Look Out! A birth story...

Leslie at onegirl after just having her new little girl (congrats) wants a few birth stories to be horrified by! :) So I thought I may as well write down all the events in Aussie Bob's birth... warning, this wont make you feel warm and happy.
Here goes:

So I started having contraction on the Thurs night at around 7pm. Because I live 1 1/2 hours away from the hospital I was to give birth in we drove there pretty soon after (fear of being caught out on the way). I had a few on the way but really they weren't too bad. My mum came with us because she was the only one handy who'd done it all before and it made J feel better to have her there. So we ended up at the hospital and as soon as I got there the contractions stopped. The midwife said not to worry and that sometimes it happens.
So they eventually sent us away and we went to spend the night at J brother's house, arriving at about 2am and getting them out of bed. In the morning the contractions were coming again and getting quite strong at about 5 mins apart. So eventually we trundled back to the hospital. They checked me out and kept me there for about 5 hours, but the same as before, nothing was happening! Ahhh! I was so totally sick of all the high drama and I just wanted it over!
So we went back to my aunt and uncle's house (they were actually spending the weekend with my family at home so it worked out well, we had their house to ourselves). I went to bed feeling quite dejected, but fell asleep pretty soon because I was exhausted.
I woke up at about 7 with stinging contractions, J ran the bath for me and I got in. He went back to bed (he looked like the walking dead he was so tired) and I was left to try to ignore the contractions getting stronger.
I think I stayed in the bath for about 4 hours, past lunch time I think because I remember that mum brought it to me while I was in the bath (cringe). Then I could feel something warmer than the bath between my legs and realised my waters had broken. Then the pain really got going.
I started to squeal a little bit and worry that I wouldn't be able to handle what was coming! We decided to go back to hospital. I had a contraction on the way, (like Leslie yelling 'No, no, no, no!! the whole time).
As we pulled up mum jumped out and grabbed a wheel chair. I tried to get out of the car but had another one at the same time, I screamed involuntarily. Then I remember this old woman saying 'what's wrong with her?'- I'm not a violent person but I would have liked to punch her. Then this absolutely GORGEOUS tanned doctor came and moved everyone out of the way like a knight in shining armour! Mmmm... he was so dreamy. I can't believe I noticed that through all the pain. But he came with us to the maternity ward because he was worried that I'd have Aussie Bob in the lift.
So we got to a room and the midwives fussed around and made me comfortable. Then.... nothing. It all stopped again. I was crying in frustration. But I became so fed up that I decided to walk around the room to try and get them going again. I walked for about 20 mins, then I worked. Shit they were huge! I was crying and screaming in no time. I don't know why but they made me lay down, when all I wanted to do was get up. They checked to see how far dilated I was and said that I had a long way to go. Damn.
They gave me 2 pethidine injections (one in each butt cheek) and it seemed to have no effect. I was sucking on the gas like it was the only life line I had. The nurse tried to take it out of my mouth between contractions but I wouldn't open my mouth to let her.
Then I became very irritable and couldn't stand anyone touching me, J said that when the mid wife went to adjust the monitor on my belly I slapped her hand away, he said she just laughed. Also after one hellish contraction I had let my hand flop out sideways, between J's legs. As the next one came on I brought my hand up and closed it at the same time, J had to do a little dance to get his 'bits' out of the way (My mum thought this was hilarious). I don't actually remember that!
So by now it's late Saturday night. And I felt like I had nothing left, I was so tired I was falling asleep between contractions. Which meant that I couldn't suck on the gas before the next one came on, I'd just wake up suddenly screaming. I also had the urge to push so bad that I couldn't stop it. The pain also got much less when I did, but the midwives were begging me to stop because I wasn't dilated enough and could do severe damage.
So I yelled at the midwife to get me an epidural. Happily, she did. And also happily, the anesthetist was even better looking than the other doctor. I only noticed this after he'd done the spinal, J said that I rolled back over and looked dreamily at him and said 'Thank you!'. I was smiling like I had gone insane- J told him to ignore me (he was very embarrassed).
I could actually still feel the contractions but they were more just bad back pain. After about 3 hours of laying there not feeling my legs, a heap of people came into the room. The doctor came in (a different one again) and put my legs up in stirrups. I didn't feel a thing. Just a bit of pulling and suddenly Aussie Bob was here! He was put onto my stomach and because I wasn't quite expecting this, he started to slide off before I just caught him! Good start!
J was bawling and so was mum, we actually forgot to ask if he was boy or girl! I just couldn't understand that he was mine. There was no immediate love for him, I was too tired to realise the enormity of what I'd just done (of course the love came later).
I held onto him while the doctor sewed me up, a lot of stitches! And J said that while he was doing this the doc said quietly 'you wont have any trouble with the next one!'- great. Thanks for that.
Aussie Bob was born on Sunday 25th Feb 2007, at 3am. 55 hours of on/off labor... I was so tired.
Then mum and J left for a well deserved sleep and Aussie Bob (who we named Austin) was wrapped up and put in a little cot next to me. I just lay there and fell asleep. About 1/2 hour later I woke up and was happy to find that I could feel my legs. Good start, then a nurse came in and helped me get into the shower. Oh god that was good, even though it hurt to stand up and I still had a catheter to deal with (gross). Then I was moved back to the ward and I could spend as much time as I wanted with my new little man. That's about it... Hope you all weren't too horrified and are not going to put off having children.
Really I can barely remember the pain now, which is good because it's almost time to give Aussie Bob (now 1 1/2) a brother or sister! Oh god...