Long Birth story Not what I expected

So, I had really wanted to have an all natural birth/delivery with my first baby, but it didn't quite pan out as expected. Fortunately we both made it through his transition to the outside world healthy well.

I went with a hospital delivery, with a group of Certified Nurse Midwives, whose practice includes a number of OBs as well. I liked the balance between natural, low intervention friendly attitudes and the having the intervention/ medical options available as necessary.

Christmas Eve I'm exactly 41 weeks and have a NST appointment in the afternoon. As long as everything is fine, the midwives are comfortable with me going up to 42 week before inducing. No complications up to this point, so I'm assuming we'll have the appointment, and be home in time for dinner, continuing to wait for the baby to pick his own arrival time.

Well NST shows baby is fine, but my blood pressure is high. Given this my overdue state, we decide to induce... cervadil overnight then pitocin in the morning. This also means continuous monitoring had I gone into labor naturally, it would have been intermittent . I'm a bit dismayed about this turn of events, but roll with it. My mom brings our hospital bags and Christmas Eve dinner.

Overnight, it's tough to sleep with the fetal and contraction monitor bands around my belly the blood pressure cuff on my arm, but I do manage to sleep until 2 am when contractions start.

From 2 to 5am, the contractions are pretty regular 3 to 7 minutes apart, but I stay in bed and rest, almost sleeping, listening to relaxing music and the Hypnobabies relaxation guide on my iPod. At 5am, I give up on "sleeping", get out of bed, sit on my birth ball, and at the nurses suggestion put the tv on I have some mobility; the monitoring cords give me about a 3 foot range from the side of the bed.

At 7am, the midwife comes in to check me and decide what the next steps will be pitocin or not. She checks and I'm 5cm! That was fantastic news. Dilation regular contractions meant I'd skip the pitocin,

Then shift change and the midwife now on duty is my favorite one from the practice. My husband also wakes up around this time. My mom arrives around 9 ish.

As the day progresses, the contractions get stronger and the pain progressively gets more intense. I had allot of back labor. Spent allot of time in the birth ball, and allot standing leaning over the bed. My husband spent much of the time rubbing my back/ applying counterpressure. My mom was my main focal point and very encouraging all day along. The midwife occasionally suggested varying positions, although the monitors made too much moving difficult. It was rather interesting comparing how the contractions felt to what the monitor showed; sometimes the intensity that I felt was way off from what the machine registered in either direction.

Around 11am i was at 7cm, then at 2pm I was at 9cm. Between 2 3, the midwife broke my water that was when everything got much more painful my memory gets a bit choppy. This is where I started saying things like "I can't", accusing my husband of hating me, along with various swear words.

I started pushing around 3pm. The baby was still posterior though. The midwife suggested various different pushing positions to try to turn him. Side laying, all fours, on the toilet, with the squat bar, on my back... By 5pm, after 2 hours of pushing with all my strength, the baby was still posterior and still at station 0. Not budging. I was exhausted to the point where I was almost "sleeping" in the moments between contractions. The midwife suggested we try the vacuum extractor. I agreed. The OB came in with the vacuum. The anestisologist also came in they said if the vacuum didn't work we would need to go to c section throughout pregnancy, I had so wanted to avoid a c section. Definite my path of last resort here.

Well we tried the vacuum with no success. All we got from that attempt was a cut on my baby's head and an internal one for me.

In a whirlwind that I could barely take in, the decision was made csection. I was wheeled into the OR in the bed. The time was 5:20. Fortunately, baby's vitals were still good, they gave me a spinal as opposed to putting me under despite my exclamation of "I give up. I don't care anymore. Just knock me out". The midwife reassured me and helped me hold still while they put the spinal in. My husband was there at my head, the sheet pulled up, my body numb below my chest. I just laid there and prayed until I finally heard my baby crying. Someone called the time 5:38. My husband went over to him in a couple minutes brought him over to my head. He was beautiful he turned his head when I spoke. It seemed like forever as they were stitching me up, but when that was done, they placed him in my chest as they wheeled us out into the recovery area. My baby in my arms at last.