I had gone into preterm labor at 32+6 so we weren't sure how far into pregnancy we would get with Olivia. Each week started to be a victory and each week I started having more and more symptoms of preeclampsia without protein and without high blood pressure. The last 4 weeks of pregnancy I put on 18lbs. Finally at my 38 week appointment I had put on 18lbs and my blood pressure was high so they did another preeclampsia screening. They called me on Friday, October 19th to let me know I had protein in my urine but until I did a 24 hour urine, the hospital wouldn't agree to start inducing me despite several days of prodromal labor and worsening preeclampsia symptoms. Sunday I dropped off my urine and went for a nonstress test and blood work. Everything had worsened over the last few days so we decided to go ahead and induce. I was already dilated to a 2 but only 60% effaced so we decided tos tart with cytotec. I got that at 2:30 on 10/21 and had to stay on the monitors for 2 hours. By 4:30 I was contracting regularly and by 6:30 my contractions had gotten a lot stronger. I decided I wanted to try for a natural birth this time so they set me up with a wireless monitor, which was kind of cool. The midwife checked me and I was 30cm and 70% effaced. We decided to go walk and see if we could get things going more after I got my first round of penicillin for group B strep. As we walked my contractions got stronger and stronger. I was able to talk through them but had to stop walking and tried squatting to help bring this baby down further since I was still at -1 station and had a bulging bag of waters. We walked for about 45 minutes and when we got back I decided i wanted to labor in the shower. It felt great on my back but started to slow my contractions down. This was about 11pm. The midwife came to check me and I was 4cm but still only 70% effaced. She felt a small dose of pitocin may help but I decided I wanted to go for another walk. We did the stairs, we did every floor of the hospital. We did the stairs again and things seemed to pick up some. We were back in my room at 12am the 22nd for my next dose of penicillin so I agreed to the tiny dose of pitocin. They started the pitocin at avout 12:40. My contractions were picking up significantly so I decided to squat through them on the floor by the hospital bed. At 1:13 my water broke and I decided I wanted an epidural because I was exhausted and really didn't think id be able to keep at it another few hours, plus at this point the contractions were so intense and the pressure was unbearable. The anesthesiologist came in about 5 minutes later and said he thought I was pushing. In retrospect I was, but I didn't realize it at the time. I still wanted the epidural but he refused until I got checked. The midwife came in and tried to get me to move to the bed but my contractions were so intense that I couldn't. She went to check me while I was squatting and I could tell she hit the babies head and she said, her head is right there! I was like, what, no! I can't do this! The nurses threw all the gear on the midwife and they were tossing gloves to everyone when at 1:31am on October 22nd, Olivia Joy was born after 3 real pushes, while squatting on a hospital floor, all natural like I wanted. Unfortunately when I stood up to move to the bed so I could deliver my placenta you could tell I was starting to hemorrhage and that Olivia wasn't able to clear her airways well. The NICU team started to work on her while I delivered my placenta so we could stop the bleeding. Olivia has been. In the NICU since then but has been doing wonderfully and may go home tomorrow. It took awhile to stop my bleeding and thankfully I didn't need a transfusion. About 5 hours after Olivia was born I finally got to see her and she was perfect, despite being so sick.