The Birth Story of my 4th child (long)

Since this was my 4th child, I already knew what to expect but I have to say, all labors are different!  It started with getting my membranes stripped on Monday, the 23rd when I was 39 weeks and 2cm.  The minor contractions started from there. 

On Tuesday, I started seeing the bloody show and continued to see it through Wednesday.  I thought for sure I would have gone into labor during the night Tuesday and was very frustrated Wed morning that I didn't go into "real" labor. 

I still had minor contractions Wed morning and was feeling really uncomfortable.  After a nap in the afternoon, I woke up to more bloody show and my water trickled when I tried to go #2.  I was so sick of not knowing when it was going to get into the real thing so I called my doctors office.  They said come right in to see if my water ruptured (which I knew it didn't, it was only one trickle) and to see what's going on. 

I got there at 4:45pm and was still 2 cm and my water didn't rupture (no surprise) and I got an u/s to see if the fluid level was fine which it was.  So we were on our way home.  We stopped for Burger King where I was tempted to get the Angry Whopper to bring things on and thank God I didn't get it! 

When we were almost home, the "real" contractions started.  I started timing them at 7:45 and they were 3, 2, 4, minutes apart.  I called the doctor after timing for almost an hour and we got to the hospital at 9:30pm.  I was 4 cm.  I had to wait an hour to get the epi until I had a bag of IV fluid in so I got the nubaine shot in my leg to take the edge off.  It helped a lot.  The doctor needed to wait to break my water until 2:15 because I was GBS positive and they like to wait that 4 hours if possible.  I finally got the epi which actually worked more on the left side.  I was feeling fine and then the babies heartbeat was dropping during the big contractions so I had to lay on my left side for awhile.  The epi started to work even more on my left and less on my right so I switched to my right side which then led to my bp dropping.  So the switching from side to side when on.  The doctor broke my water at 2:30am and by almost 5:00 I had had enough.  I was having horrible pain on my right side right above the crease of my leg and felt every contraction in my butthole (sorry for being blunt).  I was starting to freak out.  The nurse checked me and it was time and told me to practice push.  I cried and didn't want to because I was so afraid of pooping my Burger King food right then and there because with all my girls, I had diarrhea before labor and had nothing to poop out.  My sister made me snap out of it and I pushed which was horribly painful.  The nurse got the doctor right away and the pushing began.  With every push and there wasn't many, I felt like my butthole was going to explode, it was the worst feeling ever.  I actually remember screaming things and crying and I never did that with my 3 girls.  At 5:16am he was born.  I thought I would look right away to make sure he had a penis (remember I have 3 girls) but I was so traumatized by that pushing experience I just stared at him and cried.  He was 7lbs 10oz and 21 inches long, my smallest baby.  I had a minor tear in the same spot at the 3 previous deliveries.  I have to say that pushing for an hour and a half with my 1st child with an epi still working was not as bad as pushing 10 minutes feeling that way.  I got over it though quickly and soon I'll forget all about it.  Rylan Edward was worth it but yes, I'm done having kids!  I finally have my boy and that's all I wanted.