That evening Lance was feeling a bit better so we headed outside to play. Jeff used sidewalk chalk to create his interpretation of Lily.
He created two babies because the first one wasn't good enough.
After watching an episode of Mythbusters that made me laugh so hard I joked I would go into labor (since everyone had been telling us hundreds of ways to induce labor for weeks now) we went to bed. That was 10:30ish, maybe 11.
At midnight I woke up in pain, a contraction, and it finally hurt. The contraction subsided so I tried to go back to sleep but 6 minutes later another one hit. I laid in bed for about 40 minutes and realized that I wasn't going to go to sleep so getting up and doing something might help. I called my mom to warn her that labor seemed to be near and that we would like her to come over soon. I got up took a shower, got dressed, and packed up all the things we needed for the hospital. I couldn't believe I was in labor. We then watched a Nova special on tv that we had recorded, not a great way to pass the time, considering every 6 minutes I would hit the info button on the tv to check the time and all I really wanted to do was sleep, but in the wee hours of morning there isn't a lot of options on tv. We were starting to get antsy because the contractions were painful, but not increasing in frequency so we called my mom and had her come over so we could take a walk around the neighborhood. It is amazing how many people still have lights on or music playing at 2 in the morning. By 3 a.m. my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart so we got in the car to go to the hospital, we joked that we should have walked there since it is kind of across the street, but I felt weird walking down the street with my pillow. We got to the hospital and was taken to a triage room since my water hadn't broken (they are discriminator against those of us whose water doesn't break naturally). The nurse hooked me up and checked me, 1-2 cm, no progress. AHHHHH, I was disappointed. I was having painful contractions 2 to 5 minutes apart and they weren't doing anything. The doctor came in and told me that I had a weak uterus and that they wanted to give me some pain medication to see if I made any progress or if the contractions stopped. He also told me that the contractions I was having are more painful then actual labor, great all pain and no gain. I was so upset, I was really hoping for a short easy labor. "They" say the 2nd time around is easier, yeah right. They gave me morphine and told me that I wouldn't need an anti-nausea medicine with it. The morphine was HORRIBLE!! I couldn't lift my head off of the pillow, the room was spinning, I couldn't keep my eyes open, the pain was still there, I was nausea, I was clammy and sweaty, I felt worse then I did when the contractions were full strength. After two hours of me begging the nurse for something to help me feel better the doctor came back in to let me know that they would be sending me home because the contractions had slowed down to every 14 minutes, I was only 2-3 cms dilated, and that they would not keep me in the hospital because they already had 3 inductions and 1 c-section that day. I was so upset, there I was, 41 weeks pregnant, miserable, sleep deprived, and I had just been told that I was going to be sent home just to return in 24 hours to be induced or possibly sooner if the contractions picked up and made more progress. The nurse did ask if I wanted to leave right then or if I wanted to wait until the morphine wore off. I was shocked, here I was unable to lift my head off the pillow, they didn't allow me to walk to the bathroom by myself, but they were going to send me home? Fortunately Jeff, who was in sound mind, said that we would wait until the morphine wore off, which they said could take hours, 4 hours actually.
Then things got better.
Shift change of nurses. Our new nurse came in, way too chipper for 7 in the morning, but what I didn't know then, but I know now, is my angel had just arrived. She introduced herself and then gave me the best news I had heard in a long time, the doctor who was starting his shift at 8 am would not send me home and would most likely induce me and she believed that I was indeed in labor and it would be silly to send me home, especially since I would be back in a matter of hours. I was so happy I could have hugged her, but that morphine kept my head glued to the pillow. This was at 7:30 and the morphine was only given to me from 5-6 and I was still doped up, how people get addicted is beyond me. Dr. N came in at 8:30 and told me I had two options, he could induce me or I could go home and let my doctor induce me the next day. My response: I am 41 weeks pregnant, hadn't had any sleep, and I was not going home unless I have a baby in my arms! He asked me if I was planning on getting an epidural, I said yes, because at this point natural labor wasn't going to be happening, with no sleep, hard contractions with very slow progress, and I was about to get a dose of pitocin which I heard can be intense, I didn't want to feel anything anymore. The nurse left and shortly thereafter I needed to use the restroom and so I called for a nurse. My nurse wasn't available at the time so her supervisor came in to help, I sat up and that is when the nausea really hit. It was horrible, the nurse asked why I wasn't given anti-nauseous medicine, I told her I was told I didn't need it, she said that you always need it with morphine and left quickly to go get some. They gave me a very mild one that they give to cancer patients and it helped me feel better quickly. It didn't take away all of the yuck with morphine, but it helped tremendously and I was quite frustrated that my first nurse didn't ever think to give me this drug especially when I was crying and begging for something to take away the funk I was experiencing and she kept telling me there was nothing they could do for me. So after getting a new drug to make me feel a little better we headed over to a labor and delivery room. I should note the morphine I was given at 5 am, finally wore off by 10-10:30, that was some strong stuff. The nurse ordered the epidural and though I felt weird getting an epidural when my contractions were so far apart and not as painful as they had been or could be I went ahead and signed my life away. Fortunately my contractions started coming a little closer together by the time the doctor came in to give me the epidural so I knew that it was better than sticking it out till things got worse. I did have a painful contraction right when the anesthesiologist was putting in the needle so it was really hard to hold still, but Jeff and the nurse were very supportive and I though crying was able to hold still. I was terrified the whole time, it is scary getting a needle in your back, but the anesthesiologist said that he loved skinny people like me because it makes the process easy to do because he can see/feel where everything needs to go and he told me that I had a great backbone for the epidural. So my back was made for getting the epidural, what a trait to have, too bad my body doesn't seem that great on making progress in labor on its own. When I first got my epidural and the nurse was monitoring my blood pressure I had a bit of a scare when I realized I was having a hard time swallowing, the epidural was affecting my ability to swallow. Then I realized that my arms were also kind of tingly and that the epidural was working a little higher than it should. Fortunately the nurse was there and she had me sit up a bit more and I began to function normally again, it was quite weird to have to really think in order to swallow. Shortly after getting the epidural Jeff curled up and went to sleep. I wanted to sleep and was kind of out of it because of the Benadryl to counteract the itchiness side effect of the epidural. The joke of the day, was "a drug to counter act the side effects of the drug," and we kept saying, oh you need this to counter act this and this, everything seemed to need something else to go with it. Despite being drugged up I couldn't fall completely asleep, thanks to the blood pressure cuff that went off every 15 minutes. I kept dosing off, but would jerk awake every time the cuff started checking my blood pressure or when Lily would move which would make the heart rate monitor stop beating or give feedback which was really annoying. I don't remember Lance being so active when I was in labor, or the last few weeks for that matter, but Lily was moving and grooving. I was extremely tired, but couldn't sleep, it was hard watching Jeff snooze away. At some point, I think around noon or 1 o'clock, the doctor came in to break my water and check for dilation. I was 5 cm, slow going, my expectations were out of whack, since I had been in "labor" for 12 hours or so and I was only 5 cm, what ever happened to 2nd babies arriving faster than first ones???? Well the doctor didn't need to break my water with that contraption they have (the knitting needle thing) because he was able to break the bulge that was there with his hand while checking my dilation. Once again, water breakage was nothing really, her head was so low that there isn't the gush that some people describe. I f watching Jeff sleep was hard, watching him eat was even harder. My mom stopped by and brought him food which he enjoyed while I watched on with my stomach grumbling, I had not eaten since 6:30 the night before and I was on 18 hours with no food and really wanted to eat. After lunch Jeff went back to sleep and I had the nurse sneak over and grab my camera for me so I could get the picture of him sleeping away with a big bag of snacks beside him.
I tease him that he was the oh so supportive labor partner who slept away the afternoon. When the Benadryl wore off I tried watching television, but wouldn't you know there was NOTHING decent or interesting on. I was bored and Jeff was out cold so I didn't have anyone to talk to. My nurse and I talked for awhile, but I felt bad having her entertain me so I called a couple of friends and my mom and complained about my boredom and how frustrated I was that Jeff was out cold and I could only sleep for 10 minutes at a time. At one point I complained to the nurse that my feet felt really fat and that I was worried that they were really swollen. She checked my feet and said that my legs and feet looked alright and I was unable to convince her otherwise. At 3:30 the nurse said she was going to check my dilation and she believed I was probably fully dilated. Jeff and I didn't believe her and we all took a guess at to my dilation. I thought a 7, Jeff an 8, but the nurse was right I was fully dilated. She then said she was going to wait until 4 and then we would start pushing, she wanted the baby to descend on her own. More waiting, I was once again frustrated, this process was so long. The nurse set everything up and we got ready for Lily. We started pushing around 4 and got easily frustrated. I am noticing a theme of frustration here with this labor. The nurse thought it would only take 10 minutes, but it took a bit longer then that. I asked to see the mirror in hopes that my pushing would be more effective, but it also brought even more frustration, seeing the head and then seeing it disappear was hard and I started crying because I just wanted this to be over. The nurse was very encouraging, Jeff not so much. After 15 minutes Jeff began to complain that it was hard to hold up my leg while I was pushing and he was tired, I could have hit him at that point and I am sure I gave him an evil look. I was shocked that he had the nerve to complain about being tired after he slept for at least 3 hours, he had lunch to eat, and all he had to do was hold up my leg, it wasn't like he had to push a watermelon out!!!! Also, I was finally able to prove that my legs and feet were indeed swollen when I left imprints on my legs after a pushing episode. My legs felt so weird because I could feel them with my hands, but I couldn't feel my hands on my legs, such a weird sensation. Sometime after 4:30 we geared up for another contraction and I pushed with all my might, in fact, I pushed a little to hard and Lily's head was almost completely out, not exactly what the nurse had hoped for, she just wanted the head past the pelvic bone, not out. One other thing that was strange is after each series of contractions that I would push we would see the head and the immediately afterwards Lily would kick my in the ribs, she was still wiggling around happily inside. She also moved around so much the nurse had to keep adjusting the heart rate monitor, how that girl had room to move is beyond me. I was starting to think she was really small to be able to move so much, I was very wrong in my assumption. The next couple of minutes were quite chaotic. The nurse had been doing something on the computer so she only had one glove on, that gloved hand held Lily inside, I helped her put on her other glove, Jeff hit the nurse call button, the nurse asked for the doctor and back up immediately, and fortunately everyone came in quickly, if the doctor had been busy the nurse would have ended up delivering the baby. The doctor was a little peeved that the bed was not ready to go, but my nurse explained how I had pushed a little too hard and we weren't prepared for Lily to practically make her entrance on that last push. Two other nurses got the bed ready, the nurse released the head, the doctor pulled Lily out and put her on me, she started slipping off so I quickly grabbed her, it was crazy a frenzy because everyone was trying to work around each other. The doctor pulled her out and then ran around to my side to suction and then back around to deal with the placenta, I really had him moving around, which was totally different then when I delivered Lance when the doctor was in the room for 18 minutes before Lance was born and sat on a stool. I was a little freaked out because she wasn't breathing yet and was so purple, but as I was wiping her off the doctor suctioned her and got her crying, yes I was dealing with the baby because the nurses were still trying to get themselves together. Jeff was too funny, because everything happened so fast I got baby junk (vernix the right term? the white covering on the baby) and blood all over my arm, he was grossed out and kept pointing out the yuck, but I didn't really care, I just didn't want her to fall off of me. Just like Lance she pooped on the way out which made one of the nurses anxious, but the doctor said everything was fine and wasn't a problem. Everything happened so fast. With Lance I remember the doctor suctioning Lance and getting him crying then asking me to push again to get his body out, Lily she basically fell out. I thought she was going to be smaller then Lance, but when they took her over to weigh her we discovered she was 2 ounces bigger. I kept asking the nurses if they were sure that 8 pounds 10 ounces was correct because she seemed so much smaller than Lance, but they assured me she was a big baby and that the scale was not wrong. The nurses probably thought I was crazy, but she seemed so little. Lily was born at 4:43, but I question the time because everything happened so fast and was so frantic, it didn't seem like anyone was really looking at the clock when the chaos ensued. After getting my one stitch, thank you to my wonderful nurse, for the olive oil which prevented tearing, we finally got things cleaned up, got her checked out, was able to nurse her and made it to the mother-baby room by 7:30. It was a very long day and both grandmas and Lance met us back in the room to meet Lily for the first time. Lance didn't want anything to do with me, but he loved his new baby, it was very cute. We finally got settled in and crashed. The next day was very busy, but thankful I was able to get around so much easier then I was with Lance, so despite labor being just was long and hard the recovery was a whole lot different. Lance also got to hold his baby the next day and as you can see he was quite happy to hold his baby.
Unfortunately, nursing wasn't easier and by the end of the day I was hurting and feeling quite down. Fortunately I had some really amazing nurses who were quite supportive and helpful.
Despite Lily being born Monday late afternoon we were able to be discharged Wednesday morning, it seemed so soon after her arrival, but I was extremely thankful to be out of the tiny dark hospital and to my comfy home. We were home by noon and it was so nice to be home. 
I am extremely grateful because so far Lily is quite an easy baby. She is for the most part quite content, she allows for Lance to hold her and occasionally harass her. She isn't up all night long and I pray that will continue. We have had problems nursing, but I was not so ridge this time and didn't keep going despite the pain and got help a lot sooner then I did with Lance. Things are getting better and life with two is a whole new experience and I can't wait to get into a routine. So that is my incredibly long story of Lily's birth. 16.5 long hours and one crazy half hour. Unfortunately my doctor did not get to deliver again, once again, I was a day off and this time I felt sure he would be able to, maybe next time, yeah right, I swore off babies so many times that day that I don't think I could convince Jeff to do it again, but who knows, we forget.
