19 minutes....

So this story is about the delivery of my second child... hilarity almost ensued.

I went to my regularly scheduled Dr's appointment Tuesday morning. I was due the following Wednesday, and when my Dr. checked my cervix, there was finally some movement! According to my doctor, I was a 'loose 2 1/2 to 3' centimeters! My husband and I were all "woo hoo!" because my 1st child was exactly a week late, and I was beyond ready to no longer be pregnant (oh, and to meet my daughter, too).

 We went home and puttered around the house. We had some plumbing issues and the plumber was completing his 5 day marathon at our house getting everything fixed. And as the plumber was wrapping up, I was feeling an occasional contraction. At that point, I was not even concerned in the least - the contractions were sporadic and not traveling to my back. I was convinced they were strong Braxton-Hicks, at best. I then cooked dinner for my family because my contractions were gone. We put my son to bed, my husband and the neighbor began to repair the drywall that had to be removed due to the plumbing issues, and I went to bed.

After a bit, I started to feel contractions, again. But this time, they were radiating to my back and upper thighs. Hmmmmm, I wondered, are these the real thing? I layed there and waited. About an hour later, my husband finally came upstairs to bed and I told him I thought I was having contractions. He decided to hop in the shower and threw me my phone to keep track of how frequent the contractions were. His shower was 15 minutes, and I had three contractions - once at the beginning of his shower, one 8 minutes later and one more 7 minutes after that. Okay, my turn to get in the shower.

The next contraction came 5 minutes later - oh crap, time to get moving. In the shower they seemed to be coming faster than before so I got out of the shower and started timing. Two minutes, 45 seconds. Two minutes, thirty seconds. Two minutes,  fifteen seconds. We called the doctor, took my son to the neighbor's house, grabbed my bag and off to the hospital we went.

The car ride was 15 minutes, and I was talking easy. Contractions were coming, but no worse than when I was pregnant with my son and I was dilated to four centimeters. Epidural, here I come.

We got to the hospital and walking into the emergency room entrance was a little harder than I thought it would be. We checked in and that process was the longest 10 minute check-in I ever want to experience again. Half way through, the contractions were much longer and on top of each other. The nurse checking in was telling my husband the stories of the other women she had checked in that night - all three women were in the final stages of labor and didn't get epidurals. "But that won't happen to you though. You're not that far yet." she said. All I could think was, "Epidural, please."

My husband quickly wheels me up to the fifth floor - why is L&D so far from the front door? I get into the L&D room the nurse directed us to, and so it begins. Change into this, pee into this, and lay down. Let;s get this show on the road. Oh and by the way, epidural, PLEASE! Hmmm, the baby's heart rate keeps dropping when you have a contraction. Let's check you, break your water and place a monitor on her head. It was at that point, the nurse says to me, "Ummm, you are dilated to nine centimeters." And I begin to moan because I knew I wasn't going to get an epidural. At that point, something in me snapped. If I wasn't getting an epidural, and I was going to get to experience natural childbirth (which I had NO desire to do - I am such a wimp), this was not going to be a prolonged experience.

At that moment, I knew I had to push. My nurse threw my legs in the stirrup-py things and I pushed.  Before I knew it, 8 more nurses were in my room getting everything ready and being extremely efficient, as this baby was not waiting. Three more pushes and one guttural moan-like scream (that originated from the depths of me I never knew existed), my DD entered the world without a single doctor in the room. My doctor had stopped for a stoplight and hadn't made it yet and the hospital doctor on-call didn't make it down the hall in time.

From the moment I walked into the delivery room to the arrival of my DD was 19 minutes. Isn't there a badge or a patch I can wear everyday for that?