Birth Story!

Many of you have inquired about labor and Avery's entry into the world. 
      Sunday I went to a baby shower for a friend from high school that is having a little boy at the end of summer.  I felt great and wasn't having any contractions.  I ran a few errands and then met my mom and sister for dinner.  During dinner I was having some cramping and strange sensations.  At the time I was not sure if they were real or Braxton Hicks.  After dinner we went on a nice, long walk through the neighborhoods.  After the walk, I proceeded to start cleaning the house because I did not want to go into labor and then have to come home to a dirty house.  When trey got home from golf, we cleaned until late in the night.  At the time, I still was not aware that I was having contractions because they were not hurting and they weren't regular.  I went ahead and started jotting down times to see if there was a pattern.  I also got Trey to pack a bag in case I went into labor while he was at work during the week.  Prior to going to bed I debated hopping in the shower in case I went into labor.  Trey insisted that I just go to bed and if the contractions were real then it would wake me up.  Not even 30 minutes after I laid down for bed, I yelled to Trey that my water had broke and ran to the bathroom.  We called the doctor and she told us to start getting ready and try to be at the hospital in the next hour.  I hopped in the shower while Trey packed the car.  Before I could get fully dressed and dry my hair my contractions (which had gotten very intense) were about 3 minutes apart.  So we got in the car and made our way to Rex Hospital.  By the time we reached the hospital around 1:30am, my contractions were less than 90 seconds apart.  We went to triage where they placed me on the monitors, placed an IV and confirmed that I was indeed in labor.  My contractions were very intense and stacking right on each other.  I was only 1cm dilated upon arrival to the hospital but my doctor gave the go ahead for the epidural since my contractions were so intense and frequent.  We got into the room and I had my epidural by 3am.  From there it was smooth sailing and nap time.  My contractions were continuing at a frequent rate, but I was not able to feel them.  By the morning I had progressed to 3cm and then to 6cm by 10am.  I had some issues with my epidural not working on my left side, but they were able to fix it with boluses and positioning.  By the afternoon I was 9cm and my epidural was nonexistent on the left side.  I could feel everything.  After trying to push a bit to get my cervix to fully dilate, I couldn't take it anymore.  I didn't yell or scream like many would think.  My nurse, Brandy, was the best nurse and advocate you could ask for.  She went and got anesthesia to place a new epidural.  After my second and absolutely amazing epidural was placed, the doctor had come in to check on me.  I was now 10cm.  She insisted that we take 30 minutes to rest and let Avery labor down, then she would come back to get the pushing started.  After a refreshing nap and final visit from all of the family we started to push around 2:45.  I pushed for about 20 minutes and Avery McCall King was born at 3:09pm.  It was the most amazing moment in our lives and from then on we were a family of 3!