There I was sittings my the couch watching "About Time" when I felt a gush of fluid. I managed to make it to the bathroom where I had multiple gushes of fluid. Literally had my water break all over my house as I got ready. Took a quick shower and headed to the hospital. They started me on pitocin since I wasn't having contractions. I planned on sleeping but after about an hour I was starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. About 3 hours in I requested nitrous gas to use to help ease the pain of the contractions. 5 hours in the rechecked me and stretched me... I was at a 3. This caused a significant increase in the pain each contraction brought on. I requested an epidural. The anesthesiologist took about 45 minutes to get there. They took away the nitrous. She didn't start the procedure for about 30 more minutes and my pain level during contractions was becoming more and more unbearable. The delay was so long the nurse informed me she would be completing an incident report on the matter (I am a nurse at the same hospital). This same anesthesiologist stuck me FOUR times unsuccessfully for the epidural... I am not overweight she could easily feel my spine. My nurse encouraged me (whispers) to tell her to stop and to get another provider. She had the balls to ask if she could try once more. I said no. The pain you experience when an epidural is being inserted incorrectly sends chills up my spine just thinking about it. I deal with my pain in a quiet manner and this had me screaming. I again had to wait about 20 minutes for the next anesthesiologist. I immediately felt at ease because she is someone that I know from a former position in the hospital. She got the epidural in one shot. It was uncomfortable (as you would expect) but not painful at all. I was so relieved after that and was able to get some sleep. They put me on a non-rebreather because my oxygen level would drop to the low 90's when I would fall asleep. I was checked again about two hours after the epidural ordeal and was now a 5. She stretched me again and this time it was just a dull ache thanks to the epidural. I went back to sleep. Three hours later, to my surprise I was at a 10. They let me labor down for 45 minutes before the pushing began. I immediately got baby's head down with a few pushes. An hour and a half later I was still pushing (my epidural had been turned off) and the doctor asked a nurse to check my temperature. It was 103. The charge nurse kept coming in and pulling the doctor out to remind her of the protocols... They started blousing fluids, put back on the oxygen, gave me Tylenol, and started IV antibiotics. I was in and out of sleep between contractions and pushing and just felt exhausted. As hard as I pushed I couldn't get baby to get past a certain point. At this point the doctor informed me that she would have to use a vacuum to assist as baby was becoming distressed and my temp was not improving. I knew I was minutes away from a c-section and I was now feeling the entirety of the contractions and burning/tearing feeling of my vagina. Pushing with the doctor pulling the vacuum was an intense feeling. It felt like my vagina was going to rip in every direction. It took three contractions/9 pushes with the vacuum to get my baby out. He was 8lb 15oz. They took him immediately to be assessed by the NICU team. His respiratory rate was faster than what they consider normal for a newborn and his temp was 102. He was whisked off to NICU for IV antibiotics. Meanwhile I was given stadol... It was so strong I felt like I was sleeping but could still hear everyone talking around me. Luckily after 3 days in the hospital baby and I were both released and are both healthy.