9.5 hours of active labor then c-section

So my little girl is 3 weeks today and here is my birth story! ************************************* My story starts Tuesday morning (11-21), 2 days before my due date. It was just my 2nd day of my maternity leave, and I wanted to let myself sleep in while I still could. My stomach was a little off (diarrhea), and I thought I was having BH contractions, but they felt a little different. The thing that was throwing me off was that they didn't hurt. I thought "if these were real contractions, I would KNOW, right??" But I already had a Drs appt scheduled for that afternoon to have a non-stress test, so I figured "well, if I'm not positive by then, then I'll just see what the Dr says." In the mean time, I used a contraction timer to see how consistent these "contractions" were. They were sporadic (14 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes apart, for about 20-40 seconds each), but they did keep coming. Still not painful. So we go to the appt, and throw the hospital bag in the car, just in case (since the Drs office and hospital are right next to each other, both 20 minutes away from home). The office messed something up when we signed in, and we ended up waiting 45 minutes before they finally took us back. In that time, the contractions started becoming more frequent. I got hooked up to the equipment for monitoring, and the contractions were 5 minutes apart, still not painful. I was 2.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced. The Dr said "yup, looks like you're in labor, you should go to the hospital now." I was like "Really? But I'm not in pain. I feel like I have another day or something?" He goes "no, I don't think so." I knew once I got to the hospital, they weren't gonna let me eat, so we went and got some food before checking in. I thought "if I'm gonna have a baby, I'm gonna need some energy!" (I hadn't eaten much that day). So we eat and then check in to the hospital. By now, FINALLY the contractions felt like contractions, and they were consistently about 2-3 minutes apart. I walked the halls for about an hour, and then had some nitrous oxide (like laughing gas) to help with the contraction pain that was starting while I sat on a birthing ball. After a while, I was told if I wanted an epidural, I could/should have it soon, so I did. The needle sucked/hurt and so did the catheter, but at least it was quick. This whole time, I was checked regularly, and was progressing nicely (2.5cm, 4cm, 6.5cm, 8cm), but my water still hadn't broken. Then the time I was checked after I was 8cm, I had not progressed for the first time, and I was told they wanted to give me pitocin. I hesitated, saying I wanted to give my body a chance to do what it was supposed to do before giving me extra medicine. 3 hours later, still at 8cm (with contractions slowing down and lessening in strength), so I agreed to the pitocin and the Dr broke my water manually. Instead of progressing, an hour later I was now 6cm again (the water/bag was opening me more, when it got broken, I went the wrong way). So the nurses had me put a giant peanut between my legs, trying to open up my hips, turning form side to side every 45 minutes. When things were going well, I went from 2.5 to 8 cm within about 7-8 hours, but once I hit 8cm, I didn't progress for 9 hours. Towards the end of that 9 hour period, during an internal and a turning over, the baby's heart rate dropped very low. Suddenly, we went from having one nurse to having 3 nurses, and an oxygen mask placed on my face. They said I needed to turn back how I was, because the baby did not like when I turned over. They sent to update the Dr. The nurse came back and said "we need to have a talk about having a c-section". I said "ok, let's do it." I felt calm, but I could see my hubby and mom starting to freak out (even though they tried to act calm). Next thing I knew, I was being rolled back for surgery. 20 minutes later, my daughter was born (on 11-22 at 12:59 pm, weighing 7lb 13 oz & 20.5 inches)... but she was blue and not breathing (I didn't realize this at the time). But we had the most amazing team in my OR, and using compressed oxygen, they got my daughter breathing within 3 minutes and then we heard her cry. She was then placed on me for 5-10 minutes before they took her for a couple of hours to be inspected by the NICU nurse and Dr. I was in recovery during that time, where I received a fundal massage every 15 minutes, something I had never heard of, but was God awful. Finally, 3 hrs and 15 minutes later, I finally was handed my baby for some skin to skin. When they placed her on me, she IMMEDIATELY lifted her head, opened her eyes, and looked directly at me. It was the most amazing thing ever. We are madly in love. She is perfect!