It is so hard to believe that Jared has been here that long already! He is so sweet and getting more awake and alert everyday! He was born when I was 38 weeks and 2 days. Contractions woke me at 0130 that morning, I waited for a couple hours to see if they were going to go away but they never did. I woke Eric up around 0400 and told him and we started getting ready, just taking our time since we did not want to wake Caden up that early. I was hoping it was real contractions and not just strong braxton hicks; I just did not want to be sent home from OB triage. When we went in, we parked in the deck and walked in. I did not want to take any bags in thinking I was going to be sent home. I even told the ER greeter not to tell anyone I was there just in case I was sent home. After getting in the room (very small), getting into a gown and being connected to the monitors, Lynn (one of the best OB nurses) told me that I would more than likely be staying. That scared me because it was actually going to happen that day! When they finally checked me I was at 5cm, sooo those contractions were doing something! My OB doc. came in, checked me and got my water broken which hurt a lot more than I remember with Caden! Things seemed to happen fairly quickly. I asked what I could have for pain, which was stadol, or epidural, I took some stadol even though the last time it only made me loopy. This time I dozed off between contractions but the pain was still intense. I asked when I could have an epidural and Lynn said now. So she checked me and I was at 8cm but I still wanted one. The Anesthesiologist was the same one I had with Caden and he did great! Lynn was there with me while I got the epidural. Eric had gone to take Caden to my parent's house and home to take care of our dogs. The epidural helped a lot but the left side was not getting numb. Lynn told me that I could lay on my left side to have gravity help it. When I did, Jared's heart rate dropped into the 80's so I went back to laying on my back, Right after the epidural was in, they started pitocin because Jared had moved back up! As it got closer to 3pm, with the contractions, Jared's heart rate wanted to drop so my OB doc and Lynn, along with some other nurses came in full-force and got me ready to start pushing. Right as the doc and nurses were coming in, Eric went to get something to eat since he had not eaten anything all day; he was starting to get sick. When Eric returned, he had a new little boy! I had to have oxygen via mask to help with the low heart rate that Jared was doing with my contractions. My OB doc had to cut me at an angle approx. 2cm since the last time I had a 4th degree cut/tear, she said it would act like a zipper and do the same thing again. Since I was numb on the right side, she went for that side. I could still feel everything on my left! They started me pushing around 3:10 and delivered at 3:27! That was the hardest pushing I have ever done!! Since his heart rate was dropping, they had to get him out. I had little broken blood vessels on my face and neck from the extreme pushing! (You can also get those under your eyes when you vomit from the force that is put on those blood vessels) Ya know, I think the pain with the right-sided cut was worse than with the 4th degree tear I had with Caden! It has taken me at least 4 weeks to feel like myself again but I would do it again in a heartbeat!