Birthing Story

Well, I've been asked about Gracie's birth, so here's the story-without the gory details.
I was hoping to have her last Friday, as it was my doctor's on call night. When that didn't happen, I decided that I was going to spend Saturday vigorously cleaning the apartment. I had heard that cleaning can sometimes lead to labor, and I figured worst case scenario I'd have a clean home. Unfortunately, the next morning I woke up with the beginning of a horrible cold. I was feeling weak and coughing a lot, so I took the cleaning a bit easier than intended. I'd clean something-maybe the tub, then take a break and go back to it. By evening I was exhausted, and vegged out in front of the t.v., disappointed to still be pregnant. As I set my alarm for church, Brian asked if I really wanted to go the next morning. He was worried that I was overdoing it and said maybe we should stay home. I told him we'd see how we felt in the morning and went to bed.
The next morning the alarm went off at 9:30, and I got up feeling much better. As I walked to the bathroom, I realized the insides of my thighs were damp. Odd. I went back to the bed wondering if my water had broken. Nothing on the bed, but I stepped in a little puddle. I was bewildered so I woke up Brian and as we were wondering together if this was enough fluid to be my water I suddenly felt a big gush. Well, that answers that. I called the hospital and they told me to come in right away so we headed out.
Once at the hospital, I was put on an IV and fetal monitors that recorded my contractions and Gracie's heartbeat. They kept loosing her heartbeat whenever I'd move, to they ended up taking those off and putting an internal monitor on the baby's head-I now couldn't move out of bed and it was only around 11 a.m. I was having contractions, but they weren't intense enough for me to feel them at all. The nurse was entertained that I couldn't feel them. She'd come in and ask how I was doing and I'd just shrug and say I can't feel anything. She'd look at the monitor and tell me the contractions were at 60-70 on the intensity scale (out of about 100). By three o'clock I started to feel them, and got on the birthing ball (an exercise ball, it helps to rock) Brian sat by me and helped me relax through contractions for a while and I finally asked for some medicine around four. Unfortunately, it takes a long time before they put an epidural in. I had to wait for a bag of fluids to go through the IV and then the anesthesiologist came in to put the pain to rest. By the time it was in, I had been at a level 10 (pain tolerance scale) for about a half hour. Ahh, the bliss once it took effect. I couldn't feel anything from the top of my belly down.
A few hours later the nurse told me it was time to push. After about 50 minutes of pushing I was pretty spent and the nurse said "I don't want to scare you, but with first babies the moms usually have to push for about 3 hours." I almost cried. Luckily, ten minutes later I was told they could see the head and a couple more pushes and her head was out. I needed an episiodomy, but as she slipped out all the pain instantly was gone and replaced by tears and wonderment. They put her on my belly, and Brian and I stared at her and touched her for the first time before the nurses grabbed her and started working on her. That's when it got a little scary.
Two nurses were gathered around her, and as I watched, they looked a bit alarmed. I was only catching pieces of their conversation, but it didn't sound good. Gracie wasn't breathing right. One of them turned to me and said they were going to take her to the nursery to make sure she was breathing properly. I had tears in my eyes, so she put Grace on my chest for a few seconds and I gave her a bunch of kisses and told her I love her. Then they took her away. Brian followed, and once I was stitched up and OKed to walk, they let me go to the nursery across the hall. By then Gracie had been cleared, and Brian was finishing up washing her hair. I've never been so relieved as I was watching them. Once she was dry, they handed her to me, and- you've seen the pictures!
Thanks to my lovely cold (which I still haven't kicked) and the intensity of labor, I had gotten a fever, and so had Gracie. The nurses were able to get hers down quickly, but mine was another story. I had to stay in the hospital for another two days, and had the IV in for one of them. What a pain, going to the bathroom every half hour with the stupid IV! My stitches seem to be healing well, thanks in part to Motrin and Vicodin and it was all well worth it to have my little girl finally.