Labor and Delivery Story

About 9 or 10am on Wednesday, October 1st, I started labor with this little one... at first I wasn't sure it was labor because I am not due until the 17th!  I thought maybe Braxton Hicks, maybe the baby was dropping, maybe it was just pelvic pressure.  I texted Jeff around lunchtime to say I 'might' be in labor.  I started timing contractions in the afternoon and pretty much knew I was in labor.  But I waited until Jeff got home from work, then we waited a bit longer until Nana could get home to watch Jane.  We arrived at Rowan Regional Medical Center around 6:30pm that night.  The car ride was fine, got through contractions ok.  But as soon as I got into the hospital they because almost unbearable.  All bravery from my first labor was out the door.  All I wanted was an epidural, heck, I even asked for a c-section from the nurse before my doctor, Holly Stevens (an old family friend) even arrived.  I was so exhausted physically and I felt that was a bad sign because I hadn't even dilated all the way yet.  I had to wait to receive a full bag of fluid before they would give the epidural, man, I watched that bag for what seemed like an eternity to drain.  But finally I got the shot and the pain eased away.  I was even able to close my eyes and rest for a small period of time before they came in and found I was fully dilated and ready to push.  The pushing wasn't very hard, but I only tried 3 or 4 times before the baby's heartrate dropped, so Holly recommended a c-section.  The baby's head wasn't even close enough for her to assist with vacuum.  Not something ideal anyway, but you get to a point where you don't care how the baby comes out.  The prep for the c-section was much longer than it took with Jane.  All the doctors and nurses were taking things slowly, deliberately, calmly.  It was a lot better that way, because I was able to relax and I think Jeff was too.  He came in right before the surgery and sat with me behind the screen that goes up above my stomach.  We held hands.  I didn't feel as much pressure this time either.  With Jane, it felt like they ripped her out of there pretty quickly.  With this baby, Holly eased out the head first, slowly, followed by the rest of the body.  I also didn't hear crying right away.  I knew the baby was out but didn't hear anything, except, "It's a girl, congratulations!"  I guess I knew it was ok because of the congrats, but it's nice for a new mom to hear her baby crying at first, just to know it is alive and well.  I had to prompt Jeff to get up and go over to take pictures, I am sure he was hesitant because it would mean 'crossing over' to the other side of that screen, but he kept his eyes averted.  He is so queezy about that stuff.  Anyway, from beginning of labor to delivery, it was about 16-17 hours.  That's much better than 32 hours the first time around.  Hey, that's almost half the time!  So jealous of the ladies who have labor lasting only in the single digits.  Since my next baby will have to be a scheduled c-section, I'm pretty sure it will be less than 10 hours... heck maybe I can be in and delivered in just an hour or so!  I don't know why my body won't deliver babies naturally, neither do the experts, but they think maybe my pelvis is too small?  Glad to be alive when medical help is here for me.