Tuesday night (the 1st), I was again moving along into labour, and again, we really thought that was it, but after 11 hours or so of gradual building, it fizzled out. A midwife was at our house on Wednesday morning to check me out, I was still 4-5 cm dilated, but Jana had scooted up to a higher station, so my contractions weren't being as effective as they could have been had her head been more engaged.
My parents arrived that afternoon on Wednesday, which after a brief visit, we sent them to their B&B as I had been up all night and needed to rest. Since Mark and I explicitly didn't want them here for the birth and we wanted to have a few days to ourselves to settle in with just us, we sent my parent on a little trip to Cornwall and Bath (which they loved and had a good time), their train departed at 10 am Thursday morning. I was scheduled for an induction anyway for Thursday at 11am. In we went to the hospital, only to find out that something went awry in the communication... I wasn't on the list for inductions that day! You can imagine my frustration and disappointment at the news that the labour ward was just too full to fit me in. This of course after having kept me there for 6 hours and I was already having more contractions. They told me I was on the list for the next day and that I would be a priority.
Home we went, in the Lotus no less, a very uncomfortable ride for me to make at that point. We get home, try to relax and sleep. At about 8:45 that night, labour fired up again in earnest. We watched and timed the contractions for an hour before calling a midwife who then came to our home. We wanted to still try for a home birth. The labour had changed character at this point, Jana had moved positions and was now spine to spine with me, giving me extremely painful back labour. At 11pm I was in an ambulance heading to the hospital. Once there, after the anesthesiologist tended to two emergencies, I was finally given an epidural at 3am. I was able to rest a bit, I was 6 cm when I arrived at the hospital. Once the epidural was in for a couple of hours and I hadn't dilated anymore, they started me on syntocin. My water broke at about 6:30 and the was meconium in the amniotic fluid. Once it became apparent that her head just was not engaging and I was still at 6cm and she started to have decels in her heart rate, we were recommended for an emergency c-section.
I was wheeled in and at 7:50 am she was born. 8lbs. 5oz. and 19.5 inches of perfection! It was not my ideal birth experience, the c-section was distressing to say the least. Mark said it was hard for him to keep his shit together watching my eyes as I stared back at him with my eyes as large as dinner plates wimpering about the tugging and pulling and disconcerting sensations I was feeling.
But, Jana is perfect and healthy, and I'm healthy and that is all that matters in the end. I'm recovering well. We're settling in to this new life as a family :)