Quick birth story (before I forget)

Thanks so much for all the warm wishes, ladies. It's certainly appreciated! What a freakin' rollercoaster! Warning, probably TMI ahead...

I saw my midwife on Monday afternoon and she told me I was only a fingertip dilated, but my cervix was ripe. She sent me home and I had every intention of going to work on Tuesday (my due date). 

Got woken up at 2:30 a.m. by regular contrax on Tues. and timed them for an hour and a half before calling the midwife. Margaret told me to come on in and DH and I made a mad dash for the hospital. Got there around 4:45 a.m. and in triage, I was already 2 cm. By the time they got me to a L&D room, I'd made it to 4 cm and I bit the bullet and called for an epi. Anesthesiologist took FOREVER and got there at 10:30 a.m. - I was already at 6 cm.

Of course, the epi took the effectiveness of the contrax down a notch and I got stalled at 7 cm and 70% effaced for hours. When they checked me at lunchtime, my water broke. There was light meconium in the fluid, but my doc and midwife were okay to let me continue laboring.

By 4 p.m., still nothing. The midwife did something called an amniotic transfusion and flushed IV fluids into the amniotic sac to keep the meconium from creating any issues and to cushion the baby since things were taking so long.

Around 5 p.m. or so, they started me on a super-light dose of pitocin to get my contrax back up again. That did the trick and they started getting a little stronger. Around 9 p.m., I was still at 7 cm, baby was doing okay and the midwife pulled out ANOTHER trick. She did a cervical massage and had me do a couple practice pushes. That got me to 8-almost 9 cm and thinned me out substantially. Then, Margaret turned off my epidural to help move things along.

Pushing started around midnight and I finally got little man out at 1 a.m. Good times. Dr. Bootstaylor, the peri that backs the practice, was even with me helping push. It was pretty awesome. He's an amazing guy.

I'm convinced that if I'd been with any other practice, I would've ended up with another c-section. This recovery has been amazing. I was able to stand on my own really quickly. I had a full meal at 7 a.m. (CFA FTW!!). Everything was so much different. Even DH was psyched. He was the absolute best coach ever.

Cecil was 3 oz. smaller than Geneva, but a whole inch longer. He seems to be doing really well and is nursing like a champ.

Anyhoo, those are the gory details. I can't recommend Intown Midwifery enough. Margaret is something else and Dr. Bootstaylor is phenomenal. I was so happy to add another VBAC success to their roster.