Isaac's Birth Story

Well, it's been almost 6 weeks since Isaac was born, so I guess it's time for us to post his birth story. Pics will come...they are on the other computer, so I need to get them off of it. Enjoy the story, it's rather long, so grab a cup of your favorite warm beverage and settle in for a little while.
Isaac decided to come 11 days early and sure surprised us! I had an appt with my midwife on Tuesday and we talked about natural ways to prepare like the evening primrose oil and raspberry leaf tea. Although I had read that those things could potentially induce labor, my midwife made it sound like they would be good preps for labor induction, since I was totally sure I was going to be at least a week late (more because I wasn't exactly ready). So, on Tuesday after work, I went out and got the EPO and tea and drank the tea and popped the pill in that night. Nothing happened, so I did it again on Wednesday night when I got home. And on Wednesday, I had an hour long meeting late in the day in which, for some reason we just HAD to sit in preschool chairs. I think they forgot that I was 9 months pregnant and that I am tall, so pregnant or not those chairs are not comfortable. I got out of the chair and jokingly said, "well if that's not a labor inducer, I don't know what is!" I had plans of staying home on Wednesday night and packing my hospital bag, since that hadn't been done yet, but I decided to go out to dinner with Mat and his small group instead.
We came home and went to bed and at almost exactly midnight, my water broke. I woke up wondering if it was the EPO pills bursting, but didn't remember feeling that way the night before, so I went to the bathroom and my underwear was soaked and stained a little pink. I sat there in shock, my heart racing, hardly believing it was happening. I waited a little while and more water came, so I called Mat and told him that I thought my water had broken. He shot out of bed and brought me a clean pair of underwear and I called my midwife. I moved to the living room and stood on a towel while I talked to her and we decided that we should start making our way to the hospital. I stood on my towel and told Mat what to pack in the hospital bag and then hopped in the shower. I took my time and did my hair and makeup and Mat took a shower. We got to the hospital around 1:30 and they were waiting for me.
They confirmed that my water had indeed broken and did a ultrasound to make sure the head was down. We got to our room by 2:30 or 3 and went to bed since we live close to 40 minutes away. My contractions started around 4ish and were anywhere from 6-10 minutes apart. Mat was sound asleep, so around 6 I got up and started walking and waiting for room service to open so I could get breakfast. We got breakfast and walked and I stood in the shower for about 1/2 hour. Mat studied while I paced and sat on the birthing ball. Around 10, I asked him to stop studying and start paying attention. We timed the contractions for a while and they were like 4-6 minutes apart and lasting from 50 seconds to over a minute.
Funny side note, I had a student nurse shadowing my nurse that day and she was a MAJOR rookie despite having had a baby herself 3 months ago. She came in to take my vitals in the middle of a contraction and asked me if it was ok to do everything that she did. "I'm going to take your blood pressure now. Is that ok?" "I'm going to take your temp now. Is that ok?" I was like, just get it over with, that's fine!
My midwife came in around 11:30 to see how dilated I was and I was at 5 cm. I got on the birthing ball more and sat with my midwife. We decided around noon to get into the tub to take the edge off...but the water was full of sediment and they tried to clean it like 4 times. Meanwhile, I'm just standing there, my contractions getting worse. Finally I was like forget it, I'll get back in the shower. I got in the shower and they instantly got worse. I told them I needed drugs, so we decided to go back to the room and I got a shot of something that starts with an 'N' I don't remember what it was called. They told me it would make me a little sleepy. I got the shot at 12:40 and instantly I started feeling the need to push during my contractions. My mom tells the story about how she didn't make a peep during labor, and I just can't imagine that. I was laying there moaning thinking how disappointed she'll be to hear how vocal I was...but whatever. I started real pushes shortly after that. Thinking at one point he was stuck and laying there thinking it was the most surreal experience I had ever had. My student nurse was holding one leg and was holding it so limply I got mad and yelled at her and told Mat to take my leg. She stood back and watched with her professor. Isaac was born at 1:35pm and weighed 6lb. 15 oz and was 19in long. They immediately placed him on my chest. I checked him at least twice to make sure he was a boy. I couldn't believe it. I was totally convinced I was having a girl for some reason. I had some tearing, so they did stitches, which at that point, just made me mad, but I survived and I am SO thankful for the whole experience. It went just as well if not better than I could have ever wanted it to be. And, although the memory of the pain wasn't instantly and still isn't completely gone, I told Mat I would do it again tomorrow if I could.