Apologies that it's so long, I just have so much to say!!

I was 37 weeks and 2 days, and feeling great. It was my last day at work that day so I was looking forward to a little time at home to relax, put my feet up and get ready for this baby to come. At about 9pm I crawled into bed, and while I was adjusting my army of pillows to try and settle in for the night I felt 'pop glug glug'. I couldn't believe my water had broken early, especially with no contractions yet, but we were off to the races. We raced around the house making sure we had everything we needed packed, and hubby dropped the dogs off at our parents houses while I stayed home to start timing contractions, which were very short and far apart. By 11pm, things were still going slow but fluid was clear and baby was active, so we decided to go to sleep and wait for things to ramp up.
I woke at 5:30am the next day and still not to much going on, so we talked with our doula and decided to start trying some natural induction methods. I used my double electric pump for a while, and paced the house, rocked on the ball. It worked when I was doing those activities, but if I stopped, we'd get a huge lull in contractions. Finally by 1pm we were 16 hours in and decided to head to the hospital to get looked at. I was concerned that I wasn't really in active labour yet, but I felt like we needed to get a progress report if nothing else. By the time I got to the hospital my labour had all but stalled. When I arrived at OB Triage, there was a not so friendly nurse who directed me to a waiting room where I sat for over an hour before being seen. Once I was finally hooked up and checked, they found that I was 2-3cm and still thick. I wasn't thrilled by that news, but they wanted to admit me since I'd been ruptured for over 16 hours at this point. After a long discussion with hubby and my doula, we came to the decision that I was going to go home and continue to try and bring on labour in my comfort zone instead of at the hospital where the pressure for interventions was high.

By 3am, I was waking with contractions, the falling back asleep in between, and I was getting hopeful that things were moving along on their own. I'd also 'tossed my cookies' which my doula said was a good sign. The next morning we went to town with the pacing and pumping and man were we working HARD to get those contractions going. This was probably one of the worst parts for me because I was fighting each contraction. Once they were established at home, we decided to go for a drive and see if they would keep up. We spent probably 2 hours in the car lazily driving toward the hospital through every neighbourhood just timing contractions. By 10am, we were back at the hospital getting admitted again. This time I was 3 and thin.......... after all that barely any change! So we just kept at it, pacing the halls, pumping, pressure points, everything we could to keep my labour going. The problem was every time I stopped doing those things for a heart rate check, I'd go 10 minutes between contractions. It was like I had some magic off switch that turned my labour off.

At 2pm after much discussion, we decided to hook up a pitocin drip and antibiotics. Even though our fluid was still clear and plentiful and her heart rate was stable the entire time, we needed to move things along and my body just didn't want to contract on its own. I will tell you that I was terrified of what a pitocin contraction was going to feel like. We were so set on doing everything naturally and I didn't know how I was going to cope with the synthetic contraction. Getting me hooked up was another comedy of errors. What should have taken 20 minutes took almost 2 hours. My vein in one hand did something (twisted maybe? I can't remember) so they had to pick my other hand. The IV machine wasn't working it just kept beeping and not doing anything. The wireless fetal heart rate monitor kept shutting off every time they touched it to my belly. Then the wired monitor only picked up her heart rate if I was laying flat on my back while holding it at an angle. We were laughing at the ridiculousness of it all at that point, because what else could you do. Finally the Dr came in to hook up an internal monitor to the baby because I knew I couldn't labour laying flat on my back the entire time.
Once the contractions started coming on their own, it was almost a relief. I laboured for the most part in an upright seated position, just enjoying that I didn't have to work to get every single contraction to come. Finally some progress, and I was able to relax between contractions. I was exhausted by this point. Every 30 minutes they came in and upped our Pit, and the first 2 contractions after each dosage adjustment were the worst. My body had to catch up with the endorphins to cover the pain of the contraction, but I dealt with it. Twice I thought I couldn't make it any longer and needed my doula to talk me off the ledge and re-centre me.
By 10:30 I was in transition, and let me tell you that was the craziest part for me. I felt like I was in another world- like the room was spinning. I could barely keep my eyes open. I'd labour through each contraction then fall asleep in between, even if only for a minute or two. My doula joked that this is the only legal high you're ever going to get so enjoy it. It was so true though, between the adrenaline and endorphins I felt like I was high as a kite. Once I reached 10cm, the fog lifted, I was aware, and felt the urge to push. My doula coached me through the early pushing to get the baby ready, then once the Dr. came in, it was 8 minutes and 3 good pushes and she was out! The sensation of pushing actually felt good at that point, like relief against the pain. I couldn't believe how fast it happened. I had one very minor tear (3 stitches) and I was on my feet within 45 minutes of her being born.
Every moment since has been awesome. I didn't need anything more than a little IBprofen for the soreness post delivery, she latched within 15 minutes of being born and we've been (what I think is) successful breastfeeding since. People were shocked that I was up and about so quickly after delivery, and I credit going natural 100% for that. Being able to get up, move around and adjust my body to accommodate her through the process was invaluable. I would recommend looking into natural childbirth to anyone who asks, it was so worth it.