Maddie's Birthday!

I had my last day at work on Friday (10/19) and stayed out very late (singing karaoke of all things!) with my coworkers. On Saturday, I was super tired and, after taking a walk and going to lunch with Bryan, I took a long afternoon nap and worked on a puzzle. Because my due date was still two weeks away I figured my long to-do list could wait until Monday....
Saturday night we had dinner at a friend's house and, again, stayed out way past our bedtime. During dinner I was having some stomach pain but convinced myself it was Braxton-Hicks contractions. I was further convinced when they went away when I went to bed. As the night progressed, however, I starting having more cramping and pain.
At 6am I called my mom to ask her how you are supposed to know you're in labor. We talked for a little while and agreed to talk later. Soon thereafter, I woke up Bryan because I lost my mucus plug and thought this might be the real thing. Knowing I would be in for a long haul, I tried to get Bryan to go back to bed while I took a bath. Pretty quickly, however, the contractions intensified and I had to get out of the bath. By 8:30am, I told Bryan to call our doula, Marti, because I knew I was starting to need more help getting through the contractions. By the time Marti arrived at our house between 9:30 and 10am, I was in active labor and was having strong contractions that were getting closer and closer together. Sometime around 10:30am my water broke and I labored at home for another LONG, intense, painful hour. My contractions started coming on top of one another, allowing my no time to rest in between. I was determined to stay at home as long as possible, though, because I thought I likely had several more hours to go.
Around 11:30am it became clear that I was progressing rather quickly and needed to get to the hospital. I will never forget that trip! By the time I got into the backseat of the car, I started feeling the urge to push. Bryan drove as fast as he could while on the phone with the midwife telling her that we were 10 minutes away and I was pushing. Meanwhile, I was kneeling backwards on the backseat with Marti wedged behind me gentling telling me not to push....how, exactly, is one supposed to do that?!? When we got to the hospital, I was fully dialated and was told that there was just enough time to get upstairs into a delivery room.

Forty minutes later, Maddie was born!!! Everything about her birth surpassed my wildest expectations and dreams! I managed to make it through labor and delivery completely unmedicated and in tune with my body and my baby. I had the physical and emotional support of Bryan and Marti which served to keep me grounded and focused. I was able to hold Maddie immediately after her birth and she nursed like a champ! We spent only 24 hours or so in the hospital before we were discharged early. We brought Maddie home on Monday and have not stopped loving her and staring at her since!