Nellie's birth

I was due to have Nellie on November 27th (our anniversary.) On Sunday Dec 2, I started having mild contractions in the morning, so we stayed home from Church. My Mom came and got the kids in the afternoon and John and I stayed home and waited out the contractions. I cleaned the house in hopes that it would help get things moving. The contractions were coming off and on so we went to my parent's for dinner and hung out there for a while.
In the evening the contractions started getting closer and started hurting, so John and I went home and the kids stayed at my parent's for the night. I tried to sleep, but the contractions were hurting , so I hopped in the shower hoping to get things moving again. After about an hour, we decided to go to the hospital. I wanted to wait until I knew I was in labour cause I didn't want to get turned away. My body is slow moving at the start, but once I'm in labour it usually goes fast. So, we headed to the hospital. I was checked there and I was only 2cm, so they were going to send me away, but John talked them into letting me go in the shower for an hour and see if things progressed. The shower seems to be magical for me in labour and helps me relax. After and hour I was at a 3, so I was admitted.
I went in the shower again for a while until I felt like things were near the end. I was only 5cm. Argh. It was around 3 or 4 in the morning I think and I was tired. Labour was different this time and I wasn't sure I could keep it up without something to help. I had planned to not have an epidural. I had asked for one with all my other labours, but things went so fast that I never was able to get one (which I was glad about in the end), so I thought that mentally, this time it would help to plan to not get one. Well, I felt good about getting one, so we went ahead. 20min later the pain subsided to a manageable level. I soon got fully dilated and started pushing. Pushing was so weird with an epidural. I didn't have the animalistic get-this-baby-out-of-me feeling, so it was harder to know what I was doing exactly. Nellie wasn't descending, apparently because her head was sideways. My doctor (who was fabulous) suggested trying different positions to push. I went on all fours, squatted, on my side, still nothing. Nellie's head wasn't turning. It was decided that I should be given oxytocin so that the contractions were stronger to help get her out. I was told to rest and wait for it to kick in before pushing and move around to hopefully get Nellie to move.  By this time the epidural was worn off and I felt like I was dying, so they refilled it. Soon I was relaxed and ready to try again. After pushing for a while longer, Nellie still was not descending and her heartrate was lowering, so they used the vacuum to get her out. Because of this, they had to check her out before she was placed on my chest. She was fine and soon nursing. She was born at 11:24am weighing 8lbs 11oz (the same as I was when I was born). It had been a long night!
We got cleaned up and admitted to the maternity ward where we tried to sleep for a little before visitors came.
It was so fun for our kids to come see their new little sister. It is a little crazy to think that we have 5 kids now!