Killian Athena's Birth story

On December 23 at 39 weeks 5 days (or 39 weeks 2 days according to the doctor), around 9pm, I fell and hit my ribs (right below the bra line under my arm) on the dishwasher. (I hit hard enough to flatten out the wheels on the front of the lower basket, though my nephew was able to straighten them out later.) The baby continued moving just fine, but I started having contractions with varying lengths, strengths, and times between. Those continued throughout the night and through the next day. In the afternoon, when I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment (at which I dilated to a 2) they started to subside, and then in the evening they picked up and started coming stronger and more regularly. We got the kids' bags packed and I got in the shower to see if that changed anything (other changes in activity had not). While I was in the shower, I decided we definitely needed to go in to the hospital. My husband took the kids to friends' houses (we decided to split the five of them between two households.) He came home and picked me up and we arrived at the hospital about 10 pm. Active labor had started at approximately 7pm. At the hospital, I was having consistent contractions coming  between 2 and 3 minutes apart. But I was only dilated to a 3. I was admitted, and contractions continued. I was hooked up to an IV in order to receive antibiotics for GBS. By the end of my labor, I had received 5 complete boluses of Penicillin by the end of my labor--which led to me throwing up three different times. By midnight, I had only dilated to around a 5 or 6. My contractions continued getting progressively more painful. I got up and moved around as much as possible, including sitting on the toilet and leaning on my husband while standing. Our room was nice and big, so I felt comfortable just walking around the room instead of walking the hall. About 5am, my water broke while I was on the toilet. Around mid-morning, I had dilated to an 8, but soon after, labor started to slow down. I was becoming exhausted. I kept falling asleep between contractions, but that also meant I was in a position that wasn't optimal for laboring. Shortly after noon, I asked to give a Peanut Ball a try, but the smallest one was too big and hurt my lower back during the next contraction I had. After getting rid of that, I almost had a back spasm and I started having horrible back pain during each contraction. (Back story is that I have had back spasm issues in the past.) I ended up laying on my side and fell asleep for about 15 minutes. When I woke up, labor had basically stalled. I was still dilated to an 8, but my contractions had stopped. The doctor found that I still had a forebag of waters and she broke it (she said the upper part of my bag probably broke initially). There was a small amount of meconium in it, but not enough to worry the doctor). We waited to see if breaking my water all the way made contractions pick up again. I did start having some, but not enough. After giving that some time, the doctor checked again and found a cervical lip. When I contracted, she stretched my cervix and held back the lip. I pushed with everything I had. I pushed about four times each contraction for 3 contractions. But on the last one, her head was seen so so I gave multiple extra pushes after the contraction ended and pushed her out. She was healthy and started nursing almost immediately. I had a nurse yell no at me as I removed the blanket that had been placed on my chest and when I stopped them from wiping her down. I wanted immediate skin to skin and I made sure we got it. She  weighed 8 lbs 15 oz, and was 22 inches long. The nurses did monitor her blood sugar during the night because "big babies" tend to have insulin issues according to the nurses. She does not. I started bleeding heavily, so I was given Methergine and a pitocin drip, and everything is great now. We were released from the hospital about 26 1/2 hours after the birth. (Coincidentally, that's how long labor with my oldest lasted. This labor was about 21 1/2 hours. I had a cervical lip with both.)