. Unlike McKenna, whom needed a great deal of assistance. After that, not much to say except our nurses were great, and we were able to leave after 48 hours. We would've been able to leave earlier except that I had a slight fever, so she did too, and they kept her to make sure she was okay. The last couple nights have been tough, but she's been staying awake better during the day so I can only expect that she'll sleep better during the day now. I'll post more later!