Ally's Birth Story

I should tell you this post was 2 weeks in the making! I'd start to write and then would get distracted and have to come back to it-I'm definitely on Ally's schedule right now! :)
Lets back track a little...
My actual due date was Monday 4/22/2013 - we all know how Benjamin came almost a month early so I was convinced Ally would be an early baby too.  So you can imagine my frustration when 4/22 was fast approaching and Ally was still nice and cozy in my belly.  I didn't experience the awful anticipation last time since we were caught off guard with Benjamin, and let me tell ya...the waiting game was NOT fun.  Every day I would wake up and think this is it-today will be the day and then I would go to bed disappointed.  I finally decided that I would schedule to be induced on Wed. 4/24 but still held out hope that things would happen naturally.  I've heard horror stories of long labors with inductions and I nervous and scared of the unknown.
I went to my last weekly prenatal appointment on Monday 4/22.  It was a quick in and out appt. because I hadn't made any progress from the week before - so I said goodbye to my Dr. and told her I'd see her on Wednesday 4/24 for my scheduled induction.  Later that night David and I had a close call and I almost thought we needed to head to the hospital.  I started having contractions that were about 5-7 min. apart but would only last 20-30 seconds, I stayed in bed for about 40 min and timed everything but when I decided to finally get up and finish the last minute hospital bag packing things just abruptly stopped.  I just thought Ally was up to her tricks again!
I went to work the next day and tried to wrap things up since I knew it was my last day.  I told myself that I wanted it to be a stress free day and that I would actually leave on time (I've been super busy lately) but didn't end up leaving until after 5pm. That night was pretty uneventful, I thought I'd be more nervous knowing that the next day I would be at the hospital but I was surprisingly calm.  We did last minute preparations and made sure the plans were in place for Benjamin.  I went to bed around 10pm and fell asleep pretty fast.  Now for the crazy stuff...
I woke up around 12:30am to go to the bathroom - when I got back in bed I noticed a couple of contractions but given the false alarm the night before I didn't really get too excited, after about 10 min. I rolled over to my other side and what do you know - my water broke! Things got really intense really quickly after that.  The contractions got super painful and were about 4min apart.  David called his Mom and she was here about 15 min. later.  David and I headed to the hospital which was the longest 20 min. car ride of my life!  Thankfully it was a little after 1am and we had NO traffic to battle.
Once we arrived at the hospital I was hoping checking in would be a piece of cake since I had dropped off my pre-registration paperwork weeks ago.  However, they had several pieces of information incorrect - they had my relationship status down as single! So as I was slumped over in pain I was also trying to give the receptionist the right info - not fun!
We finally got put in a labor room where they quickly started me on an IV - I was 5cm at that point and contractions were more like 3 min. apart so they called in the anesthesiologist b/c I NEEDED the drugs!  They made David sit on the other side of the room while they did my epidural which I thought was kind of odd but I didn't question it b/c I was just so excited to know that relief was soon on it's way. 
Life was good after the epidural kicked in and we decided we'd try to relax and even take a little nap while things progressed but it was only about an hour later that I started feeling pain again and I got nervous the drugs were wearing off already so I called the nurse back in.  I told her that I could feel the contractions again and they were becoming painful.  She said she'd check me to see if I made any progress, I was hoping I was dilated to at least an 8 by then - turns out Ally was right there and it was time to push.  They quickly got my Dr. on the phone and told her to hurry up.  Ally was born at 5:44am but probably could have come more around 5am but I was holding out for my Dr :)  Once she was there it was 2 pushes and Ally was out! So all in all it was a pretty easy labor.  I still can't believe how quickly it all went!

Here she is... all 7lbs 10oz / 21.5 inches of her!