The Official Birth Story

Ok so as all my friends know I had been contracting for weeks. I already had one trip to L&D under my wing. I was sent home after laying on my left side and guzzling water for a little over an hour! I had to attend a class on Tuesday June 24 and Wednesday June 25th. All day long on the 24th I contracted every 7-11 minutes like clockwork. I even joked with a fellow employee that I would probably go into labor that night just so I would have to retake the entire class. Anyway, I went home and kept contracting but nothing ever in any type of pattern. I got up on the 25th(my Dad's birthday) and went to work to take the final test for the class, then left work and went to help at Vacation Bible School at my Church. Felt fine all day long, no contractions for the first time in weeks. I should have known something was up...LOL.. Anyway, when Randall left for work that night at 9:30 I jokingly told him "I'll call you if I go into labor". I got a not so amused look and told him I was just kidding. Well so I came in the bedroom and got on the laptop to check emails and such. Around 11:30, I had to pee, so I went to the restroom, as soon as I got back to the bed and sat down, I felt a gush. I sincerely thought I had just wet the bed..LOL...Well I decided I would do a pad test to see if I had anymore gushes. So after that test was positive, I called my best friend and asked her opinion. She agreed it was probably my water breaking. Now keep in mind I was only 34 weeks 0 days at that point. So together we decided that I should wait at least 2 hours to see if I started having contractions before calling the Dr.. Well when I started thinking about it and realized that I hadn't had my GBS testing yet, I would have to get antibiotics and the more you get the better covered the baby is. So I called Randall at work and said " I think my water just broke but I'm not calling the Dr yet". He went balistic.. He didn't think I was thinking sanely. I pleaded my case, but then he asked me ": If you weren't a nurse what would you be doing right now?" I told him "I would be at the hospital". So I hung up with him and called the Dr on call which so happened to be my Dr. I told her about my pad test and knowing me so well, she just laughed and told me to go to L&D. I arrived at L&D at 1:54am...The nurse had me change into the lovely gown, placed me on external fetal monitors and did a test to see if it was my water that had broken. It was immediately positive, so I was confined to bed and placed on clear liquids only. Keep in mind being trapped in bed was totally not in my birthplan. They kept me on the monitors all nite to see if my body would start labor naturally. Well when the Dr came in at 7:00am, I was still only dialated 1.5cm, thick, high and tight. They decided to start pitocin. YUCK... nasty, nasty drug. Makes natural labor almost impossible. I handled everything really well. I got a dose of nubain and demoral at 12:15, I was dilated to 4cm at that time. I was breathing really well and was actually able to rest fairly well until around 3:30. The nurse checked me and I was at 6cm, I caved and decided to get the epidural.(Kudos to all those that go natural with pitocin). Little did I know what I was in for. It took them four(yes 4) sticks to get my epidural in place. The first three times they hit a blood vessel, and had to start over. I have pictures of the bruises I had after that. Anyway, at 4:30 they were finally done with my epidural and I felt the worst pressure. The nurse checked me agian and I was complete and ready to push. I started pushing at 4:50 and Karli Rebekah Jones was born at 5:00 on the nose. 5lbs 6 oz 18.5" long, 12 3/4" head. Randall got to cut the cord adn held her first. I got to hold her for a split second then she was taken to NICU because of her gestational age and because she was a GFR(grunting, flaring and retracting).