XP from 3rd tri - 2nd baby, great vaginal birth again =)

Around 2 am on 1/15 (exactly 1 week after my daughter's 2nd birthday, and on his due date) I woke up with mild contractions.  I figured it was more false labor and tried to sleep.  Around 4 am I had quite a bit of bloody show when I went to the bathroom. By 6 am I was beginning to suspect it might be ?real? labor as they were getting stronger and were about 5-6 minutes apart.  I went into the living room to see if changing positions would make them stop, and had some light breakfast.  Around 8:30 I called the doctor and left for the hospital around 9 am.

We got checked in around 9:40 and I sat on the monitors for a bit as William kept moving around and they needed to track his heartbeat for a certain length of time.  At the first check at around 10:30 I was close to 3 cm dilated and contracting regularly, so they kept me.  We got off the monitors and I walked the halls and used the bouncy birth ball until my next check around 12.  At that time I was around 4 cm and thinner, so we were making slow but steady progress.

I was checked again by my doctor around 1:30 and was close to 5 cm.  I kept walking, using the ball and the whirlpool until he came back around 3:30 pm. At that time I was still only 5 cm, but he had dropped a bit lower so we decided to break my water and see if that helped speed things along a bit.  There was a bit of meconium in the water so I sat on the monitors for a bit, but all was fine. 

Around 5 pm I was checked again and was still only at 5 cm despite much stronger and more frequent contractions.  This was the exact same ?stage? where I got stuck with my daughter, and so we decided to start a very small amount of pitocin to get me ?over the hump? so to speak.  As I had been up most of the night and was getting tired I decided to have my epidural ordered before the pit contractions got too strong. I had the epi by 5:30 and started pitocin just after 6.  I asked for a very light epidural again and it was even better than with my daughter.  I still had complete control over my legs and could move around quite well. 

We watched a bit if TV, and around 7 the nurse had me roll over to my left side.  I immediately got a horrible pain on the right side.  She came back in a couple minutes later to roll me back over thinking the epidural just needed to rebalance for that side.  I was shaking, nauseous, and trembling and I remember just crying to my DH I couldn?t do it (and began to regret asking for the ?light? epidural after all!). The nurse realized I was in transition and checked me and said that the baby was coming now.  I was 10 cm at 7:25 pm, just over an hour after starting pitocin, so I went from 5-10 cm very quickly and I think that is why it all hit so hard and fast.  I started to push as that was the only thing that made the pain go away. They called my doc in and they told him to get dressed ASAP as he was still in a suit, so he threw on scrubs and the nurse broke the bed down while I just pushed when I felt the urge to.

William was born at 7:37 pm and was 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. It only took 10 minutes of ?real? pushing to get him out, I couldn?t believe it!  He was nearly a pound heavier than my DD, but I had absolutely no tearing or anything at all.  They suctioned him quickly due to the meconium in his fluid and then gave him right back to us for bonding and the first feeding. 

He is perfect and my recovery is so much easier this time, as is breastfeeding.