Birthing Story

Baby sister was due October 4th, but we really were expecting her to come a week late like Connor did. It was better for Clark's schedule and me getting help if she come a little later.
Things were progressing though about a week or so before her due date. I passed my mucus plug and having lots of contractions off and on for two weeks. There was one specific day Clark "requested" baby sister not come, his day was slammed and rearranging things would be a pain, other than that things could be managed.
It was Monday night, September 28th. Clark fell asleep on the couch super early while watching Monday night football. I was of course up (I hate being pregnant, I can never sleep) just hanging out. About 11pm, contractions started in full swing. I was having spotting as well, so I knew baby girl was coming. I continued to let Clark sleep on the couch. I woke him up an hour later and said, hey, pretty sure I'm in labor. His response, cool, then went back to bed (yes seriously, that is exactly what happened). I went back to our room and starting timing contractions. They were painful and ramping up, about 2-5 minutes apart. When I couldn't take it anymore, I screamed for Clark. In my mind, I figured it would be awhile until she would come since Connor was a 13 hour ordeal. I didn't want to be sitting in the hospital for hours (Clark tells me about so many women, I was determined to not be one of "those" people) but wow were these contractions painful and coming fast. Clark is a little surprised I was in that much pain and said, do you want to go to the hospital??? I tell him, well we better find someone to watch Connor. By this time its about 1:30am. After a few phone calls, we got our home teacher from church to answer (click here to know what that is). His wife wasn't working at the time, so she was available.
Clark tells me I should go get in the shower. I REALLY did not want to, I could barely move before another contraction started. I tell him, why don't you check how far I'm dilated. He says no I don't have gloves, I yelled at him to do it anyways. I still didn't really think she could be coming this quickly and I'm still thinking I didn't want to go to the hospital too early. Well, I'm at a 6, so it's time to go. Clark texts my Dr. to see if she can deliver. My Dr actually started working at another facility and hospital but still had privileges at Lawrence General. Delivering where Clark worked, makes it a bit difficult. I know all of the residents, which I didn't want any of them delivering me. So it gets a bit complicated on who is available at 2 in the morning. But luckily, she wasn't working at her new hospital, so she was good to go.
By the time our friends got to our place to watch Connor, I was dying. Luckily the hospital is less than 10 minutes away. Clark is flooring it and I'm yelling. We get off the highway and get stuck behind a car, who I swear was drunk driving. Clark and I both starting yelling at the car to move.
We debated about how to enter the hospital. It's located on a huge hill and the parking lot is far away. Most woman enter through the ER, but we didn't have time for that and Clark didn't think valet ran all night. Clark decides we should go around back through the workers entrance, it's closer. That's all well and dandy, but there are stairs and still quite a distance to walk and I'm having this child. We park and as soon as I step out of the car, my water breaks (thank you for at least waiting until I was out of the car). I am beyond done and Clark is trying to drag me across the parking lot, up the stairs and to the elevator. Thankfully he at least found a wheelchair when we got to the elevator.
[Looking back, I can laugh about the situation, But I was NOT laughing then. This child is coming and I'm walking up a flight of stairs to get in the dumb hospital. Clark yells at me to stop pushing and I tell him I can't help it.]
We get to the room, my Dr arrives 5 minutes later. She's amazing and jokingly tells me thanks for washing my hair for her (I was still soaking wet from the stupid shower). She checks me and I'm at a 10 and tells me to start pushing (ya pretty sure I already was lady). Due to a bad experience with Connor, I opted not to go with an epidural or any pain killers. Boy was I regretting that decision at that moment. But I pushed for 30 minutes and out came baby girl Van Den Berghe, September 29th @ 3:03am. I didn't tear as bad this time and only had to get a few stitches. But I delivered a 7 lb 9 oz baby naturally with not even an IV. After things settled down one of the nurses says, is that a fitbit on your arm? How many calories did you burn? Well lady, since I was laying down, I got zero steps for this crap.
Recovery went WAY better this time. I went home the next day even and felt pretty good. It was a lot easier walking around and sitting was manageable. I remember with Connor thinking, every inch of my body hurts, I feel like I have run into a brick wall. As horrible as this 4 hrs was, I most likely will go natural again (granted we have another child, I'm struggling with 2!). But I'll probably go to the hospital a little sooner as well.