Fast labor but a LONG story - with a twist!

I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy, no complications.  At my 39 week appointment my doc mentioned that I was measuring a little bit small but that sometimes women plateau at the end, no big concerns at all.  I wasn't dilated or effaced at all.

 My plan was to see how long I could go without any pain meds, preferring to go natural.  My husband was given the direction that if I really ended up needing pain relief I was willing to get an epi as a last resort.

 On March 19th (my due date) I woke up at about 3am with light contractions.  I'd been dealing with Braxton Hicks for weeks and chalked it up to that, so I went back to sleep.  About an hour later I woke up again and started timing my contractions when I realized how regular they were.   At 5:30 they were textbook: 5 minutes apart, lasting a minute each, constant for an hour.  I woke up the hubby, grabbed our bags and we headed to labor and delivery.

 We breezed into the ER feeling great.  Contractions were fairly mild and I was feeling confident.   The second I was put on the monitor all of my contractions started spacing out and getting lighter.  I was a fingertip dilated, not effaced at all.  An hour later we were walking right back out of L&D with our tails between our legs.

 For the remainder of the day I was getting contractions at random intervals, no more frequently than every 20 minutes or so.  Just often enough to prevent me from getting any real sleep!

 That night I was exhausted and tried to go to sleep at 8:00.  I woke up around 9 with an intense contraction, way harder than the ones I'd had throughout the day.  I went to the bathroom and lost my mucus plug.  I told my hubby, but we couldn't remember if that meant that we were supposed to go back to the hospital.  We didn't want to be sent home again, so I asked him to call the nurse and see if they wanted us to come in.  As the nurse picked up the call I had another intense contraction and my water broke.  Immediately the contractions were right on top of each other - they went from approximately every 20 minutes to every minute and a half.  We rushed to the hospital (thankfully it's only a mile away) and were sent up to L&D for the second time in 24 hours!

 I was having a really hard time with the contractions.  Moaning LOUDLY and finding it impossible to do any of the breathing exercises I had practiced.  A nurse did an internal immediately and said she wasn't sure, but she thought I was 8.5 cm dilated.  A second nurse checked and said no, I was only 1 CM!!  I've never been so disappointed in my life.  All of the nurses kept telling me to relax, and I caught one of them rolling her eyes at me while I was starting a contraction.  They seemed to think that I was just being a drama queen.  I have no idea how they could confuse 1 cm and 8.5 cm...

I was begging for an epidural (literally begging, It wasn't a proud moment) but they were hesitant because it was too early.  A few minutes later I started having a hard time breathing at all during the contractions, so they put me on oxygen and grudgingly called for the anesthesiologist.

Were it not for my wonderful husband I would have kissed that man.  The epidural went in fine, I didn't even feel it.  Minutes later I felt absolutely nothing.

 Right after the epi went in there was a shift change and I got a new nurse.  I felt like I really had to poop and asked her if I would be able to go into the bathroom.  She took that as a sign that I had to push and did another internal.  I was 9.5cm dilated!  This was about 45 minutes after the last nurse said that I was dilated 1cm..

I started pushing a few minutes later but wasn't very productive given the recent epidural.  My contractions were so intense that my baby's heart started decelerating, sometimes down to 40 bpm.  She was also having a hard time recovering - with the decelerations lasting longer each time I contracted.  The OB decided to send me in for an emergency C Section after about 1.5 hours of nonproductive pushing.

At 1:21 AM on the day after her due date Catie Elizabeth was born!  She was a tiny 5 lbs even, 17.5 inches.

We had a scare on her second day in the hospital when her temperature dropped down to 95.4 degrees, but after a 4 hour stay in the NICU she bounced back and has been doing great since.  She gained 7 ounces before her 1 week appointment and an additional 15 ounces before her 2 week check.

 My baby girl is now 5 weeks old and she's doing great!