Luke's birth story

I am posting about Luke's birth story first and then I will post pics as soon as I can. I've been a bit busy:) Well,on Monday, the 8th, I had my 39 week doctor's appointment and was 3 cm dilated. That afternoon and into the evening, I was having contractions like every 4 to 5 minutes apart. I finally went to the hospital at around 11:00. They monitored me for 3hrs. and decided I was not progressing and sent me home. I was pretty upset b/c I didn't want to have to come back again. These contractions I was having were not painful, and they told me to come back when I couldn't talk through them. So, we went home.

The next day, I felt fine all day, and was still having the same contractions off and on the whole day but was never painful. Then, about 4:30 or 5:00 that afternoon, all of a sudden, I had the first real strong contraction. They kept getting stronger, and stronger, and I told Mark, this is it and we need to clean up and pack Wesley's stuff and go. Wesley was staying at some friend's house from church. He spent the night with them, his first night away from us, and did real good. Anyway, we got to the hospital at about 6:30. I was in such pain I was crying, which I do not do often. I wanted an epidural now and was upset b/c they had to take me to a triage room first to monitor me. When the nurse checked me and told me I was 6cm dilated. I about freaked out b/c I knew it went much slower with Wesley. I kept asking for an epidural and she kept telling me I had to have blood work done, and some other stuff first, yadayadayada. I just wanted to die, for real. After asking them about 50 times in a 30 minute period for an epidural, they finally wheeled me, in the bed, to labor and delivery. I had to have a full bag of IV fluid first, and the results back from the blood work before I could have it done. Oh, and I couldn't be any more than 9cm dilated. She checked like 3 more times and each time I had dilated more. Some of the nurses and one doctor said it was really pointless that I get the epidural b/c of how far along I was but I did not care. So, finally the anestheologist came in at about 8:30 when I was already 8 to 9cm dilated. If my water had broken, they said, I would not have been able to have one. I was so thankful b/c I was praying that I would be able to have one. I was pain free for about 45 minutes to an hour and started pushing and Luke came out about 25 minutes later. He was posterior or "sunny side up," which the doc said is harder to push out than an anterior baby. He did have the cord wrapped around his neck a little. I guess that's one reason why with each contraction his heart rate dipped. He was a little pale too, I guess b/c of the cord, but was fine soon after. I am just thankful to the Lord that everything went well and little Luke is doing good. I will post pics as soon as I can. I promise.