Thanks for the replies! So here's the rest of the story since I never posted the actual birth story:
My MW wanted me induced on Wednesday 4/14. We stayed overnight and went home on 4/15 after we backed out of the induction. MW wanted us to return on 4/16 for another blood test, and also to do a 24hr urine collection, which we gladly agreed to, after all, if there was any legitimate health concern, I certainly was not going to fight being in the hospital. So we went back on 4/16 and the blood test and urine sample were both totally normal. My BP was still a bit high, but lower than it was on 4/14, so MW told us to go home and that if I was not in "booming labor" by 7PM Sunday (which was 42 weeks) she wanted me back at the hospital to follow through with the induction. I agreed, knowing that I would not be showing up for that and hoping that I would be in labor by then.
That night, on Saturday 4/17 at 2:30AM, I woke up to very powerful contractions every 7 minutes. I tried to sleep through them but couldn't because they were just too intense and I had to get on my hands and knees to work through them. I figured that they would speed up soon and I would be on my way to the Birth Center by early afternoon. Nope. The contractions didn't get closer together than 7 minutes for more than 16 hours. At 6:30PM, my water broke and my contractions FINALLY started coming every 3.5 minutes. We left for the birth center at about 7:30 since it was an hour away.
When we got to the birth center it was about 8:30PM on Saturday 4/17 and I was a stretchy 5cm, which was pretty disappointing since I had been 3cm the day before, so after 18 hours of slamming labor, I had only dilated 2cm. When we arrived at the birth center our MW wanted me to walk around a bit before admitting me, so DH and I first went to get coffee for him, our MW, and the student MW. Dunkin Donuts was a 3 minute drive from the Birth Center, but I screamed at DH to pull over since I was contracting at least 2 times. When we got back to the Birth Center, I didn't really feel capable of walking around outside, and just wanted to get into the tub, so our MW admitted me. It was somewhere around 10PM when I was finally admitted, and our MW was estimating a birth within the next six hours. Luckily, my blood pressure was still in the high normal range and so the Birth Center birth was still on.
I labored in the tub, in the shower, on the birth stool, on the toilet, on the birth ball, and on the bed over the next six hours. In that time, I made it to 8cm, but by 4AM Sunday 4/18, I had only had 2 hours of sleep in over two days, and I had been under fairly intense stress for the last five days. I was totally out of energy. At 4AM, I decided to give it one last shot to get to 10cm - I ate a bowl of the birth soup (super high protein and carb) that DH made for me, and I labored silently on the toilet while directing all of my energy inward. After close to an hour, I was still 8cm, and hadn't made any further progress at all. At that point, I was so physically and emotionally exhausted that I pretty much lost it. I could no longer cope with the pain, which had turned into excruciating back labor that only felt manageable with intense counter pressure (which was strange because the baby had not been posterior and I'm still not sure she ever was since she wasn't born sunny side up). I knew that my body couldn't take any more since I still had 2cm to dilate AND I would have to push. I needed sleep more than anything in the world, so I sadly let go of my Birth Center birth in favor of an epidural and a safe vaginal delivery at the hospital across the street.
I made the call to transfer at around 5AM on Sunday 4/18 and within half an hour I was in a hospital bed waiting for an epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was doing a c-section, and apparently would not be available for some time. I screamed "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE F!@#ING KIDDING ME" and apparently I was screaming so loud during my contractions that someone decided it was very important to get me some pain relief. About 3 minutes after I started yelling, the anesthesiologist was in the room getting the epidural set up. (Some poor resident got pulled out of bed to finish the c-section). I had been so afraid of a needle in my back and I must say, it didn't matter in the slightest at that point. When the spinal kicked in (I had a combination spinal block/epidural) about 2 minutes later, it was probably the best feeling I have had in my entire life. The pain was completely gone. I could feel a bit of pressure, but the pain just went away and I felt my body relax in a way that I don't think it had since I woke up 27 hours before.
Once I was hooked up to the monitor (previously we had only used a doppler) we learned that my contractions were "coupling," or basically coming right on top of each other with hardly any break. That helped to explain the extreme pain I was experiencing, unfortunately, the contractions did not appear to be strong enough to get me fully dilated on their own, so I agreed to pitocin. Then the most amazing and beautiful thing happened - DH and I fell asleep for about five hours. When we woke, I was fully dilated and it was time to push. To my shock though, I woke up feeling every contraction. As it turned out, the spinal had worn off, but thankfully as soon as I pressed the little red button (I didn't even know it was there) the spinal took effect again and I was again pain free. I was still totally exhausted though, and apparently I did not know how to push. The student MW had her hands in my vagina, which I found to be horribly distracting and I yelled at her to get her hands out of there. I guess I wasn't pushing effectively and our MW decided that I needed to sleep longer since I was kind of out of it and yelling at the midwives, so they let me "labor down" and go back to sleep for another two hours. When I woke at noon on Sunday 4/18, I felt like a new person. My head was clear and I was ready to finish what had started a day and a half ago.
After two hours of pushing, our sweet Finley Rose was born. She weighed 8lbs. even, and was 19.75 inches long. She did not look like a post-dates baby AT ALL. She wasn't wrinkled at all, and still had some vernix on her back. The only indication that she was a bit overdue was that she had ridiculously long fingernails.
The most amazing moment of the whole birth was about 1 minute before she was born; everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and scrambled to get their robes on and set up tables and trays near me. Until then, I swear I didn't believe she was ever going to be born. I mean seriously, I was 42 weeks pregnant, and the labor had lasted 36 hours. But it was that moment that DH and I both realized that our baby was really coming now!
Shortly before she crowned, the fluid started to show some very light meconium staining, so as soon as she was born NICU examined her quickly, but she was back on my chest within no more than 3 minutes. DH was able to catch her and cut the cord, and while we wanted to delay the cord clamping until after it stopped pulsing, I had no objection to cutting it earlier to ensure that her airway was clear of meconium. Fin's APGAR score was 9/9, and she cried immediately. What a sweet sound! Then, as soon as the NICU was done with her, she was laid on my chest for the breastcrawl and extended skin to skin. She did crawl, although she didn't quite make it to the nipple. But she was SO alert! I had been avoiding any type of pain relief partly because I was afraid that it might have a negative effect on my baby's awareness at birth. That was definitely not the case. I had a large number of first degree tears, one second degree tear, and at least one internal tear, so it took my MW and the student MW about an hour and a half to stitch me up. Fin was on my chest the entire time.
We stayed at the hospital for two days, and in retrospect, it was SO great to have that buffer. The nurses were all totally amazing and supportive. No one ever took Fin out of our sight, and no one questioned our decisions not to give her the erythromyacin (sp?) or the Hep B vac. I was in pretty rough shape after the 36 hour labor and lots of tearing, so having people there to check in on me every couple of hours was actually very reassuring.
It was not the birth that we had planned, but it was every bit as beautiful and joyous. Our sweet baby was safe and healthy, I was safe and healthy, and every step of the way, I was in control. No one pushed me into anything, and every single decision that had to be made was made by me and DH. Incredibly, what I was told about labor amnesia has been totally true for me - only one day after the birth I was already starting to forget things. At this point a month later, I absolutely cannot remember the pain (yay!) and I am actually kind of looking forward to being pregnant again soon (well, in a year and a half anyway)! Breastfeeding is going beautifully after a rocky start, and although Fin is definitely a high needs baby, I love every minute of being a mom.
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