Cooper - born today at 38+4 😍

Woke up at 3am to pee and when I laid back in bed my water broke with a gush of water. I woke my husband and said to call the DR while I shower. He advised us to either wait till contractions started or come in around 6am to see whether my water was actually broken. Laid back down around 3:30 and immediately knew this was the real deal as my period like cramps stayed around and didn't fade but got worse over the course of 30 minutes. I didn't feel what I thought contractions would feel like - tightening that came and went and got worse, it was like bad period cramps. At 4 we left for the hospital (a 2 minute drive) and were in a room by 4:30. The nurse confirmed my water had broken and I was 2cm dialated. She then started the long process of intake questions and monitoring while we waited for my OB to come in around 6. By the time she was done with questions I was in a pretty good amount of pain and wanted to get in the tub badly. I was in the tub from about 5:30-6:15 which helped with pain a lot while I was in there. My OB came in around 6:30 and I had progressed to 5cm! knew I wanted an epidural when the time came so a nurse came to draw my blood and start an IV....which was honestly one of the worst parts of labor. Trying to sit still while they couldn't find a vein was painful and nerve wracking. After the IV my OB asked if I wanted the epidural now as they would have to call the anesthesiologist. I said yes and waited till about 7:30 for the on call anesthesiologist to come in. At that point I was chekced again and was at 7cm!! The epidural didn't hurt and after I got it I felt no contractions or pain. Best decision ever lol. Dr said he'd be back in an hour to check m again. At 8am he was back and I was fully dialated!!!! We did a couple practice pushes - all of which I felt none of but tried super hard to push through my bottom with all my might. After 10 minutes of pushing the DR left to check another patient and the nurse continued to help me push the baby down. I pushed maybe 2 more times and the nurse yelled for the DR as the baby was right there. I pushed for 15 more minutes and Cooper was born 9:39am on 6/6/17 weighing 7lbs 3 ounces and 20 inches long. I had a 2nd degree tear but felt none of it as the epidural was heaven. FTM and labor lasted a total of 6 hours from start to finish, went as well as I could if hoped.