Birth Story - very late

It's taken awhile to find time to sit down and type this, but here it is... Short version - Alexa was born Friday, 1/25/13, weighing 6lb, 3 oz. and very healthy! Long version - I went into labor Thursday afternoon. Mild contractions, but then my water broke at 10:45. Assuming that this would be a quick birth since my last one was 5 hours long, we loaded the 3 kids into the suv and DH got to speed through our small town, much to my 9 year old's delight. My mother met us at the hospital and took the kids home. And then we waited - for hours. At 2am, I was only 1 cm. I was put on pitocin, but still not much progress. By 5pm Friday, I was only 2 cms. The pitocin was increased around 7pm, and the contractions grew intense. I asked (screamed, ha ha) for an epidural. I've had 3 before, don't really like the experience, but was exhausted and in pain, so decided to get it. Unfortunately, the woman administering the epidural didn't use enough anesthetic and I was screaming at her to stop, that I did not want it. The nurse ordered her to continue (yes, I was pretty shocked). I kept yelling for them to stop, and asked for my mother (who had returned to the hospital to be with me) but they wouldn't let her or my husband back in the room. Someone else came to administer the epidural instead, and this time he managed to get it in. By 8:30pm, I was only 4cms. Within minutes the contractions got much worse and everything sped up. Epidural wasn't working very well and I could feel almost all of it. I don't remember much during that time except screaming in pain and trying to push while the room suddendly filled up with 10-12 people all rushing around trying to get the baby out as quickly as possible (they'd had difficulty finding the baby's heartbeat). It all worked out in the end - Alexa was born at 9:02pm healthy and strong. But, after how the epidural was handled, I'm never going back to that hospital. Everyone else was great, though! My LO is now almost 5 weeks old, and every day I can't believe how very precious and wonderful she is!