The story...

It was the 22nd of December and I once again was having stupid contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. They started around 7:30pm and continued though out the evening. I really didn't want to head into the hospital and have the off chance that it was false labor again. I didn't think I could mentally and emotionally handle being sent home again. So I sat on the couch and waited for them to stop or have more time in between the contractions. I've never gone into labor on my own, with the other 3 I have been induced and it always takes a long time to get labor going.
Well by 10:30pm I was starting to get really nauseous with every contraction that was still 10 minutes apart. I finally called the doctor and he said to head to the hospital and they'd check me out. We called our dear, wonderful friends Zane and Callie and they came right over to stay with our boys while we hopefully went to the hospital to have the baby.
We started on our way and of course Cory was abiding the traffic laws. I hate those stupid camera radar enforcement things on the freeway. I then asked, not demanded, that he speed up a little, cause the hospital was 45 minutes away.
Once we got there they checked me and I was dilated to a 3. Which is what I was the Friday before at my doctor's appointment. I was disappointed and very afraid that they'd send me home. They told me to walk around the postpartum level of the hospital for 45 minutes and they'd check me again and see if I was progressing or if they were going to send us home. So Cory and I set off on that miserable walk around the halls that we did the week before. I lasted about 30 minutes and I was getting really nauseous, so we went back and they checked me and said that I was dilated to almost a 4 now and in early labor. YEA! We didn't have to go home. So they hooked me up to an iv and they said to relax cause I would hopefully be in full labor in the morning.
Well Cory got as comfortable as he could in the chair/make-shift bed in the corner and I tried to go to sleep cause it was 2am. The nurse came in to check on me and saw that I was still awake, she asked me if I wanted some pain meds to take the edge off the contractions so I could sleep. I said sure, that would be great. She came back in and injected into my iv the meds. She told me I'd feel a little funny and then drift to sleep. Boy did I start to feel funny. See when I get heavy doses of pain meds, and epidurals my blood pressure drops dramatically, this has happened with every labor. I was so tired I didn't tell the nurse this, nor did I even really think about it. So as I start to feel funny I apparently was trying to get Cory's attention cause the nurse was gone. What I remember is telling Cory that I Love him. (Which is very true, but also a code for I'm gonna pass out. I don't like the feeling and the very first time when I was in labor with Jovin and that feeling came on I thought I was dying or something so I looked at Cory and told him that I loved him and passed out.) So Cory finally heard me and came over to me and asked if I was okay. He had no idea what the nurse had done and I was slurring my words. I kept telling him that I loved him. I apparently (I don't remember any of this...) told him that the nurse gave me meds and that I love him. Well the monitors at the time were freaking out cause my blood pressure was dropping quickly, the nurses noticed this at their desk in the hall and came running in. They told me to wake up and gave me some oxygen and some other meds to bring my blood pressure back up. Yeah, that wasn't fun. Once I was stable again Cor and I finally got to sleep around 3:30am.
At 7am they hooked the pitocin up to me and my doctor showed up not too much longer to break my water. By around 10am I couldn't take the pain anymore and I was dilated to a 6 almost 7 so I asked for the epidural. The dr came in did the epidural and left. Things were going great until I could still feel the contractions VERY intensely just up front on my tummy. I couldn't take it. So the dr came back and tried giving me more meds in my epidural... he gave me little at first so I wouldn't pass out again. So he gave me the rest of the dose to see if that would help. It did not. After 30 minutes to "give the meds a chance to work" I asked that he come back. He told me that I had a rare occurrence of what they call a "window" epidural. Where a certain nerve doesn't get numb. So my options were to deal with it, or have him take out the epidural and try again. Now I LOATHE needles, especially epidurals, but I couldn't stand the pain, (I must be a wimp) so he took it out and tried again. He got it in, but noticed it wasn't right and told me he needed to take it out and try again. So I basically had 3 epidurals... Yuck! 3rd time was a charm and I was completely numb.
I'm glad I had him fix the problem cause I wasn't dilated to a 10 until around 3pm and then started pushing. After an hour of pushing Tjay finally came out at 4:16pm. YEA!
So even going into labor on my own and with it being my 4th kid, it was still a really long labor. I'm glad that Tjay is the last and I won't have to do this ever again.
I'm grateful that Tjay came when he did, and also that I had Cory there with me. I couldn't do labor with out his help and encouragement. He was wonderful and VERY supportive. I know I'm VERY lucky to have him in my life and our boys are lucky to have him as a father. Plus we make some darn cute kids. :)