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I'm sure most of you remember that I was scheduled to be induced on Friday, June 15th, and there were many things I was worried about. Happily, none of those worries really came true, though!

So, on Wednesday I started to post that I was showing some POSSIBLE signs that labor could be on its way, and was really crossing my fingers to avoid being induced on Friday. Those labor signs pretty much slowed and stopped later in the day on Wednesday, so I really started to lose hope that anything was going to happen on it's own.. ha! Thursday morning (DH's birthday!) around 4:30am I woke up, went to the bathroom and had a great deal of bloody show. I started to get excited, but wasn't feeling any contractions or anything, so instead of going back to sleep of course I stayed up and googled how long after show before labor sets in. The answers varied anywhere from "you're IN labor, stupid!" to "up to a week".. so I actually contemplated GOING IN for my last day of work for a few minutes.. glad I didn't do that! I told my husband what was going on and that I wasn't sure what it meant yet, and we decided that he could probably go to work and I'd call him if needed. As he was getting ready (starting around 6:30) I started noticing some contractions. I started timing them and they were all over the board - from 3 to 12 minutes apart, and lasting 45 seconds to almost a minute and a half. Around 7:30 they were really evening out, and I told Jason that I was really starting to think if he went to work that day that I would end up calling him home (or to the hospital), and he decided to call in. Lucky thing he did, as they soon settled in at 4-5 minutes apart!

DH called my parents to come pick up Lily, and I wandered around the house doing some last minute packing and whatnot. My mom arrived and told us she realized on the way over here that my DAD had taken the car with the car seat in it, and he was heading to a buddies house to drive an hour away for a day of golf. She called him on the way and he had turned around and was going to meet us at our house. I sat there and visited with my Mom (who was a nervous wreck!) for a while, and chatted with Lily, while still timing contractions. Lily was getting really nervous and kept telling me she didn't want me to have to go to the hospital! Poor girl, my heart just broke for her, but we told her how exciting it was that her baby sister was going to be born! My parents finally left with her between 8:30-9, and I called the hospital.

The hospital was PACKED! There was a huge thunderstorm going on outside and all the nurses kept mumbling about barametric pressure and an absolutely crazy L&D Wing. The triage nurse on the phone told me it sounded like I should head in to be evaluated, but there probably wasn't a need to rush. We left pretty much right away, and stopped along the way for DH to get some snack and caffeine.. and good thing we did, as when we arrived we squeezed into the LAST available triage room! The place was totally packed. We were in triage just before 10:30 and the contractions were still coming regularly, but not SUPER strong so I was worried they were going to send us home and tell us to come back later. However, after going through all the questions when they went to check me she said I was already 5-6cm dialated, 100% effaced with a bulging bag of waters and the baby's head was very low. I was absolutely amazed that I had progressed that far already! She said that bought us a ticket in, and we were staying until we had a baby! Little did I know that was also the LAST time I'd be checked before delivery, too. While we were sitting in triage, the OB I had for Lily popped his head in to check on me and see if I remembered him as he was on call that day!! That was pretty awesome, especially since my new OB wasn't going to be there and I really did like him - plus it was cool he remembered Lily!).

So, we walked over to our delivery room and start to get settled. They wanted to get me hooked up to an IV right away to start antibiotics (I was GBS+), and start a bag of fluids. Unfortunately, they had the worst time starting the IV - it took FOREVER!! They had both of my arms wrapped up in hot towels to bring my veins to the surface so I was boiling to death, and then 2 nurses and a member of the IV team ended up sticking me NINE TIMES to find a stupid vein.. while I was fighting contractions the whole time. I still have massive bruises all over my arms from the IV, which is almost funny considering how the rest of the delivery went!

Anyway, they finally get the IV in place and she said it would take about 4 hours to get through the antibiotics, then the plan was to break my water and she expected things to go very quickly at that point on.. she warned me if I wanted an epidural that I should have it done a little bit before the water was broken so I didn't go numb just in time to push. So, I moved over to the glider and started trying to breathe through the contractions there. Pretty soon I noticed that every time a contraction hit I was instictively PUSHING my back against the wooden rails of the chair as hard as I could, and started to realize that I was having back labor. Oh well, it was working ok so I just kept doing it! The contractions kept coming hard and fast, and I remember telling DH that I didn't want to do this anymore! We called the nurse and told her to get the epidural ready, and she sped up the drip on my bag of fluids, too. I had to go to the bathroom but was absolutely dreading walking over there.. so finally I built up the courage to stand up and move. We stopped at least twice in the 6 feet or so to the bathroom and I told DH how to push on my lower back when the contraction hit. I went to the bathroom and it actually felt surprisingly good to just sit on the toilet, so I sat there for a minute.. then another contraction hit and it didn't feel good AT ALL so I decided to move to the bed and lay on my side so DH could still push on my back (since it REALLY helped the pain!).

We VERY SLOWLY made our way back to the bed, stopping at every contraction. I managed to crawl into bed on my left side and they told me I should work on sitting up the other way as the epidural would be there soon. I got hit by two MASSIVE and extremely painful contractions that left me crying and hanging on to the side rail of the bed - and then I felt my water break. I remember saying, "My water just broke - does this mean it's too late for the epidural??" and the nurse responded, "Oh no, honey, you've still got plenty of ti-..." and then I felt her crowning and said, "No, she's coming out RIGHT NOW!!" The nurse was like "are you serious?? Don't push! Don't push!" and I said, "I'm NOT PUSHING but she's coming OUT NOW!!" and DH was hitting the on-call button, there was some kind of "staff emergency" code being paged over the intercom - it was insane. The nurse literally ran over to the bed and caught Evelyn on her way out, while I was still laying on my side trying not to push! LOL! She was born at 1:30PM, only 3 hours after checking into the hospital and TWO MINUTES after my water broke! The best part was my old OB walking in to deliver the placenta and saying, "I missed it?!? No way, I'm taking credit for this one, too!" hehe.

I can't believe how fast it all went, and the fact that I had NO tears, and not a single stitch! Recovery has been going pretty well. She is a little peanut (7lb 2oz), but she got the hang of nursing right away, and so far seems to be a pretty calm and content baby.. really hoping it stays that way! I have no need to experience a colicky baby again!

Lily is doing pretty well with the transition. she LOVES her little sister, and always wants to help take care of her.. but there have also definitely been some moments. She is sick of the baby getting attention and sometimes starts pushing boundaries just to see if we'll give in to her, or pay her more attention. So far we've been trying to make a lot of special time for just Lily and Daddy, or Lily and Mommy.. or fun things like a family walk, and that's helping. I think it will keep getting better and better, but there's an adjustment period for sure!

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