My water broke at 3:45 am on 10/11, my due date. Contractions started at 4:06 am. I called the midwife and was advised to labor at home for awhile but if they didn't progress I'd have to come in soon due to my l water breaking prematurely. My contractions regulated to every 5 minutes and lasted a minute long by 8:30 am so we left for the hospital at 9:45 am. We arrived at 10:15 where I was checked in triage to make sure my water had broken, which it had. They didn't check progress at that point because they wanted to avoid possibility of infection through multiple cervical checks. Once admitted at 11, my contractions were 5 minutes apart but only 1 cm dilated. At 2:30 pm, I was checked again and was only 2 cm dilated so we started pitocin to bring on stronger contractions. I wanted a natural labor, but after vomiting while in the jacuzzi and finding no relief, I opted for the epidural which I received at 6:15 pm. By 8 pm I was only 4 cm dilated but 100% effaced. The epidural was a God send and I had no paid from it being administered. It started to wear off by 12 am, so they gave me more medicine through the epidural. By 2:30 am I was 8 cm dilated. Around 4 am, the baby's heart rate was starting to rise because I had developed a fever of 101. They instantly gave me Tylenol and antibiotics. I was still only 9 cm. I was able to get some sleep and sweat out the fever and the baby's heart rate normalized. At around 5, I was 10 cm and started pushing. My heart rate jumped to 180 during pushing. After almost 2 hours, baby was not progressing far enough on his own so we opted for the vavuum. Once the vacuum was applied, he was out on that 3rd push. Born 6:58 am on 10/12 after 27 hours of labor. This was my first and I had a 3rd degree tear which caused the need for a perineum muscle repair. His Apgar score was 9, but due to my fever and not being on antibiotics long enough, he had a fever of 102.4 when born. They let me hold him briefly and then took him to the special care nursery for blood work and evaluation. He ended up on antibiotics for 3 days but remained with me in the hospital room. We go home tonight!