Lara Brook's Birth Story

My original due date was February 5. On Friday, January 25 I went to my 38week 3day appointment and had an internal and the dr said "I was thinning nicely" but not really making additional progress. At this point I was feeling pretty good and was beginning to get the feeling I was going to go late. On Saturday we went to visit my BFF who had a baby on Friday and had our last date night to the movies and dinner. On Sunday did lots of walking in town and had dinner with the in-laws. On Sunday evening went to sleep around 10:00 since I was planning on working up until I delivered. I woke up at 12:30am Monday morning with the feeling of having to make a bowel movement. I sat on the toilet for a while over the course of 2 hours and nothing but I just kept getting "poop" pains, but nothing was happening. During this time I was on the computer. Finally at 2:30 I said I would stay up 15minutes longer since I had to work early in the morning. When I got back into bed I had a really bad mentstral cramp. It kinda dawned upon me that my "poop" pains were coming about every 15 minutes so I woke up my husband and said I think I am having contractions he asked how far apar they were and I really had no idea. At this point I began monitoring them on contractionmaster.com. By 5:30am they were coming about 7minutes apart. I called the on-call dr. she said when they were 5min apart to come into the hospital. Everytime they would reach 5 minutes the next one would be 15minutes. They never became 5min apart consistently. I would squeeze my husbands hand during each contraction and sleep inbetween them. At 7:00am I called out of work for the day as did my husband. At this point I was having severe pain. We decided to head to the hospital. As we were packing the car. My contractions stopped. So back into the house we went to wait. At this point it was 9:00am my husband began to work from home and I just kinda of rested and tried to get some sleep. During this time I had noticed my mucous plug had fallen out. So I knew that something was happening. I finished packing was just in limbo the rest of the day. At 3:00pm we decide to go for a walk to try to get things going again. We walked for about an hour and nothing. At 6:30 we were having dinner and my contractions started up again. THey were 20min apart. At 10:00 we decided to try to get some sleep. Lets just say my husband got sleep I just stared at the computer as I timed my contractions. By midnight they were 7minutes apart pretty steadily. I called the dr. again and she said when they were 5 mins. apart for an hour to come on in . I explained that I had been laboring for approx 24 hours and lived 40minutes from the hospital. She said when I felt ready to come on in. So at 12:45 I had the WORST contraction ever that lasted about 4-6minutes. We decided at that point to go to the hospital. At this point my contractions were on top of each other. We made a 45minute trip into a 25min trip. I enterered the hospital through the ER and was examined in a room I was 3cm dialated and 100% effaced. There was no dr. on staff at that moment but the nurse called her and she said to admit me. We dicussed pain manangement at that time and I said I would like a epidural but not at that time. I was on the fetal monitor for an hour then we walked the halls for an hour and a half . It was now 3am and the dr had arrived and checked me I was 5cm, 100% effaced and -1station. I asked for pain management. She explained that I could have iv meds now then an epidural or go right for the epidural. She also said with 1st time moms they will give you an epidural right up until delivery so I shouldnt worry about "missing my window". I took the IV Stadiol (sp) and they said it should last about an hour. At this point i used the bathroom and had bloody show. My bag of water was still intact. Approx 2 hours later I woke to severe contractions begging for an epidural. It was 7am SHIFT CHANGE there wasnt a nurse or a dr to be had. I was in such pain but had to wait until a dr examined me and ordered an epi. I waited until 830am. The dr finally examined me and i was 8-9cm and 0station. I used the bathroom and they gave me the epi which was the easiest part. Everythign the dr said would happen did and it literally took the pain away I just had rectal pressure. At this point they broke my water. And my labor stopped. By 11am i had made no more  progress. They started the pitocin. The dr. explained that when they start pitocin later in labor it labors for the patient. They upped the dose every half hour. At 1:00 i said I have to poop. And the dr said ok so poop. They changed the room over and in 2minutes I was pushing. She explained that 1st time moms normally push for 2-3hrs. I was like well i am not going to push that long. And I was right 27minutes later and 6contractions later and she was out. THe only thing that helped me was that I pushed like i had to poop and it worked. Lara Brook was born at 1:27pm. Exactly one week early. She was 7lbs 8oz and 20inches long. She was (still is ) beautiful. My husband cut the cord and was so amazing through the whole process. Lara had lots of fluid in her lungs and was grunting a lot so they whisked her away into the nursery for about 3hours but after a while she was fine. The experience was so amazing. What the female body is capable of is unbelieveable until you go through it. I have a new respect for my body and my husband.