Here's the BIRTH STORY!

Sunday, November 16th started out just like any other day. I woke up a little after 7am and Mat and I laid in bed and talked for awhile. At around 7:40 I felt the first contraction of the day. It was pretty mild. A few minutes later, another one came. I got up at 7:50 and felt some discharge come out. I’d been having lots of it since getting my membranes stripped the previous Monday - November 10th. At that point, the contractions started coming every 5-8 minutes. They started out pretty much like all the other prelabor contractions that I’d been having, but they increased in intensity over the next hour. They were coming every 4-7 minutes then. They were starting to get uncomfortable, but weren’t painful yet. I also had some pink discharge when I wiped after going to the bathroom. It had been brown up until then. I decided to call my midwife at around 9:45am. She said to go ahead and go in and the nurses in L&D would check me.
Mat’s step dad got to our house a little after 10am to pick up Micah and we headed to the hospital. The whole way to the hospital the contractions were coming every 4-5 minutes and were strong enough that it was hard to talk through them. They lasted about 45 seconds each, and I still felt great in between each contraction. We got to the hospital at about 11:05am. Mat dropped me off at the door while he went to park the car. Some lady whose daughter just had a baby on Friday was heading in at the same time and helped me into a wheelchair. When Mat got to the door, though, a contraction had just passed and I decided to walk up to L&D.
We got into the labor lounge and hooked up to the monitors. The nurse checked me at 11:30am and said that I was a good 3cm. I was 3cm at my appointment Thursday, but barely, I guess. I sat on the bed for awhile so my contractions and Logan’s heart rate could be monitored. Contractions were coming every 4 minutes almost exactly and Logan was doing great. So the nurse unhooked the monitors so that I could walk around. We walked down to the snack lounge so Mat could get a snack and then we walked the halls. After awhile we went back into the labor lounge and my midwife arrived. The contractions were still uncomfortable, not painful, and I still felt fantastic inbetween them. So I wasn’t sure if it was truly labor or not. My midwife checked me at 12:45pm and I was already 4-5cm. She yelled down the hall to the nurses to get me admitted and we headed down the hall to a real room. At 1:00 pm my MW broke my water and things went FAST!!! I filled out the admission papers, the nurse put a saline block in and at 1:38pm got up to walk around some more.
I didn’t walk for long because contractions were getting pretty painful. At 1:55 I went back to my room to rock and Mat took my last belly picture. At 2:16 pm my MW checked me again and I was 5-6 cm dilated. She started the Jacuzzi tub because my pains were getting really bad. I got in at 2:20pm and felt GREAT for about 20 minutes…then the pain got unbearable. My body started shaking and I felt like I had to get out of the tub NOW. I asked for the epidural at 3:00pm as I got out of the tub. I went to the bed so my MW could check me, but I was dilated to 8-9cm and they told me it was too late…that I would be pushing any minute and Logan would have his first meal finished by the time the anesthesiologist arrived. I freaked out big time. At 3:12 pm I felt the urge to push. I was checked one more time and was 10cm with Logan’s head coming down.
I started pushing right away. It felt good to be using the contractions, but it is the absolute worst pain I have ever felt in my life!! I wanted that dang epidural and even told my MW that I’d rather have a c-section. She told me that he had hair and then with the next push, his head came out. It was blue/gray and Mat started saying, “Please push, You have to push now! Please push!” The attending doctor told my MW to “Get that baby out NOW!” She put her knee on the bed and grabbed Logan’s head and I pushed as much as I could. He was born at 3:27 pm. 15 minutes of pushing time total. He gave a little cry and my MW told Mat that she needed to hurry so she was going to cut the cord. They hurried him to the warmer all the while telling me that he was fine. I was having some major flashbacks of when Micah was born. His oxygen was in the 80s and they said they would have to take him straight to the nursery. But they put the oxygen mask up to his face and he pinked up really quick! I heard them guessing his weight before they put him on the scale and heard “He looks like a 9-pounder”. I was like noooooo way!!! Sure enough, they put him on the scale and he weighed 9lbs 10.1oz!!! BIG BOY! And 21.5” long!
He has not missed a meal and is doing absolutely wonderful! He has a little bruising on his face because he’s so dang big, but it’s already lightened up quite a bit in just 1 day. They are keeping an eye on his bilirubin and he’s just slightly jaundiced. They said it’s probably because of the bruising. But they’ll check him again in the morning and hopefully he will get discharged!
Oh and he looks JUST like Micah did when he was born! He’s just MUCH bigger! So from the time I had my first contraction to when Logan was born was about 7.5 hours. From the time my water was broken and *real* labor came on was less than 2.5 hours! It was a fast, overwhelming, and wonderful experience!