She's here! * very long* PIP

Apparently I had good reason to be excited after my appointment last Thursday.  Lillian Jane arrived 9 days early on Saturday, October 22 at 6:46pm. She was 6lbs 15oz, and 19 3/4" long. 

Here's the story:

I woke up with what I thought might be contractions at about 5:30 Saturday morning, and couldn't really go back to sleep.  Around 6:30 I started doing rough timing of how far apart they were, but they were somewhat inconsistent and 7 min apart, minimum.  My husband woke up and I told him what I thought was going on, and we got out of bed around 7:30.  We ate breakfast, packed some things that hadn't made it into the bag, and took the dog for his normal walk (with a few breaks for contractions).  The contractions were really strong, and somewhat long, but still not that close together. 

At about 10:30 I called my Dr. and reported that they were about 6 min apart, but not 100% consistent.  She said that they should be under 5 before I head to the hospital, and to call her back then, but seriously, I was in pain.  They were approaching 2 min long each and I was really nauseous.  I was so ready to go to the hospital and hope I was far enough along for an epidural.  Finally, after throwing up breakfast in the kitchen sink, I had two contractions that were less than 5 min apart, called it good enough, and called my provider back at 12:30.  She said if it's what I wanted, that I could go to L&D, but I should be prepared to be there a while, since they still weren't that consistent.  I think my response was "great.  I don't care."

We got there and found out that I was already 7-8cm dilated, and I begged for the epi asap.  I was admitted around 1pm and got the epidural shortly thereafter.  So. Much. Happier.  It took a couple of tries to get it in, since my spine is a little abnormal, but it worked and when DH came back in (they kicked him out), he was happy with my drastically improved mood.  Fast forward though watching football and words with friends on the iPhone, and I was informed that if I felt pressure in my bottom to let them know.  I did and about 6pm it was time to push.  Just before that, they had started a very low dose of pitocin because the contractions had gotten less frequent (for what it's worth, they were never "timetable").  They upped it to 4 (millisomethings) to keep things going, and then after a few pushes, things stalled a little and they upped it to 6 out of a max dose of 30.  We were all just kind of hanging out waiting for the contractions to resume.  I still had control of my legs, and could feel the contractions before they showed up on the monitor, so that made it easier.  I watched using a mirror, which really was great feedback because I could see my efforts making progress. 

After less than an hour of pushing, Lilly arrived.  The shoulders were a little difficult because she also had her hand/arm curled up there.  I had no tearing right up until then, and what did occur was minor.  My nurse was excited because I delivered before her shift ended at 7, and DH was excited because his college football game was also kicking off at 7.  ;-)  I met everyone's goals!  (That makes DH sound like a db.  He's not, he was entirely focused on me, and cried when Lilly came out.)  They placed her on me immediately and she was in the room with us until we both transferred out at around 8pm.  Her HR was high, but otherwise she was perfect.  We stayed in the maternal child unit 2 nights, but really only a day and a half or so.  We're now home and enjoying every minute, even at 3am.  She really is a great baby and we couldn't be happier.