My birth story (long)

I was due July 28th, so I was totally not expecting to go into labor until closer to then. I woke up in the wee morning hours at like 3 am, which is normal because I had major pregnancy insomnia like the whole 9 months. I noticed after a little while the baby wasn't moving like at all. I proceeded to push on my belly, I got out of bed, took a shower, ate something... no movement. At about 4:30 I decided to wake up my 6 year old and head to the hospital to get checked out. The nurse made me drink super ice cold water, which of course woke up the baby. I didn't know that trick. So the mean old nurse, who btw only whined about me having my child in the triage than worrying about the baby... looks like she is ready to discharge me because my contractions were too irregular and the baby was moving, decides in an almost after thought to check my cervix.

She goes "you're in labor." Sorry, what? I had to call my mom at 5 am to come pick up my son. So after shift change, and what seemed like forever later I was admitted upstairs. I barely feel any contractions, and I just sat there and waited for my mom to show up and called my husband a million times. Of course he works out of town so he couldn't be there.

I opted for an epidural because I knew the pain would get worse even if it wasn't now. The anesthesiologist was amazing, I had no idea epidurals have evolved so much, even from 6 years ago. I could still move my legs and feel a little bit, I was just comfortable. The doctor came in and broke my water. I had polyhydroamniosis or however you spell it. Water was just gushing out forever, I couldn't laugh or anything without feeling like I peed myself.

A couple of hours later, the nurse tells me it's time to push. Ok, so for those who don't know, you don't just sit there and bear down the whole time until the baby comes out. You wait for a contraction then hold your legs and push for 10 second intervals. The nurse, my mom and I are all talking about food and lunch in between pushes. I don't even know how long it was, the doctor came in and told me how much hair the baby had and then we all continued to talk about food, because I was starving.

What really helped pushing the baby out was i was visualising her coming out, and the doctor coached me to take a deep breath and hold it during the push which gave me a lot more power. At 2:07pm on 7/11 I had my little princess, Ella Rae.