Taylor's Birth

Finally life has slowed down a little so that I can try to catch up on some things.  On February 26th we were blessed with our sweet angel Taylor Lyn.  She arrived safe and sound 13 days early and her parents couldn't be happier. Taylor had a very different arrival from her older brother Zac.  After a much needed night out with Mark and lots of complaining on my end about wanting to this baby here now my water broke.  It was nothing like I had thought it would be.  Mine was just a small slow trickle.  I wanted this baby here so badly that I thought for sure it was too good to be true.  I found my book "What to Expect When Your Expecting" and frantically searched thru it for more details on water breaking.  Mark ask me what was wrong and I was flipping thru the book and me trying my best to be casual about it told him I was just looking thru the book and nothing was wrong.  Of course he didn't believe me.  As I got to the page I was looking for he calmly ask me if I thought my water had broken.  He lovingly gave me the option of calling the Dr. and my mom now at 10 when everyone would still be awake or I could call them at 11 when he was taking me to the hospital.  I called my mom who came over to stay with Zac and we headed to the hospital.  We arrived at the hopital around 11:30pm and they took us back to a room to test if my water had actually broken.  The nurse that took us back told us that 3 women had already been sent home tonight thinking that their water had broken.  This information didn't help assure me that my water had really broken.  By this time I was having a few contractions that were getting my attention.  Luckily I passed all 3 water tests with flying colors.  It was my water that had broken and they admitted us to the hospital.  By about 2 AM the contractions were so strong I called for the epidural.  I was so swollen from excess water that it took the nurses 5 tries to get my IV in.  After the epidural was in the nurse checked me and I was only at a 3, still a ways to go.  I was nervous how long my labor might be was I was in active labor for over 16 hours with Zac.  To everyones surprise when the nurse came back to check me at 6:30 I was at a 9.5!  She left to call the Dr. and when she got back to me at 7 the baby was crowning.  The Dr. arrived about 7:25 I pushed 3 times and Taylor was here at 7:41.  She weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long.  I was so relieved that I was able to have a successful VBAC with this baby.  It was so much different than last time when I was wheeled into an emergency c-section with Zac.