The Birth of Madelyn Rose

All weekend I was having mild contractions. Sunday by 7pm they had been 5 to 7 minutes apart for an hour. I called my Dr and the on-call told me to come in. My sister came and picked up Brooke and we packed up the car. Jim & I headed off to the hospital. We watched a guy walking a bike through an intersection get hit by a car right in front of us on the way. The car that hit the poor guy took off, we pulled over, but there were several other people there on their phones and I was having bad contractions, so off we went. Crazy.
We got to the hospital at about 9pm. When she checked me my water broke and I was 3-4cm. By 10:30pm I had an epidural and was at 7-8cm. They had me on my side waiting for the doctor. I was fully dilated by 11pm and the Dr was finally there. 5 pushes and she was out! The epidural did not work and I felt everything - including the 2nd degree tear and a periurethral laceration – OUCH! She swallowed a little meconium so I couldn’t hold her right away, but they got her cleared out and stitched me up and after what seemed like forever, I got to hold her.