After having a few days to settle in at home, I wanted to share my birth story! Warning, this will be long. Cute baby pics at the end if you stick around

So around 5:30 am in February first, I woke up because my hips felt like they were going to explode. I stretched, thinking it was just a tight muscle. When I did, I felt/heard a loud pop in my tail bone area and had a big gush of fluid. Frankly, I just thought I peed myself. So I got up, went pee, cleaned myself up and changed my clothes and tried to lay back down. But this feeling in my hips kept getting worse. It honestly felt like when you’re super constipated and you start having back and hip pain. So I thought that’s all it was. I continued to leak fluid, but just still thought it was pee. My husband even went to work because I thought I was just constipated and peeing myself! It finally got bad enough that I had my MIL take me to the hospital. I got there around 8:30 am or so. The nurse checked and my water had broke! I was 3 cm at that time. I wanted to go all natural, and was able to for quite a while. Labor was pretty uneventful for the most part. Around 6:30 pm my nurse checked me and said I was 7 cm, so I thought we would have a baby soon! But then a few hours later, maybe 9:00 or 9:30, the doctor came in and decided to check me herself. She found that I was only actually 5 cm. They then started pretty rapidly upping my pitocin. It then got so overwhelming that I was having panic attacks with each contraction. I asked for the epidural at that point. After I got it, I took a nap for a few hours with a peanut ball between my legs. Around 1:30 am or so, my epidural started wearing off. I felt intense pressure like I needed to poop and my lower back just hurt. I had my husband get my nurse, and I was up to 9 cm, with only a small lip left on the opposite side. The nurse helped me flip to the other side and put the peanut ball between my knees again, and told me if I felt like I needed to push to get her again because I could probably push over the lip. Around 15 minutes later, the pressure in my butt was so so bad and I felt like I needed to push. My husband went and got my nurse again and she checked, and I was at a full 10 then. We had to wait maybe 10 minutes for the doctor. Once she came, we started pushing! My epidural was fully worn off at this point. I really didn’t think my husband would do well. I thought her pass out frankly. But he surprised me. He held my leg, and was coaching me through pushing with the doctor. I only pushed for 10 minutes, and she was here at 2:27 am! I was bleeding heavier than the doctor wanted and so she gave me the remainder of my pitocin and had to manually clear my uterus twice. But my baby was on my chest and crying her heart out and I was in love. She was slimy, and peed all over me but I couldn’t get enough of her. The doctor numbed me with some lidocaine and I think I ended up with maybe 6 stitches? I only had a first degree tear. She was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches. And I felt like a bad bitch when all my nurses and the doctor kept telling me how great I did as a first time mom and how I was lucky to only have a first degree tear. 🤣 Now for those cute baby pics I promised.