Birth of Quinn Alexander

So Quinn is my newest baby. This is how he was born.

Tuesday, March 20th, I woke up. Husband and I left early to go view houses for sale. We saw a lot of them and I did a lot of walking. I started to feel uncomfortable around the 3rd house. My contractions were very irregular, but they did hurt. I kept telling myself to ignore it. It was just false labor and it would go away, like all the other times it has in the past week. We got home and had lunch. I took a short nap and got an incredible urge to mow the lawn. Then I needed to do laundry. Then I needed to vaccum. Then I needed to clean Skye's bathroom. Then we went grocery shopping. By this time, I was getting grumpy with the pain from my contractions and just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. I didn't actually fall asleep until around 11pm or so.
At 1pm I woke up to a whopper of a contraction. I woke myself up going "aoooaaooooooaoohh". I shook Jon after about 3 of those and told him I thought I might be in labor and I was going to go take a bath to try to make the contractions go away. This made them worse. Much much worse. I started to not be able to think during my contractions. I still was in denial this was real. I got out around 1:30 and told Jon to wake up, that I *might* be in labor. My contractions were very intense, 4 to 5 minutes apart and lasting at least one minute. I couldn't believe that I had progressed that fast in such a short amount of time. Especially since my last labor was a full 24 hours long. I decided to call people to watch Skye. No. One. Was. Answering. I started to freak out a LOT and had to go deep down to calm myself. All this time, my contractions were getting more intense and I was getting very loud. I did "ahhhhh AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH ahhhhhhh" a lot. Threw in some "ooooh OoooooOOOOOHHHHHHHHH" too. Later, I started to do lots of wonderful swearing. Finally, I got a hold of my friend and she came to get Skye. As JOn and her were loading Skye up in the car, I had a big contraction and felt the baby move down. Then pressure. And I thought "oh my god. THis baby is going to come out NOW". So I expressed my immediate need to go. I think I kept saying it over and over. I can't remember. I got in the car and had a contraction. That sucked a lot. A lot a lot. I told Jon I couldn't have another contraction in the car. I would probably die. I still had 2 more before we got to the hospital. We arrived at 3:30am. Jon parked and I got out as fast as I could, racing my own contraction. I tried to hobble as fast as I could to the entrance and then a room. I didn't make it to a room before another contraction hit and I had to lean on the wall. A few nurses saw me (and the whole place heard me I'm sure) and right away directed me to the nearest delivery room. I was asked to pee in a cup. I did so and found lots of mucus and blood in my underwear. I knew this baby was coming soon.
My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 3 centuries and I had almost no time to compose myself between them. TRANSISSION! I got louder here. I got to the bed somehow. They took my vitals and all that garbage. I wanted to punch them in their throats. I was pretty polite though. All I could think was "STOP TOUCHING ME". Luckily I was too busy roaring to say anything like that, and in between contrations I was too busy thinking "no epidural no epidural no epidural" to choke anyone. I did want Jon to push on me. I kept thinking I wanted him to push my back like he was trying to break it. That helped a bit. I was checked a few contractions after getting in the bed and found to be 100% effaced and 8cm dilated. THe nurse started to say I had a bulgy bag and she wanted to break it but I think I changed her mind when I informed her that I had group B strep. At this point I couldn't be still anymore between contractions and I was squirming around a bit. Roaring. You know... Nurse number one asked if I wanted an epidural. My wonderful husband said No ( love!) and I said no I think. I can't remember. Nurse number two comes in and sees me about to spontaneously combust and asks if I want an epidural. I was so damn mad at this point. Seriously, if I wasn't so busy trying to survive, I would have killed someone. They need to not ask women that. Just assume they want to go natural. Because you have no idea how tempting and delicious that epidural sounded. I had to chant to myself that I didn't need it. And I wanted it. Soooooooo bad. Most women would cave. It's like double chocolate brownies being held by a very muscular man who loves to tell you how awesome you are. That's what an epidural sounds like when you are 8 cm dilated and your contractions are trying to eat you.
Anyway, a few contractions later, my water broke. During a contraction, I felt a pop and a warm water fall. And I knew. I just knew that the next one was going to kill me. And..........it was the most intense sensation I have ever felt in my life. I can't even describe it. I started to breath way too fast. I was getting really scared. 3 or so of those and the automatic pushing started. I wasn't pushing. My BODY was doing it on it's own. I started saying "I think I need to push. I'm pushing I'M PUSHING!!!!!" They told me I coulndn't. Everyone in there was telling me not to push. To breath. To breath? It was horrible. With all the contractions, all the pain, the baby coming out, everything else, the absolute worse part was when I had to writhe in the bed and not push. I HAD to push. I think I endured 2 or 3 contractions like that and my CNM showed up. She checked me and, YEP, I was 10 cm and ready to push. All the pain went away. It was like bliss. It was so amazing. I don't know how to describe. This is what I wanted to do. My body was happy to do it too. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes and Quinn crowned. I felt that burning. My nurse midwife told me to push past the pain and not stop. There was no way I *could* have stopped. I had to push no matter what it felt like. It was really painful, but it was so short. I did a high pitched screech/scream that probably terrified all the early labor women. But then his head was out. She checked his neck for the cord. There was none. So I screech/screamed again and felt his weight slide out of me. It felt so good. Then I immediately got my slimy little boy placed on my chest and I just touched him and talked to him and smelled him. Born at 4:25am. Totally worth all I went through. No doubt. They asked if they could clean and weigh him. I of course said no. NO. Way.
 I tore a little, but didn't feel it. women are scared of that part. You seriously cannot feel it. Just the burning "ring of fire", and that's not even that bad. Just because it lasts 3 seconds. Then you get your baby. :)
He nursed well right away and is doing well still. He likes the boobie.

My whole labor, from start to finish, lasted 3.5 hours. Super duper intense. I almost had him at home.