Camden Brook's Burch Birth Story: Part 2

So here we, about 1:30am and enroute to the hospital.  I was excited we were finally going to meet our babe, but frustrated because I knew I wasn't really having contractions, which meant pitocin was going to be involved, and I might as well been induced.  So I knew I was likely not going to eat, so I knew I needed to stop somewhere.  From our house to the hospital there are about 7 Tim Horton's.  I never eat bagels, but a plain toasted bagel, with butter sounded good.  The 1st Tim Horton's we struck out and all they had were Jalopeno bagels.  Wow, not what I had in mind.  So we stopped at the next TH's, got my bagel and water, and continued on.  Since my water broke, I had a few random contractions, but nothing timeable or too difficult to handle.

Since we didn't take a childbirth class this time around, we were trying to remember exactly what we were suppose to do if we got to the hospital in the middle of the night.  We parked in the same area we did when we had Kenzie, and walked to the front door, only to find they were locked.  At that point the lightbulb clicked and I remembered we had to walk around to the Emergency Room.  I said to Don, man we are lucky I'm not having regular nasty contractions because this would not have gone over well!!
So after a walk through a busy ER, we got up to labor and delivery.  They asked some questions and got us into Labor and Delivery Room #9.  The nurse I had apologized for our wait, since she had a mom come in at 7cm, and things were moving.  I said...oh lucky her!!  Anyway, about 2:00am I had a resident come in and check if my water did in fact break, while my nurse got everything else started. It undoubtably did, and I was also 4cm dilated and 50% effaced.  My nurse asked if I was feeling any of the contractions that were on the monitor.  They were uncomfortable, but not manageable.  The plan was to start Pit at 5:30-6 if they didn't come a little stronger on their own.
So fast forward to just about 4:00am. HOLY CONTRACTIONS.  I was fading fast.  In fact those were the exact words I said to my nurse.  She had suggested sleeping, since she knew I wanted to do this drug-free.  I told Donny I couldn't do it. I was weak.  I had only been there 2 hours and was already begging for the epidural (very similar to Kenz).  Before calling the anesthesiologist, they were waiting on the results of my bloodwork to see if my platelets were high enough for an epidural.  And then..it happened!  Remember when I had hoped my platelets were too low for an epidural?  Well they were too low.  So now I had to wait for them to be hand counted to determine a more accurate reading.  In the mean time, I was dying.  And my nurse realized it and suggested they check to see what was happen.  It was 4:10am and I was 7cm.  7cm--what!!  Maybe I can do this drug free.  My nurse also said, it looked like I'd be having a drug free delivery after all.  So 5 minutes past..5 minutes of doing the ridiculous breathing you see in the movies, and I was feeling a ton of pressure.  They checked, and I was 9cm.  Things started to get hectic.  My nurse and Don were helping me with breathing, rubbing my back, and laying cold washcloths on my head.  They had called Dr. Rush, but were calling for a Dr. Allen (no clue who this is), with the thought that Dr. Rush wasn't going to make it at this point.
The pain and pressure was crazy.  So they got things all set up, Dr. Rush made it and joked about speeding, and 15 minutes and 5 contractions later...he was out!!  The hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but he was here, he was perfect, and the labor and delivery was perfect!!
Camden Brooks was born at 4:44am, just about 3 hours after arriving to the hospital. I still can't believe it all happened so fast and I did it epidural free!  He was a bouncing 9lbs 3oz, 22 1/4in long, and 14in head circumference.  All his stats earned him the nickname "Buba", from Dr. Rush.  We are in love, and so so blessed!