she checked me and I had dilated to a 3 which was good news since only a couple hours earlier I was a 2. The nurse had me get up and walk around for half an hour to try and get the contractions to pick up again and they definitely did. By the time I got back to the bed, they were at 2-3 minutes apart and I had dilated to a 4. Finally they decided to admit me. She said she had read my birth plan and my only response was that I wanted the epidural. I know in my birth plan it said no, but I had definitely changed my mind. By this time they had gotten a call that another woman was coming in and so they wanted to wait until they admitted her to call our midwife and let her know. Meanwhile I'm hating every second of my contractions and telling DH that "I just want the fucking epidural already!" Finally around 9:30 nurse came in and they gave me an IV and she started me on fluids and some pain meds to take the edge off the contractions until I could get my epidural. Meanwhile my midwife had called back to say to check baby girls presentation since earlier she'd had her face toward my cervix which if she still did I'd have to get a C-section. Fortunately they only felt the suture marks on her skull so she had moved her head into the right position. Fast forward to about 12:30 I was at 6cm, finally they moved me to the delivery room and the anesthesiologist came to give me the epidural. Was pleasantly surprised when it was someone that I knew. He was a client at my work so it made it a lot easier to relax with him poking things near my spine. DH on the other hand almost passed out while holding my hand through it and had to sit with his head between his knees. Once it started to kick in it was soooo nice, however, my left side wasn't numbing as well so I had to press my little button to up the dose a few times to get it to catch up to the right side. At this point I had basically been awake 40 hours so it was so nice to get some sleep. I woke up at 6am because my midwife had called and asked the nurse to check my progress. My contractions had slowed down but when the nurse went to check me I was at 10 and my waters burst all over the bed as soon as she stuck her fingers up there. At this point they started pitocin to get my contractions sped up for pushing and my midwife said she'd be in about 7:30. It was a strange feeling to be able to wiggle my toes and kinda shift my legs but have them be dead weight and I could feel the pressure in my bottom when the contractions were coming but not the pain. At 8am she came in and took a look and said she could already see baby girl's head and told me that with the epidural pushing could take 30 mins to 3 hours, so she went to change and came back about 10 minutes later. My mom and nurse held my legs and DH held my head out of fear of passing out if he was down there lol. I was surprised how fast I figured out how to push. At 8:29, so about 19 minutes of pushing, Lux was born. I can remember how relieved I was to hear a little gurgling cry right after her head came out, before her body had even come out. As soon as she was out they put her on my stomach and she peed and pooped on me immediately lol. Fortunately for me, I had no tears in my perineum and I had requested no episiotomy. However when Lux came out she had a hand next to her face as usual and I did get a minor tear on my labia, but other than the couple stitches for that my midwife said it looked like I hadn't even pushed a baby out of there. We did skin to skin as soon as she was wiped off and my mom had cut the cord and also had her latch on and feed a bit. They gave us a little time to hold her and my sister came to visit us in the delivery room then my bosses came by to take some pictures for us. After everyone left, DH gave her her first bath then I got to go take a shower before they moved us to our room. Overall, I'm super happy with how her birth went, even though I didn't stick to my original birth plan. Really, I got most of what I wanted and I'm totally okay with the fact that I decided I needed the epidural.
No birth plan EVER goes as planned, which is why I've never made one lol. Glad it was a relatively easy labor and delivery though! Yay Lux
