My natural hospital birth (long)

So here I was at 39 weeks pg. I had been having infrequent, painless BH for about two weeks.  After having a little sexy time with DH early Sunday morning, I started having regular, timeable contractions.  They were not very painful, just like a period cramp.  They varied from 5 to 15 minutes apart, and I could pretty much ignore them.  I had these all day Sunday, but I didn't get excited yet - I just hung out at home, watching tv and straightening up the house. 

At 5:30pm I had one big one that hurt a little more than the others, then no more until 7pm. From 7pm til midnight they got progressively stronger, and by midnight I couldn't lay down through them anymore - I had to get up and walk through them or sit on the potty. I started losing more of my mucus plug too (I had been losing it for about a month already).

I finally got out of bed around 2am Monday morning and went to sit in a comfy chair in the living room, since I had to get up for each ctx anyway. DH was sleeping on the couch in there so I tried not to wake him up just yet. Around 4am my ctx started getting even stronger, and closer together (3-5 mins apart). I woke DH up at 4:30 and told him it was time to get ready to go. I had breakfast and a shower, and we put the last few things in our hospital bags.

At 6am we were in the car. We took our dog to my MIL's house. I called my mom and my doula and let them know we were on our way to the hospital. My doula told me I sounded too cheerful to be on my way to the hospital, lol. I let her know my ctx had been 3-5 min apart for 2 hours, and the hospital is an hour away. If we had waited any longer, we would also have to deal with rush hour traffic and I didn't want to labor in the car that long.

When we got to the hospital, the nurses didn't seem to think I was in active labor either. I started to worry that we had come too soon. However, I got checked around 7am and was 5cm, completely effaced, and baby was at 0 station (yay!). I gave the nurse my birth plan and she was cool with everything (not like she would have had a choice anyway... but it turned out she was very natural birth friendly). They put me in a huge room so I would have plenty of room to walk around, and brought me a birth ball to sit on. I tried to rest in the bed as much as possible since I didn't get any sleep the night before. My mom and Jill (doula) arrived before I got checked again, but I'm not sure what time.

Around 9am the nurse checked me again, and I was already 8cm (yay!). I told someone to call my best friend and tell her to go ahead and get to the hospital, because we had agreed we would call her at 8cm. This is when things start getting fuzzy for me. My contractions got a lot stronger and it got a lot harder to just breathe through them. I walked around a lot, got massaged and counter pressure from DH and from Jill, and got my back tickled by one of the nurses (that felt GREAT). My favorite position was standing on my tiptoes, leaning over with my hands down on the bed. I also got in the shower for a little while and that was heaven, until a big ctx came and then the water did NOT feel good beating down on my skin.

By 11am I was miserable and ended up asking for an epi, but no one would listen. I was just really tired because I couldn't sit or lay down; I couldn't manage the contractions as well as when I was standing. And by this point I didn't want anyone touching me, and I especially didn't want to lean on anyone. I had my eyes closed and wouldn't open them to look at anyone. I was really trying to retreat into myself, even though I was going on and on about the pain. I finally took someone's advice and laid down on the couch with my head in DH's lap for a few, and cried. I really didn't want to do it anymore. I wanted the pain to go away, I just wanted a break!  I didn't understand why no one wanted to give me any pain relief and it made me so sad. Seriously, I was heartbroken. Heck, I think if someone had given me an advil I would've calmed down.

Finally the nurse checked me and I was 9cm. I was upset because I didn't progress very far from 9am till 11am, but they told me it was a lot harder to go from 8 to 10 than from 5 to 8. I was also upset because I kept asking for 'pain relief' but no one would listen. Jill told me to wait 15 minutes and see if I still wanted it and that made me mad, lol. Everyone kept telling me I was doing so good, and that made me mad. When I would moan or cry or holler during a contraction, DH would tell me to stop that and to breathe, and that made me really mad! They finally convinced me when they told me several times that at 9cm it was too late, that by the time the anesthesiologist got there it would be time to push, and the epi could take up to 1hr to take effect.

 But that didn't stop me from complaining. I have been told that I hit DH a couple times, although I only remember trying to use my hand to shut his mouth up once. He kept telling me that screaming and crying were counter-productive, and telling me to breathe, breathe, breathe. The nerve of him, right? lol. Apparently I punched him once too but I don't remember it. I do remember how he was getting on my nerves though, but really the truth is, what he was doing helped me to push through it all.

A little after 12 noon it was time to push. I got up on the bed and laid on my back, because by now my legs were like jelly and I wasn't managing the contractions well enough to squat or get on my knees. Pushing did not feel good to me. It was not a relief like some people say. But, I had come to the conclusion that I didn't have a choice in the matter and I pushed on like a warrior according to DH. I think it really helped that I was so pissed off by this point; being mad really helped me to push hard. I didn't understand why, after 3 or 4 sets of pushing, the baby's head wasn't out. It was proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. So every time I pushed and didn't get the head out, I pushed harder the next time.

Finally I started pushing with all my might and started getting somewhere. The wonderful nurse was doing perineal massage - I told her to get her hands out of there, lol. But then she told me what she was doing and I said oh, okay, that's good. The Dr. finally came in when I started pushing hard. He got out his scissors and THANK GOODNESS Jill noticed what he was about to do and asked me if I wanted an episiotomy, and I said NO WAY! I kept pushing on and soon her head was out, and with 2 more pushes she was out and lying on my chest. I finally had relief, the pain was gone and my beautiful baby was here.

After just 8 hours of Active labor (6 of which were relatively easy) and 30 minutes of pushing, Lilliana Rose was born at 12:35pm, on Sept 8 - four days before her due date.  She was as perfect as she could be. She weighed 6lb 14 oz, and was 20 inches long. She was very alert and latched on well the first time I put her near my breast (we delayed the eye ointment for this purpose). I only needed 2 stitches and was up and at 'em within the hour.

Overall my hospital birth experience was great. I had an awesome nurse who helped me follow my birth plan, even when I didn't want to. I had an awesome doula who kept me from getting drugs at the last minute and saved me from an episiotomy. And my husband was very supportive, understanding, and everything I needed him to be, even if I didn't know it at the time.

I'm so glad I didn't use ANY medical interventions.  I basically could've had her at home.  There was no 'recovery time'.  No catheter, and I was walking around within an hour after delivery.  My baby was and still is very alert and aware of her surroundings, which always surprises people.