Caleb's Delivery Story!

I worked my last shift on Saturday and complained the whole time that he was never going to come out. I woke up on Sunday morning at 8:00am and was having regular contractions every 2-3 minutes. They were not very painful but were very regular. I had done that before in the last week so I didn't think too much of it. I was also really tired to I decided to skip church. I went to lunch at my mom's like usual around noon. I was still having regular contractions some of which were a little painful. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to the hosiptal because I didn't want to get sent home. After another hour of contractions I was a little worried that since this was my second baby I might be dilating faster than I thought. So we went to the hospital...and I was dilated to 3cm. They watched me for about an hour on the monitor. At first the contractions spaced out to every 6-8 minutes then they picked back up to every 3-4 minutes. She checked me again and I was almost 4cm. She said I could walk for an hour and see what happened and I decided that was better than being sent home so off I went. I had some really good contractions while I was walking and Mondo caught pieces of the Cowboy game when we passed the TV (I let him finish the last minute of the game and walked alone). After my hour the contractions were harder and brought some tears to my eyes. She checked me and I was 4cm. Yea!!! I was admitted at 4pm. My contractions spaced back out so they broke my water. I had some good contractions after that and dilated to 5cm. Then they decided they weren't strong enough and I would go faster with a little pitocin. That's when I decided I needed an epidural. The dr came right in and did it on the first try (not like the 4 tries with Ethan). It was wonderful. An hour later I was dilated 8-9cm. At 9:15pm I was 10cm 100% effaced and +2 station. I started pushing at 9:25 with the nurse, 9:30 with the doctor and delivered at 9:35pm. I didn't feel a thing the whole time. It was wonderful. Mondo did a great job coaching me with pushing and was very involved the whole time. Caleb came out screaming and didn't need any help getting his start in the world. He breastfed really well about 30 minutes after he was born so that was a relief. Caleb's labor and delivery happened exactly how Ethan's did. Except Ethan's involved a lot more pain and pushing but the way I was triaged, admitted, and dilated was exactly the same. Very weird. More updates with pictures to come!