On Tuesday May 17th at about 3:30am I woke up with some pain. I thought I just needed to pee so I got up and went to the bathroom and then got back in bed. The pain went away, but a while later it came back. This happened for about an hour before I started keeping track on my phone. At 5am I woke up Mike because I noticed the pain was occuring about every 5-15 minutes. Mike was supposed to leave for work at 5:45am, but I asked him to call off since I was in a bit of pain by this point. I continued to keep track and called my mom to tell her that I might be in labor so stay by the phone. (She would be watching the kids) By 7am when we took Marley to school, the pain, which I now realized was contractions, was about 5-10 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. We took Marley to school and came home to rest. I took a nap around 11am and the contractions let up a bit, but once I got up and moving they picked back up again. Around 1pm we went to lunch at Culver's and while there we decided we would head to the hospital since the baby wasn't moving as much after I had some food in me like it normally does. We dropped Mason off at my moms and headed to the hospital. We arrived at 2:30pm and I was dilated to 4. They didn't admit me, but kept me for a few hours to see if I made any progress. The nurse basically said she didn't think I was going anywhere since I was having regular contractions and was dilated. At 7pm they checked me again and I was dilated 4 1/2 cm. They said I could stay or I could go home and get some rest and come back when the pain increases. We decided to leave, go to my moms to see the kids, and go let the dog out and get some rest. By the time we got to my moms (about 5 minutes from the hospital) I was in a lot more pain. It was almost as if the contractions picked up as soon as I walked out the hospital door. We stayed at my moms for a little bit to tell the kids good night and ate some dinner. We then headed towards home to let the dog out. We weren't even halfway home when the contractions became even stronger. Mike was ready to just head right back to the hospital, but I talked him into coming home. We got home and I headed upstairs and into the shower. That helped a little bit, but not enough. I tried to lay down in bed, but that didn't help either and we both decided to quickly head to the hospital which is a 30 minute drive from our house. Mike was driving about 90mph the entire way and by 10:30pm we were back at the hospital. I really think he thought I was going to have a baby in the van. From the parking lot to the 4th floor of the hospital I had to stop 4 times because of contractions. At 11pm I was back in labor and delivery and was dilated to 7cm! It was official, I was having a baby! Since I was going for a VBAC my doctor and midwife arrived and had to stay there the entire time until I delivered. I asked for an epidural and the nurses said several times they didn't know if I would have enough time to get one because they had to take blood and wait for the results before I could get one. HOLY COW! Was it happening that quickly?! They did my labs and must of rushed them because by midnight I was getting my epidural.
Wednesday the 18th at 12am I got my epidural and fell asleep. At 2am in my sleep my water broke. I must of been dreaming there was a nurse in the room with us because I yelled out 'my water broke!', but it was just Mike and I in there so he went to get a nurse to let them know. She came in and checked me and I was dilated to 9cm at this point. I fell back asleep for a bit until I woke up feeling some pressure. It was about 5am now and the nurse had me start pushing while waiting for my dr to come in the room. Pushing on my back wasn't making much progress so we decided to take a half hour break and let my body and the contractions do their thing. At 5:30ish I started pushing again, this time on my side. I was making progress with each contraction but the midwife said she thought the babies head was stuck on my pelvic bone. At about 6:30 my doctor came in to use the vacuum. Again, since I was going for a VBAC, they only allow the vacuum to be used for 6 contractions before I would have to go for a c-section. Yah, that wasn't going to happen. I was determined to get this baby out! At 6:45am on Wednesday May 18th, Maxton Randall was born. He weighed 9lb and 9 oz and was 22 inches. He was placed directly on my chest and stayed there for the next 2 hours. It was awesome! I can not believe I had a VBAC and I can't believe that I went into labor on my own just 1 day after my due date. This labor and delivery was everything I wanted it to be and I am so happy with everything!
By 3pm on the 19th we were all packed up and leaving the hospital with our new baby and starting our life as a family of FIVE!!