I love labor stories

Did you enjoy reading Cjane's labor story?
I loved it, I love hearing labor stories.

I wish you could all tell me your labor stories, detail by detail, and I would sit and enjoy each part of it.

Here is Cjane's recent story, if you would like to read it.
It's better to go in order to get the full effect.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I've been wanting to record my children's labor stories. 
Sadie's birthday is coming up, my youngest, so I'll start with hers.
Here is her birth story:
(But in no-way-how is my writing as good as Cjane's.)

It all started with what felt like real labor a couple weeks before her due date.
Waking up in the middle of the night with painful contractions.
Getting up doing laundry, getting ready to leave for the hospital.
I didn't wake Chris up, though, I wanted to be sure it was really time to go.
(I think husband's need their sleep for this adventure too.)
Then by early morning the contractions would fizzle out and go away.

This went on for about a week, I got a couple projects done in the middle of the night,
but was becoming frustrated at all the pain I was experiencing and lack of sleep I was getting.
The confusion of going to the hospital was beginning to drain on me.

The weekends would come and I would take walks around the neighborhood and local school grounds.
All the while contracting, listening to my ipod, and rocking back and forth on our kids' big, bouncy ball. I was timing contractions and working through them.
But, they never got to the point of extreme misery, when I can't talk or walk.
They would always stop.

The days were long, and it was hard to take care of the other kids.

After another long night of being up, Chris had stayed up most of the night with me, with the closest and hardest contractions I had felt since this all began; Chris said we were going to the hospital no matter what. He wanted to make sure everything was okay, since he thought the baby and I been through a lot. He wanted to see what the dr. would say. I was a couple days shy of my due date.
We called up his mom to watch the kids, and away we went, dropping Lindy off at school on our way to the hospital. She bounced happily off to kindergarten that morning knowing that we were off to have her new baby sister.

I was worried we would be sent home. I wasn't in the kind of pain I usually had when arriving to the hospital.  I convinced Chris to walk around the hospital for awhile before we checked in or talked to any nurses or doctors.  At this point I felt fine, and didn't feel active labor.

After about an hour of this, Chris was ready to get some news, so we checked into triage.
I filled out the forms myself and calmly talked to the receptionist as we got checked in.
I had never had that experience before.
Chris, with our other babies, always had to do that part, I was always in agony with contractions,
bracing myself against a wall, a chair or anything.

When a nurse checked me it was determined that the baby was floating on some kind of bubble. Her head had not come down enough to get my labor in full force. My dr. was called down, and he agreed.
We had 2 choices. He said, "We could go home, and wait it out a few more days, or have a baby today." The dr. could break my water, and within minutes my labor would start.

I didn't know what to do. . . I was confused. 
(It seems strange now, but you hear all these stories of the water breaking, labor stops, you're at the hospital, the dr's get worried and you have a c-section.
I was terrified of a c-section, my labor not progressing, and being stuck at the hospital for hours and hours.)

I prayed, walked around for a few minutes, and then realized, I didn't want to go home and wait out what I had been going through for the past couple of weeks; Chris' mom was with the kids, we were at the hospital, it was time to have a baby.

We moved up to the delivery room, I walked myself there, feeling great, feeling no contractions at all.
The dr. broke my water, yikes, that was a lot of water.
Double YIKES!!!!!! Here comes a contraction, woa baby, and another. I WANT MY EPIDURAL!!!

Get me off the bed, I need to sway, and rock back and forth.
(That's how I like to labor; standing up, swaying and swaying, rocking and rocking.)

I was given my epidural, I hoped it would work.
My last 3 labors were natural, not even by choice, it's just how it happened to work out.
I wanted it to work since, I was exhausted from the last couple weeks of labor on and off.

After a few minutes it worked! Magic, I had contractions and not felt them. I liked it. My legs were numb, very numb, tingly, and I was shaking horribly. I still had to cling to the bed.
I looked strange I'm sure.

We watched Oprah, Tom Cruise was on. I enjoyed it, while I shook uncontrollably, clung to the bed, and felt strange tingles on my legs. Chris and my sister Molly were there, too, they enjoyed the show, talking to themselves having a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Then I felt something again, which was strange, because I was numb? The pressure. The nurse came in, and I think the dr. came in too. (My memory is a little fuzzy) and I was ready, the baby was ready. I was dilated, everything had progressed smoothly in about 2 hours.

Wow, that was great, I pushed maybe twice, and there she was. . . a healthy, beautiful baby girl!

It was one of my favorite labors, smooth, quick, low pain once the epidural took.
I even enjoyed the moments and hours after labor, because I felt good.
Usually, I'm hungry, tired, cranky, and not in much of a mood to even hold the baby.

Can you tell how much she weighs?

My ob/gyn dr. He has delivered all of my babies, and 2 of my sister's too.

Molly and I.
I painted my nails just for the occasion.

The new proud father of 4!
He has worn this "lucky" blue shirt for each delivery.

The older proud sister

The new older, proud brother who was no longer the baby in the family.

Sweet Sadie!
Now she will be 2.