20 hours of labor

Okay, I am finally finding the time while daddy is holding Abigail to write my birthing story. To all my friends that wanted to know if I made it all natural.......Beginning on August 14th and 15th I was having sporatic contractions through out the day. I knew the day was approaching, and I was hoping so before the following Monday because my doctor was going to induce me. On the morning of the 16th I started having contractions that were closer together and more consistent. My husband and I decided to go for a walk because that determines if the contractions are real and it helps the process. They began to be around 8 minutes apart. My body felt different and I knew we were going to be having a baby that day. (hopeful thinking, she decided to not come until the early morning of the 17th). Anyways...Justin and I decided to play some Yahtzee to pass the time, let me just say when a contraction comes on you lose all your train of thought...every time I had one we forget whos turn it was or how many times one of us had rolled the dice. To say the least, we did not finish one round. Justin began packing up the car and cleaning up around the house. We planned to stay at the house as long as I could take it. Around 1 in the afternoon I decided we should go to the hospital because the contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart. The pain was still tolerable. We get to the hospital, they check to see how far I had dilated. I was only had a stinkin 2! That was not good progress, but since I was overdue my doctor had me stay. When I put on the hospital gown I thought this is so crazy...I am going to birth our child today! I am going to be a parent. The whole process was nothing that I ever imagined. Majority of the time it was just Justin and I in the room. Every hour the nurse would come check me and that was about it. As the hours went by the pain became stronger, I tryed different sitting, standing, walking, and even a hot bath. I recommend a hot bath if you do not take an epidural. That is the advantage of going natural, you can walk around. The contractions became very exhausting, I eventually stopped talking to Justin and had my eyes clothes most of the time. The contractions moved into my back and that is when the pain became something I had never experienced before. Everytime it hit into my back I felt as if I was trying to crawl away from the pain but there was no where to go and any position I tryed did not help. When I decided to take the hot bath it relaxed me for a little bit until I threw up. After that I knew I was about done. It was around 11 pm at this time and this is when I started talking to Justin... :) He kept telling me I was doing great...over and over again..eventually I told him, "think of something new to say"....he told me later he was dumbfounded and did not know what else to say, then he came up with, "I am proud of you"...I told him, " I do not care if you are proud of me." haha...I told him from the beginning to not take anything personal during my labor. Also, when he kept telling me to breathe...oh buddy, that is when flames were coming out of my mouth and repeated back to him, "I AM BREATHING!" Anyways..like I said it was around 11 pm going on midnight when I said I am done, I could not bare the back pain no longer and I wanted the epidural. I was exhausted and I was stuck at an 8, who knew how long it was giong to take to get to a 10 and then I still had to push. I went in strong knowing I was not going to have a huge needle put into my spine, but once the contractions moved into my back it changed everything. Front labor is definately doable without an epidural. The docs came in I did not think twice about what they were doing, and then they had the edacity to ask me stupid questions. I could barely talk at this piont. My nurse told me I could hold onto her as tight as I needed to, and I did! They said it would only take 80-90% of the pain away...well, I believe it took 98% of the pain away. They had to tell me when a contraction was taking place, it was amazing! From then on I was able to enjoy the rest of my delivery process. My husband said he was happy because I finally was talking to him again. My doctor broke my water and just let my body work until I was to a 10. Once I was there, I FINALLY WAS ABLE TO START PUSHING!! It was around 2:00 am now. I pushed a little less than an hour. I pushed every time a contraction came on. They were going crazy when they could see all her hair. The doctor actually made a mohawk with her hair when she started coming out. haha. Once I saw her crowning all that energy I did not have came back full force for me to start pushing as hard as I could. I could not wait any longer to hold my little girl! Once I pushed her out after 20 hours of long labor they put her on my chest to hold and to feed for the first time. It truly was amazing and breathtaking. She knew exactly what to do. God is so good.
Now we are a happy family of 3, learning new things every day.