Luke's Birth Story *Gory Detail Warning*

Contractions woke me up at 2am December 20th, 2011 (my due date).  I knew right away it was the real thing even though I had thought that several times, including exactly a week before when I went to the hospital thinking I may be in labor.  I waited about a half hour before I woke Jason up, then waited another half hour before we called my mother in law to come over to watch Emma.  We got to the hospital about 3:40am.  By then the contractions were getting to the point that I really didn't want to do this whole baby thing anymore.  When the triage nurse checked me I was at 6 cm already; just a few days before I was at 3 cm (which I had been for weeks).  At some point soon after that, the labor and delivery nurse came and wheeled me up to the delivery room.  I want to say it was close to 5am by then, and I was waiting for my mom to get there and for my damn epidural.  The contractions were getting so bad that I was crying and getting extremely nauseous.  The wonderful nurse was so patient with my ridiculous freaking out, and she also got the anesthesiologist to come give the the epidural before they even did my blood work because I was freaking out so much.  I was sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna.  That wonderful man came and did my epidural, and while he was I started feeling an immense amount of pressure, though I did not tell the nurse yet in fear they would start having my push before I was good and numb.  It took some time but the epidural took effect.  The good thing was it didn't numb me as much as the one I had with Emma, so I could still feel the pressure (even though at the time that freaked me out).  When they checked me again I was 10 cm already!  My water hadn't broken yet, so the nurse said that the dr. could come in and break it and I could start pushing.  I asked if we could please wait for my mom, and luckily she got there a few minutes later.  My dr. wasn't on call, but the dr. that was, was really nice.  The dr. broke my water and I pushed through 3 contractions and he was born, it took like 5 minutes!  He came so quick that during the last contraction they made me stop pushing because his head was out and the dr. didn't have her 2nd glove on yet.  He came so quickly I was shocked.  That's the thing I've already learned; having one child prepares you in no way for your next child.