She's here!! The birth story

She finally made it! For all the waiting and anticipating, she made a speedy entrance into the world.
Ready for the birth story?nothing graphic, I promise.
I went to my 40 week appointment and decided to be induced rather than run the risk of having to wait another week to be induced if I didn't have her on my own before then. I really, really wanted her to come on her own but I was quite simply done. Between contractions at night and an awful cough, I was hardly sleeping.
I worried about bringing her into the world before she was ready so I prayed that night about it. I felt good about the decision and i had different phrases from my patriarchal blessing come to my mind. One if those phrases had to do with miracles.  Not exactly what you want to think about before giving birth, because that makes you realize the possibilities of a crisis to warrant a need for a miracle. None the less, I felt good about it.
So we show up get checked in and get ready to be induced. I ask them to just break my water and not give me petocin yet. They break my water at 8:24 with what the midwife called her "magic fingers"
I get up and take a stroll down the hallway and immediately the contractions start.  Remember the horrid cough I mentioned that kept me up at night? Well, I was not in short supply of coughs that morning and with each cough came a contraction. And probably after 2 strolls down the hall I started having back pain with the contractions. Probably by the third time down the hall I was done. it was waaayy too painful. I got back and called the nurse to ask for a birthing ball since she mentioned to me that the back pain is because she is malpositioned and the ball will help. Anyway she gets in there sees the pain and asked if I want the epidural.  Yes. Most definitely yes! Not caring I only made it all of 30 min or so without it.
During this time she got me ready for the epidural. I was to the point that the pain felt like too much to bear. It felt like she was getting ready to come out. She checked me and I was at an 8, I started at a 4.  I was starting to feel the need to push as the anesthesiologist was getting the epidural ready. He got it in, thankfully. I began to realize that during this time there were lots of nurses and people in there preparing for me to have this baby... however,  no doctor. This was around 9:45. Apparently,  had I not gotten the epidural, I would have not been able to not push and would have had her much earlier.

My doctor didn't show up for another 45 minutes. With each contraction I felt the need to push, I could feel her just hanging out there. My body was shaking uncontrollably.  I had no idea that was part of the transition phase. And unfortunately,  I got to experience 45 minutes of this phase. My nurses were all anxiously looking out for my doctor. I wanted so much to push her out. Finally my doctor gets there and with about three sets of pushes she was born. I have never had my epidural be low enough to he able to feel my baby come out or the need to push. It was pretty amazing to say the least. Usually, I feel like a big fat whale out of water and can't move a muscle.

In little over 2 hours of having my water broken, I had a baby ...and it could have been much sooner had my doctor been there.

.....stay tuned for the rest of the story. (It's taking me forever to type this so i'll have to do it in snippets.)