The Labor, and boy was it!

So here is the labor story. It was pretty dramatic, but now that it's been a few days, it's hard for me to remember how bad it was while it was happening. So, I will try to recapture how I felt, but it may be a little lacking!

TUESDAY, DEC 1st, ABOUT 1pm

Since I thought I might be having the baby soon, I thought I should go pick up the last few things that I needed for the baby. Heather came with me, and we got everything I needed. I was having mild contractions during the shopping, but towards the end they started to get really bad. I was standing in line at the checkout, and all of a sudden I thought I was going to pass out from the pain! I mean, literally pass out. My vision started to get all black, and I had to sit down on the floor immediately. Jack (Heather's 2.5 year old) was very confused and kept trying to talk to me. I felt bad for not answering him, but I guess he's probably over it!
So anyway, I decide that this is the real deal, and I call Jason to pick me up. I had driven to the store, but didn't feel like I could drive at all. Jason was on his way to doing some hunting, and I felt bad that I had to call him. He stopped by the house to grab the hospital bag (which I had only packed the night before) and it took him probably 20 minutes to get to me. In the meantime, my contractions are getting pretty brutal. I couldn't stand up straight, and I was all moany, even though I was trying really hard not to be, since Heather and Jack were waiting with me. Heather gave me a bottle of water, which really helped a ton, and I chugged it down. It felt like an ETERNITY until Jason got there!
Finally, Jason arrives, and we get into the car. I am in so much pain, I am getting nauseated. I mention it, and Jason pulls out a bag, just in case. I didn't think I would really throw up, but I DID! Twice. And because I had had so much water, it spewed everywhere, all down my shirt and my pants. I was very upset, and just kept thinking- "I can't believe I am going to have to go into the hospital with puke all over myself! How nasty!" My contractions kept getting worse and worse, and I was starting to think that we might be having a baby in the car! I mean, puking is a sign of late labor!
We get to the hospital (after a few bad choices as far as what road to take), but we haven't had a tour or anything, and we don't know where to go. So, we decide to go in the main entrance, and they can tell us where to go. Jason pushed me in a wheelchair to the Labor and Delivery unit, which felt like about 2 miles. Later I found out it is less than one minute's walk, but you know how that goes.
I get to the right section, and they immediately take me into a room and check me, because it looks like the baby may be right on its way! Now, remember, at my doctor's appointment on the previous day I was a 5 and 90% effaced. They check me and..... I am a 5. And 75% effaced. WHAT?!?!?!? HOW CAN I HAVE GONE THROUGH THIS AND NOT CHANGED AT ALL!! At this point, I am saying to everyone- "I want an epidural! I can't do this!!" But they can't give one until I am admitted, and they are trying to get ahold of the midwife. So I lay down on the bed, and am still feeling just awful. I flip on my side, and start to feel a little bit better. Five minutes later, I am having no contractions. None. At all. However, the midwife says that she is going to give me an hour to see if I change, since she doesn't really want to send me home at a 5. So I sit in the hospital bed for two hours. Not one single contraction. Not even a tiny one. I am sure they are going to send me home, and I am SOOOO frustrated! WHAT THE HECK! I was in such bad labor pains, and now I just have to go home?? Grrr! They come back in to check me, though, and I have dilated to a 6. Everyone is so confused! How did I dilate without having a single contraction? It's just weird. The midwife doesn't know what to do with me. She thinks maybe they should send me home, but the nurses don't agree. They decide to hang onto me for a little while longer, and they are going to let me walk for an hour to see if I start having more contractions. So we start walking around the hospital, which was really boring. I start to get some contractions, but they are SUPER mild, and as soon as I lay down again they go away.
So we do the walking thing for about three hours. Eventually, they find out I am at a 7. I am baffling everyone! I am feeling pretty much nothing- I mean cramps are WAY worse than my contractions, and I am happy and smiling! They can't believe it, because other women at a 7 are usually screaming their guts out. I am stuck at a 7 for about 4 hours. Still no major contractions.
They decide to admit me, because in all likelihood I will go really fast when my labor kicks in. I am jumping off the ceiling with joy, because I just KNOW that if they break my water I am going to go in about a half hour! YES! I am not getting sent home! So they send me walking again while we wait for the midwife to come and break my water. She comes, and they break my water, and I go walking again, and I just cannot wait to get that baby out!
THREE HOURS LATER I am STILL at a 7!! I can't believe it! Breaking my water was supposed to make everything happen! Not fair! At this point I am thinking that I have NO good labor genes at all! I thought I was going to have a quick labor, but it has now been like 10 hours, and nothing is happening. I have been stuck at a 7 for about 8 hours, and it just sucks. So they decide to put me on Pitocin. Which means no more walking. And my contractions are still stopping everytime I lay down. But I am hoping that the Pitocin will work to get them started.
But the Pitocin is NOT WORKING! Grrr!! I am so frustrated! They keep upping my dose until I am at the highest level. Then I start having regular contractions, but they are SOOO mild! Here is a reference point- they want your contractions to be over 120 mvus, and mine were in the 40s, and only about every 5 minutes. However, they think that maybe the contraction monitor may just not be picking them up like it should, so they decide to do an inter-uterine monitor to measure them more accurately. It goes up past the baby's head. So the nurse is trying to insert it, and she CANNOT get it in! Let me tell you- it hurt SOOO bad! I was crying and being a total wimp. She feels around and realizes that when they broke my water, the baby's head came down and plugged it back up, and the head is stuck behind the membrane. So they have to come and break my water again, and then they will try to insert the monitor again.
Now, all that messing around and digging and pain made me start having NASTY contractions again. I threw up another three times. It was awful! But I was thinking- Hey, at least I will be dilating again, right?
WRONG! They check me after about an hour, and I am only a 7.5. So I decide to get an epidural. I mean, I had been in the hospital for a long time, I was tired, I was in a ton of pain, and I wasn't dilating! If I had been a nine, I would have just done it naturally, but there was no way I was going to be in this much pain for the next 10 hours!
The epidural was WAY better than I expected, and it was really funny to have numb legs! I thought that my right leg was propped up with the knee bent, and I kept making Jason come over and check that it was still laying down like it was supposed to be.
A few hours later, I was complete, but my epidural was wearing off. I was okay with that, though, because it meant that I could feel when to push, which would make the whole process more effective.
So I start pushing at about 8:50 in the morning on Wednesday. That is 18 hours after I arrived at the hospital. My epidural is really wearing off though, and I consider getting a boost. But the nurse said it would make me go longer, so I decided to just go for it. She told me that most first time moms push for about 2 hours. After an hour of pushing, they decide to call the midwife to come in, but I can't push anymore until she gets there. She was at the other hospital. That was SOOOO hard! It hurts way worse to not push than it does to push, although pushing was way more work than I expected.
The midwife gets there, and about 10 minutes later, out pops a baby! She was just about to tell me to stop pushing, but he just POPPED out. I literally heard a pop! He was posterior (which means his face was facing up at the ceiling instead of at the floor) which is really hard to deliver. They were all really impressed that I got him out in just an hour and a half, because it's not uncommon for moms to push for more than six hours with a posterior baby.
I was just so glad to have him, and so relieved that labor was over! It took SOOOO long! I think that he was just stuck for a long time, partially because he was posterior, and partially because he got hung up in the amniotic sac. I am really lucky that he was so tiny, because if he had been full term I would have had to have a C-Section. So PHEW! Also after finding out that he was posterior, I think I probably do have some good labor genes. Although next time I think I might end up with a baby in the car, because I don't think I will go in as early in the hope that I won't have to be in the hospital for SO LONG!

Here are some photos, and I look awful. I know. But Labor is really hard, so I don't want to hear any judgements, okay? :)
This is one of the last photos of me pregnant. I am stuck at a 7 here, and obviously doing just fine!!
Another picture of me being too happy for how I was doing. I think I would have rather had a faster, harder labor.
This is a LOVELY picture of me waiting for the midwife and trying not to push. I didn't even know Jason had taken this pictures. I am not sure why he did, since I look like I am dying, but I guess it's good to document, right?
This is RIGHT after I had Finn. Before I got to hold him, while they were weighing him. I look really puffy from all the fluid and Pitocin they pumped into me.
Me holding Finn for the first time. He is so cute, huh?
Again, a first time holding picture. And puffy tired face.
A cute picture of Finn to have some attractive pictures in here!

Isn't he too cute? I love the spit up in his mouth! I am so glad I had him, and he was worth every minute!