Lily's Birth Story

Warning: some of the following may be a little on the TMI side.  That's kind of the nature of birth stories.  Read at your own risk. :-)

I have to admit, my mood had been less than delightful for the last week or so before Lily was born.  I was feeling big and uncomfortable, I'd had tons of Braxton-Hicks contractions just regularly enough to get my hopes up and dropped repeatedly, and I was tired of being pregnant.  On Tuesday, I went to the doctor and the one I saw that day refused to even check me to see how far along I was.  (Granted, I didn't exactly beg, but I asked and she said no.)  Mom and Minjee were here waiting for Lily to be born, and with a little help from them and from Zack (who kept getting sent home from work early by people worried about me going into labor), we tried EVERYTHING to put me into labor. I really mean everything... within reason of course.  As of Tuesday bedtime, no luck.  Barely even a tremor on the contraction side. I was frustrated. 
I had to sit up with Ela once in the night, around 1:30, and nothing unusual was happening then.  At around 4:10, I woke up and rolled over, and felt a little burst of fluid.  Half a sleep, I wondered if that was my bladder or if I was in labor.  I moved a little more and more fluid resulted.  I got up and went to the bathroom.  Still lots of fluid.  At this point, even in my groggy state, I was pretty sure my water broke.  So I woke up Zack.  Zack hurried downstairs to wake Mom and Minjee and start getting things to the car while I packed up the last of the stuff I wanted to take to the hospital but couldn't pack in advance.   Mom stayed home with Ela, and Minjee came along.  By 4:30 we were out the door and I was noticing the first few contractions.
On the way to the hospital, I called in and warned them we were coming.  I was loosly tracking contractions and they were 5ish minutes apart.  We arrived at the hospital about 5:15, and hurried up to Labor and Delivery.  The doctor there said she'd check to make sure I broke my water.  When I laid down on the exam table, more fluid gushed out and she decided an exam was unneccessary.  Instead, I was hurried into a labor and delivery room. 
There were a lot of differences between this labor and my first in Japan, but the biggest was the confinement. In my head, I had hoped to be walking during labor until transition, but it simply wasn't in the books this time.  In Japan, they checked on Ela regularly, but I didn't have to wear the monitors constantly.  Lily, however, was making things difficult for the doctors.  Her heartbeat kept doing weird things (I really don't know if it was going way up or way down), so they wanted to keep an extra eye on her.  So I had to be on the monitors, in a bed. I was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff (which was set to go off at regular intervals), a pulse monitor for me, the two baby monitors, and an IV, which they were using to hurry antibiotic into me as a precaution because of one of the tests. Then they added oxygen because of the baby's heartrate thing.  Just to make it super crazy, I was listening to my music on an ipod, so there were earphone cords to contend with, too.  At first, this was super uncomfortable for me, but then I found out I could lie on one side, and things got much better.  The trouble was, Lily's heart kept right on doing it's funny stuff, and every time it dropped or spiked or whatever, the doctors had me switch sides, often mid contraction (not fun), and all those cords had to be contended with. 
So I labored, and they checked on me, I got through half my antibiotics, and was visited by lots of doctors.  The morning shift took over for the night shift and my normal doctor arrived.  It's all rather a blur for me.  At 7:00, they checked me and I was 7ish cm dialated.  Shortly thereafter, the contractions moved to my back and Zack (whose hand I was trying my best to break) learned the fine art of counterpressure.  He was awesome.   At 8:15, I had a contraction that felt, well, different.  It was the worst one yet, and also lower.  I felt like I should push, but no one had told me it was okay yet, so I just hurt.  The nurse who was monitoring me saw Lily's heartrate once again being weird, so she started trying to turn me over (so not fun) as the doctors rushed in.  My doctor took a look and I could tell they were getting ready before she even told me I could push.  My respose: YAY! 
With Ela I pushed for a whole hour, and I was not keen on repeating that ordeal.  I think part of my problem had been not knowing what to expect.  This time, the doctors were in a hurry, and I was glad to oblige.  I pushed with all my might, and 8 contractions and 15 minutes later, Lily emerged!
The story within the story is  Minjee, who got a full view of the birth.  She was apparently in awe.  After Lily was born, the doctor said we should have been taping the look on her face.  I caught one glance of it, and it was pretty amazing.  Her jaw was nearly on the floor.  I'm glad she had a chance to see it all.
Despite all the heart drama, Lily is healthy.  They cleaned her off a little while I got stitched up, and then she got her first chance to breastfeed (she picked it up no trouble at all).  I got breakfast, and Lily got the rest of her little testing stuff done.  Ela and Mom arrived, and Ela got to meet her new sister.  She was enthralled by the bath Lily got, but mostly just wanted to snuggle with me on the bed. 
We stayed in the hosptial for two days, and arrived home Friday around noon.  Now we're getting settled in here.  I'm recovering a whole lot faster this time around, which is a relief for all of us.   Ela is enjoying the little jobs of being a big sister.  She's great at bringing me things and at giving Lily kisses.  I think we're all adjusting quite well to the new addition to our family.