Austin's Arrival

Well here is how it happened. I woke up at 3:30 am on Saturday September 4th with mild contractions. Ive had these off and on for weeks so I didn't think anything about it. At 4 am I woke John up because I figured since it was a weekend he could wait through them with me. Much to my surprise at 4:30 my water broke. John was still uncertain that it had but I kept telling him trust me. Anyway, I started walking around with a towel between my legs and about 5 am we called the doctor just to see when we should go to the hospital. He said we should come down but we wanted to wait a little longer. John still didn't believe I was in labor. In fact when I hung up he said you didn't ask any specifics about your water breaking. I was a little irritated, I'm like I didn't pee in my pants, what else would it be??
So about this time I decide to eat some cereal since they told us at the hospital they won't feed you until after you deliver a baby. I had John keeping track of my contractions, they were coming pretty fast. So we finished packing the bag with our day to day toiletries and he called a taxi. Even at 5:30 we had to wait for one to get there. I was worried about going down 4 flights of stairs so we went ahead and went down and waited outside for the taxi. Good thing we did, I lost my breakfast on the sidewalk outside our condo building! My contractions were coming pretty fast so John ran down to the corner and flagged down a taxi. We told him not to drive like crazy because he wasn't coming in the next 20 minutes.
We get to the hospital about 5:45 am and we went to triage. This is where they evaluate you to see if I am actually in labor. While we are waiting John says "You aren't in labor. We will be home by dinner!" OMG I wanted to strangle him. I'm in so much pain but he always says I'm a weenie, he didn't even believe the two towels I had soaked through...
In triage I start asking for an epidural within the first 20 minutes, I was in so much pain. They checked to see how far dilated I was and I was at 6.5 cm already, but they said they didn't give epidurals in triage...UGGGGGGGG.
So we had to wait for my labor and delivery room to be ready. That was the WORST wheel chair ride of my life! I get to labor and delivery and I start in again pretty quickly, WHERE IS MY EPIDURAL. They inform me that I'm second in line and will get mine once someone else gets theirs. The meanest Kim you have EVER met came out. I was getting contractions every minute or 2 and every time I would yell WHERE IS MY EPIDURAL. Same response every time...FINALLY the anesthesiologist gets there. I have NEVER seen anyone walk so slow in my life. I couldn't believe it, I mean I'm in REAL pain here. Then she says I need to tell you the side effects and have you sign some paper work. REALLY???? Why did I sign all this electronic paperwork already?? It was all the same questions over and over, so finally we are done and she said she has to look at my chart on the computer. Then she says, well the computer is frozen. I about LOST it. I even said some explicatives. John had to leave the room and they put the epidural in. She waited until I had a contraction before the needle went in, so you can imagine how well this was going...
Anyway after I had my drugs I was normal Kim. Of course this is when the nursing staff changed! So I apologized over and over to the original nursing staff who had "mean Kim". They checked again and said I was still 6.5 cm dilated. This was about 7:30 am or so. The doctor comes in and says you still have 2-3 hours of pushing ahead of you once we hit 10 cm. This is average for most moms. I'm like OMG I'm starving because I lost my breakfast, we have a long way to go. I told him, well I already feel like I should be pushing. He was like, Oh lets check. Much to his and everyone elses surprise I was at 10 cm and so they got me set up and I started pushing. I pushed for about an hour. Austin was born at 11:05 am on September 4th. He weighed 7 lbs 9 oz. Even the doctor was shocked that he wasn't at least 8 lbs because his head was so big. I said, well he got John's head haha. Anyway John cut the chord, in one try and then they dried him off. Then they had to stitch me up because I had some tearing. We stayed in labor and delivery until about 1 pm and Austin was awake the entire time. We then went to our postpartum room. We have an AMAZING view of Lake Michigan. Austin has been the best baby. Barely cries, sleeps a lot, and we have gotten much better at breastfeeding. We are all doing well and can't wait to go home tomorrow.