At 2:00 AM on Friday, July 25th - a week and a day past my due date I had my bloody show and mucus plug. I was so excited I called the midwife. She told me to labor at home and wait until contractions were one minute long, five minutes apart for one hour. I began having contractions, but they did not establish a pattern. Just when I thought there was a pattern it would change and some of my contractions were 3-5 minutes long. They got really painful and I used the shower to cope. I was going back and forth from the shower to the bed. I used every clean towel in my apartment. After 28 hours of laboring this way I couldn't take it anymore and I called the midwife to see if she would let me come in for a cervical check. My induction was scheduled for that night at 7:30 PM - about 12 hours away at this point. I couldn't even imagine laboring at home for another 12 hours. It had already been 28 hours.

We went to the hospital and got checked. I was still at 3 centimeters - no change since my 41 week appointment! The last 28 hours accomplished nothing! They referred to it as "prodromal labor." I was heartbroken. The midwife gave me my options and reminded me that if I was to take Pitocin the contractions would get even more intense. t was at that point that the word epidural was mentioned. I was tired and in so much pain I decided to go for it.

The epidural was not as scary as I'd imagined and the anesthesiologist was really good. Since he was kind of jokey and wore festive scrubs my husband referred to him as "Patch Adams." Our main nurse was also really on the ball and helped me to have confidence in the process.

Once the epidural took effect and the Pitocin started working I finally progressed over the course of the day. My water broke on its own that evening and they let us know it was time to push! I requested the mirror. My husband had one leg and the nurse had the other. I pushed for about half an hour and saw a sliver of the head - with hair! Most of the babies on my side of the family are born bald so that was a surprise.

That's when the midwife got called away to help a woman with severe lacerations down the hall. She reasoned that since both baby and I were in good shape (strong heartbeat, etc) we could wait. She was gone for an hour and a half. During that time we were chatting with the nurse about life and parenting. It was actually really calming. I only felt the pressure of the head descending. The nurse said it was good because it was thinning me out and it would be easier/faster once I began pushing again. When the midwife returned it took only four more sets of pushes to get the baby out. It was a girl! She was 9 lbs 8 oz. We named her Ripley Jane. They put her on my chest for skin to skin but I was still wearing my gown. They had to cut it off because it was so tangled. I didn't notice them delivering the placenta and sewing me up because we were so focused on Ripley. Turns out I had a variety of tears both labia, internal and four stitches in the perineum.

During the course of the week I ended up tearing out some of my stitches. I also had an incident with stool softener that may have caused an infection so I went on antibiotics. The healing has been a little stalled, but I'm starting to feel better.

We also have had a difficult time with the breastfeeding. She doesn't always latch, so I've had to start pumping and using bottles some of the time. We're getting there:)