.our surprise baby.

After my appointment on Thursday I came straight home.  I phoned Josh to tell him what happened and that I was having contractions (like usual) and I'd keep him posted.  Around dinner time I was having alot of pain.  About 4:30 I made nachos for dinner and by that time I could hardly sit down.  I paced the kitchen while everyone else ate dinner.  Later, still in pain I decided to go for a walk outside.  Josh tried to convince me to just go to the hospital to be checked out, but I was terrified I'd be sent home again so I wanted to wait longer.  By about 7:00 Josh insisted on taking me in.  He convince me by saying it would be easier to get the kids over to Shane's house now rather than have to leave in the middle of the night.
We checked into the Brigham Hospital and our nurse came and led us to our room.  I undressed, put on the tube top and gown and laid down in the bed.  I was so stressed about being checked and finding out I hadn't progressed any.  After being checked I was told I was 2cm dilated and that the baby's head was high.  I was crushed.  I knew that Dr. Ferguson said earlier that if I progressed any, even a little we'd go ahead and have a baby.  The nurse said that my Doctor would be in about 8:30 after his clinic hours and we would wait to have him see what he thought.  We anxiously waited and when he came back, he checked me and said I was about the same.  He said we should wait a little longer and then make a decision.  I held it together until he left the room, that was when I started to bawl.  Josh was sweet and kept telling me it was okay.  Dr. Ferguson came back again a short time later and caught me crying.  He said lets check again and sure enough he said I was changing and that I was in labor!  Hallelujah, we were having a baby.  (Josh said afterward that he didn't think I had changed any and that my Dr. just said that so we could stay.  I don't know if I believe that, but I'm so glad he did if that was the case.)  Things moved quickly after that.  I was started on pitocin, I started filling out all the hospital forms and got an epidural.  The anesthesiologist was a strange man.  The procedure went fine but as I progressed, I didn't feel like it was working very well.  He came back in and seemed tired and irritated.  I though what the heck, if I just got a huge needle pushed into my spine, I want this medicine to work dangit!  He game me a booster into the port near my shoulder.  It felt like ice running down my back.  He gave me a few minutes and asked if it was better.  No, not much I said and he again gave me more.  Awhile after that my legs were so very numb, but I still felt some pain in my abdomen.  I figured I'd just deal with it because I didn't want to see that Dr. again.  Dr. Ferguson was delivering two other babies at that time so he decided to wait to break my water because of how fast Brynn came last time, he didn't want to miss it.  Josh and I rested while we waited.  We had both been awake since 4am Thursday morning and we were pretty tired.  After Dr. Ferguson's other two deliveries were done he came in just before midnight to break my water.  Everyone took another rest (including my Doctor) until I was complete.  About 2am I was ready to go.  The room was made ready for me to deliver and I started pushing right after.  My legs were crazy numb, but I could still feel the pain of every contraction and knew exactly when to push.  I pushed through a few contractions before I was told that the baby was posterior.  Brynn was posterior too but he was able to turn her before she was delivered.  He tired with this baby too, but he said that the baby wouldn't turn.  He said it would be born face-up, that it would be okay, but that I would probably have to push longer.  I push a total of 6 contractions (which was the longest I've pushed with any of my babies and it was hard) and at 2:15am our baby was born!  We both looked down to see who it was.  Josh's view was obstructed by the babies umbilical cord so he reached his head way over me to see.  When he did this, then I couldn't see either.  Josh saw first and announced "its a girl!" before then brought her up to my chest.  I knew it, I felt the whole time she was a girl.  Even when I over analyzed all my appointments and could have changed my mind a dozen times, I didn't.  I just knew it!  What a moment, such joy, we were thrilled!
When I was pushing the nurses asked if I wanted to do skin to skin.  Yes please I told them.  She was brought to my chest and there she stayed for about 2 1/2 hours!!! It was amazing!  I got to do skin to skin with each of my other kids, but none for so long.  Josh cut her cord.  They checked her with a stethoscope a few times, but other than that Josh and I were just allowed to enjoy her uninterrupted.  She nursed right away and did amazingly well.  Finally after all that time, she was taken and weighed and measured and all that other fun stuff.  Josh was right there with her and since they do it in the same room, I got to watch as well.  She was 7lbs. 15oz. (same as TJ) and 20 1/4 inches long.  She was as cute as could be with a full head of long, dark hair!
Finally around 6:00am Josh went home to get some sleep.  By that time we were both up for over 24 hours straight and we were exhausted!  We took some cell phone pictures of our baby (without a bow) and texted it to our family to see if they could guess what we had.  It was fun spilling the beans and finally letting everyone know who just joined our family!