She's here!

I can't believe Ashley arrived on her due date! At 2am Sunday morning, I woke up having contractions and I thought, Wow, this is it! They were 15 min apart for 2 hours and felt really strong. I thought they would start getting closer so I woke Jared up and told him... They continued over the next few hours but never got closer than 12 min. About 8 or 9 am, they stopped altogether for an hour or so, then started again, about 30 min apart. All day long they went on, erratically, just to torture me! By the evening, I was convinced I was going to have contractions for days, like I did with Olivia. They were quite painful, so the thought of this continuing with no end in sight was very depressing. About 10pm they started to get closer and more regular again. We started timing them and gradually they were about 8-10 min apart. Now I had been awake almost 24 hours and was feeling exhausted. We decided to go to bed, although I knew that would mean Jared sleeping while I laid there looking at the clock every time I had another contraction. No sooner had I walked in the bedroom and sat on the bed when another contraction came and my water broke! It was just before midnight. Despite the fact that I was really dreading labor/delivery, I was happy that all those contractions had been productive and we would definitely be going to the hospital. We called Diane and she came right over. Called the hospital to say we're on the way. Jared got there in about 12 min (normally a 20-25 min drive). We had to go through emergency but finally got up to maternity and into a room. It was so dark and quiet in the ward. A midwife brought us in and settled me on a bed, hooked me up to the monitor. I felt strange b/c I still had my clothes on and she didn't even check to see how dilated I was. Oh well. I asked about an epidural, which is supposedly an offered form of pain control (ha ha). She told me that "We try some other things first, one of which is a hot shower, bath, etc " The one who does the epidurals is on call- at home- so in the middle of the night your chances are like zero. It was clear that I was not going to be having an epidural. She went out to do something and by now my contractions were 4 min apart. She was in and out and finally I was feeling like I needed to push. Knowing that I was going to push this baby out with absolutely NO pain control was not helping the situation. I think for the first little while I wasn't really pushing very much- I was resisting it. I didn't want that baby coming out! Finally, after what seemed like forever but was apparently about an hour, I realized (I'm very bright) that the longer I resist the longer the pain will go on. I'm a genius. They had suggested I kneel on the bed with my stomach against the back of the bed (which was raised). This position actually was very good and helped alot. I turned back over to face the other way but was very upright- with my feet almost under me- like squatting. Well that did it- she said the baby was right down and was crowning. Ok, I mentally decided that this was it. I pushed and pushed, even though the midwife said at one point, "ok, take a breath" or whatever. No, this kid's coming out! Then, her head was out and they're telling me to wait again. It was probably good b/c they said it would help stretch the skin there to prevent tearing... I just wanted to close the deal. I was ready to go. So, in little steps I pushed her out and that was it. 3:08 am for me, but 4:08 on hospital's time b/c I was actually in another state (New South Wales, not Queensland). The hospital is right on the border. Anyway, I was SO glad it was over and so happy to have her. She latched right on and got down to business eating. They hardly touched her since they're midwives and very into that whole breastfeed immediately, give her right to mom and let them bond kind of thing. (Which kind of grossed me out b/c I wanted her to be all cleaned up but whatever). So now we're home and she's just beautiful. So much like Olivia and just the same size. The kids are doing great with her and I can't believe how easy the recovery has been. I have to say, if it can be attributed to the natural thing, I would do it again... but only if I knew that is what makes the difference. Now I can say I have had a C section, a VBAC with epidural and an all natural birth. I'm an expert of sorts.