Tristan's Birth story (the long version)

My last doctors appointment was on January 17th and I was 2cm dilated.  My doctor guessed I would probably be pretty close to my due date maybe over.   Never the news you want to hear when you're miserably huge and uncomfortable.  Every day I woke up telling myself I was going to have him that day and so I did everything I could to get ready as if I were going to have him.  It was super depressing when he still wasn't there at the end of the day.  On Monday January 21st I got up and got ready for the day and at around 9am I started having really strong contractions.  I started timing them around 9:30 and they were coming every 4-7minutes.  I was so excited and thought that for sure he would be here by that night.  Keaton had work til 5pm and so I waited for him before going into the hospital to get checked.  I thought that since the contractions were so strong and I waited all day to go in I would for sure be at least dilated to 4cm (which is when they will for sure keep you and not send you home).  Keaton came and got me from my mom and dads where we left Rem to stay the night.  From there we went to our apartment where I finished packing my hospital bag (I always save that for the last minute) and then we made it to the hospital around 7pm.
They got us all set up in our room (#5) and checked me around 7:30pm.  I was only dilated to 3+ and 80% effaced. Ugh, that's exactly where I was when I went in when I had Rem and I realized that this baby was probably not going to make it here before his midnight deadline that I had ideally hoped for.  They next came in at around 9pm and checked me again.  I was now 4cm and 90% efface. So I got to stay!  My contractions were really painful which was weird because with Rem they didn't get  painful until after the doctor broke my water, but this time they were getting more and more intense every hour. After they checked me the second time I got in the jacuzzi tub to help me relax and endure the pain for a bit longer.  I did this with Rem and loved it and this time it was just the same, it helped relax me so much and made me think I would probably do pretty good doing a water birth someday...I would have opted for it this time only they don't allow it at the hospital...LAME!  Anyway...I only stayed in the jacuzzi for about 45 minutes because they wanted to get me back on the monitors to check the baby so I had to get out.  At 11pm they checked me again and I was now 5cm dilated and 100%effaced.  I realized even though things were progressing very slowly they were still progressing a lot faster than they did last time.  Around this time I was getting very sleepy and the pain was more than I wanted to deal with.  I knew that it was still going to be a while and if I was going to have any energy to push this baby out I was going to need some sleep. So I decided to get the epidural.  I told my nurses ( Judy and Whitney) I was ready for the epidural and I got the IV at midnight and the epidural by 12:30am.  I told the anesthesiologist what happened last time that it only numbed the right side of me and he said that only happens about 2% of the time so chances are I'd be okay this time....NOPE the same thing happened and only numbed the right side of me again.  But like last time the pain was less and I could handle it so I opted for him to not to do it over.  At 1:40am the on call doctor (Dr. Kirkman) broke my water and checked me and told me I was still only 5cm.  Soon after he broke my water the contractions I was feeling on my left side were SOOOOOOOOOO much more intense I was having to breath through them and I needed Keaton there right by my side so I could squeeze the heck out of his hand (which I never understood why women did that until those few hours where it really helped make me feel better!)  At 2:40am they came in to check me again and I was at 7cm. The pain of the contractions were so painful the nurses kept telling me that I should have the anesthesiologist come back to help but I told them no until about 3:30am. That's when I realized that the drugs were already through my system why was I dealing with the unnecessary pain for the remaining unknown amount of time that in the last 3 and a half hours weren't progressing.  So I told the nurses to call back the anesthesiologist to see what he suggest we could do.  He came in and said he could re-do the epidural but with my history of it only numbing my right side there was a high possibility that it still wouldn't work and I possibly have something blocking it from getting to that side of my body and also if he does it again the chances of complications such as bad headaches and so on go up dramatically. So instead he gave me feterine and it helped relieved most of the pain and completely numbed my left leg.  The only place I could feel pain was the lower left side of my stomech and now I was worried I wasn't going to be able to push because I couldn't feel anything. At 4:30am I was dilated to 8cm, and 5:30am I was dilated to 9cm at 6:30am my nurses who I really liked their shift ended and had to go home. So I got a new nurse for the last 45min and I don't remember anything about her.  At 7am my doctor who I thought was going to miss it started her shift just in time to come check on me and I was fully dilated to 10cm so they set up the room, I started pushing at 7:10am which I still didn't think anything was going to happen because I still couldn't feel anything down there but ten minutes later at 7:20am he was born and I had a sweet baby boy in my arms.
The first time I held him he turned his head and opened his mouth to nurse, so as soon as the doctors finished checking him out and gave him back to me I started to nurse him and he latched on like he'd been doing it forever!  I was so excited and so happy that he was here and he was beautiful and perfect and I wasn't pregnant anymore!! 
Being flu season and the fact the it is rampant around the valley the hospital made a rule that nobody under 14 could visit the hospital, so they wouldn't let Rem in to see us.  I was so disappointed that I couldn't see my baby girl and let her know where I am at and what I've been doing.  So I opted to go home as soon as I could which was 24 hours from the time he was born so they could do all the checks they wanted to on our new little baby Tristan.  At the time I was really upset but looking back at the photos and remembering the sweet time that just him and I had together was really special.  I still wish Rem could have at least come to see us for a bit but I know she had a really good time with her grandparents spoiling her to death and giving her loads of attention.

It's amazing the instant love you can feel for this new little baby.  I can already feel his sweet and calm personality shining through. I feel so happy and blessed that he is a part of our family and that I get to be his mommy!