Gage's Birth Day

Friday 22nd- At 10:30am I had my Dr. appointment and begged Dr. Kipa to strip my membraines. I was already 3cm and 80% effaced so she said she would. By 3:30 that afternoon I started having contractions 10 minutes apart. We had the gang over for dinner that night and us girls were timing my contractions. I didn't believe they were real until later that night when they got a little stronger. I called mom and made her come down to stay the night in case it was the real thing! Saturday 23rd- The contractions continued all night and by 4:30am I woke Justin up to go to the hospital. They hurt and were every 4-5 minutes apart. I got checked when we got there and I was still only a 3!!! I was so sad!! The nurse said the only thing she could do was give me a shot of morphine in my butt!! Ughhhh NO THANKS!!! I don't do shots...especially in my butt!! I decided I'd tough it out and go home without the shot. We came back home and I took some Tylenol PM and tried to sleep in a warm bath. By morning the contractions seemed to have slowed down a little bit. Mom and I decided that I should walk to get things going. But first I needed pancakes!!! :) We went to IHOP where I ate pancakes in between my contractions every 7 minutes. After, we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond. Mom shopped and I used a cart to hang onto during the contractions. By this time they were starting to get very painful. We went home and I labored for awhile longer. At 4:00pm I decided that I couldn't take it anymore and would get the shot of morphine. Mom took me back to the hospital and I was STILL at 3cm. All my contractions were in my back and it was awful!! I got the shot of morphine and came home. The shot did NOTHING!! We called my Dr. and she called in some pain pills and sleeping pills. Justin ran and picked them up around 9pm. The pain pill seemed to do nothing but the sleeping pill worked somewhat. My contractions were every 5 minutes so I would sleep for 4 minutes and then wake up with INTENSE pain, flop off the side of the bed and roll on the floor for about a minute till the contraction ended. Then I'd crawl back into bed and sleep for another 4 minutes until the next one came. I did this ALL night because I didn't want to wake up Justin and drag him back to the hospital only to be sent home again. I kept saying "I can make it through 1 MORE and then I'm waking him up!!!" Sunday 24th- By 4:00am I couldn't take it ANY longer. The pain was awful!!!!! I woke Justin up and we headed to the hospital. When we got there and got checked I was an 8 1/2!!!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!! We were not expecting that!! Justin went to call mom but her cell phone was on silent. Brandon ended up having to go over to our house and wake her up. The nurse out in the hall could tell how much pain I was in so she ran me to an OR room to get my epidural. Everything happened so quick that Justin couldn't come in with me. The anesthesiologist was next door in a c-section but he ran over right after to do my epidural. I LOVE HIM!!! I didn't feel another contraction after that! I fell asleep for awhile since I hadn't got much sleep in the past 2 days. By 10:30 I was fully dilated and ready to push. I pushed for an hour and our little man arrived at 11:25!!!