Rayne's Birth Story

Around 5:15, I started having some contractions that woke me up. But it wasn't the first time so I wasn't getting my hopes up. I kept sleeping until 8:45. I continued having contractions but sent Travis off to help his parents move. Around 9:30 I started timing them and they seemed to be 6-8 minutes apart. They were pretty strong, too, so I started thinking maybe it was the real thing. Travis called me later in the morning and asked how I was doing. I told him that it could maybe be labor but there was no real rush. I was still waiting for some bloody show before I considered it to be labor. I made the kids lunch and Travis got home around 12:30, I think. We sat down to watch TV but I was very uncomfortable and soon later had to get up to use the bathroom. I had a tiny bit of bloody show so that pretty much convinced me. I got in the shower and told Travis to call the babysitter and the hospital. At 2:30, we started heading to the hospital and I was in a lot more pain. Got there and got checked in and they wanted to monitor me for a while in triage. Contractions were 5 minutes apart and I told them I really wanted an epidural. But the on call midwife was busy so I had to sit there and wait for her to come check me to see if they were going to admit me. Finally around 3:40 she came to check me and I was 5 cm dilated. After that, they got the okay to start an IV and begin admitting me. Still, I wasn't able to have the epidural until they got an entire bag of fluid in me. I was in so much pain and by the time I got to the room, contractions were coming every 3 minutes and EXTREMELY painful. I was really scared that they weren't going to get the epidural in before I had to push. But they showed up at 4:30 to place the epidural. By 5:00, I was feeling tons better and the midwife checked me again and I was at 8 cm. Around 7:00, I started feeling some pressure with the contractions but I was only at 8 cm still. They decided to break my water then to see if that would help speed things along and it really did. Only about 15 minutes later I was feeling like I had to push. The midwife was back to check me and said I had a small lip left on one side. She tried to hold it back while I pushed with the next contraction but it wouldn't budge. She told me to wait until I felt like I couldn't not push so I did. I told the nurse about 7:45 that I really had to push. She called the midwife but I guess she got tied up with another birth. The nurse checked me and said she couldn't feel any cervix so she called the midwife back. In the mean time, I had the hardest time not pushing. Another midwife came in about 8:00 and got all suited up. I pushed for less than 10 minutes and at 8:13 pm, Rayne Alexandra was born, weighing in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21.5 inches long. Krysta was there from the time I had the epidural until a few hours after Rayne was born. She was so happy that she was crying, which of course, made me cry too. She said "I'll never forget this day." :) I was so happy she got to be there to see her sister being born. :)