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My husband and I were so excited when we found out we were pregnant with our first child. I had just a little nausea in the beginning and a pretty easy pregnancy from then on. However labor, delivery, and recovery were much more difficult than I expected. My due date came and went and I began to get pretty impatient as the days crept by. Finally, on a Saturday morning four days after my due date, I woke up with regular contractions. They weren't too bad yet and I decided to take a shower. My husband, seeing how early I had gotten up on a Saturday morning, figured I must be in labor. We timed contractions all day as they gradually got worse. My husband was ready to go to the hospital before I was - I didn't want to go too early and get sent home. At 4:00, the contractions had been five minutes apart for two hours, so we set off. Of course when we got there and I got on the monitor, the contractions slowed way down. The nurse checked me, which was very painful since my cervix was still tilted the wrong direction, and said I was only at 1cm so they sent us walking. During this time contractions became much more painful, but I didn't make any more progress, so they sent us home at 7pm. They gave me something that would help me sleep, but that was a big mistake. It made me very sleepy but really did nothing for the pain, so I would be jolted wide awake every time I had a contraction. It only made me more miserable. I started getting back labor once we got home and there was nothing I could do to manage the pain. I tried shower, breathing, massage, counterpressure, but nothing really helped. Finally at 1:00 am I told my husband we were going back and I was going to make them admit me and give me an epidural even if I was still 1cm. As it turned out, I had made it to 7cm. The nurses were great, rushing me to labor and delivery and getting me an epidural right away. I felt relief and was able to rest for several hours. My labor did start to slow down, though, and I wasn't able to start pushing until 7am. The epidural had worn off several times and they gave me refills but they never seemed to work completely, except to make my legs useless. I pushed for four hours with basically no progress. THe doctor was in and out and the nurse was often busy taking phone calls and doing who knows what else so it was really just me and my husband, who was a wonderful coach. Finally the doctor checked me and determined that the baby had her hand in a weird position and was turned the wrong way (which I already knew from the back labor). She suggested that we try using the vacuum to get her out. I would have rather not done that, but at that point I was so exhausted and the pain was too much that I would have agreed to anything. That had to give me an episiotomy to fit the vacuum in and unfortunately, I happened to look in the mirror right when she did it. I don't reccomend that - blood doesn't really bother me, but seeing so much of my own is a different story. Anyway, once they got all that set up, it was only a couple of pushes and Grace was born. She was 7 pounds, nine ounces and 20.5 inches. I didn't get to hold her right away because she had to be checked thoroughly first. She was in perfect health and beautiful. Her conehead went down right away and there was no bruising. In all, labor lasted 27 hours. When it was over I was exhausted and hungry, not to mention very sore. My tailbone was broken and that hurt for a long time after. Fortunately, I had a very supportive family that helped out while I was recovering. It was more difficult and painful than I expected, but now I have a beautiful daughter and, as they say, nothing good ever comes easily.
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