James Frederick Garcia was born August 1 at 1:03 am! 7lbs 11oz, 19 inches

I had been having BH more frequently the last couple days, and they had been getting closer together, maybe 45 min-1 hr apart.

July 31 at around 1 am, I experienced a REAL contraction...when they tell you "you'll know the difference", they aren't kidding! It was like the WORST cramps of all time. After the second one, I told DH "omg these SUCK!" Lol. Over about 2-3 hrs, they progressed quickly, and by the time we decided to go to the hospital they were about 4 minutes apart. They admitted me right away, and by the time they hooked me up to monitoring they were getting 2-3 minutes apart. But, alas, I was fully effaced but not dilated yet. They let me progress another hour, and I was at 4cm! I said to the doc "thank god"! It would still be about 45 min before the NA could come give me the epidural, but man I felt so much better after that.

Doc broke my water, and I progressed very quickly after that...to a point. Once I hit 6 cm, he started having decels each time I had a contraction. Doc kept flipping me back and forth, trying to find a happy position for him. I made it to 8.5cm and +1 position before he decided he wasn't going to come any further! They started a very low dose pitocin to see if that would help. But, then he started having decels AFTER each contraction. By this time, I had been at 8.5 for about 4 hours, and had been in labor for 23 hrs. I was exhausted.

Due to the decels, and the fact that even if he moved down, I would still have to muster the energy to GIVE BIRTH (hah!), we decided that c-section was our best option. 40 minutes later, became screaming into the world!