Delilah Eve Hohner-graphic details

Well.
The major events:
-woke Thursday May 8th 2008 at 1:00 AM with timeable cramps
-thought my water had broken early (an issue) so went into midwives and had a test that "confirmed" it, so I was on a time limit to start active labour (contractions 5 minutes apart or less, or 4 cm dilation) within 6 hours or I'd be induced (NOT cool)
-found out my midwife, and my backup midwife were both at births so I'd be getting Sam (YAY!)
-she performed a stretch and sweep that actually broke my water and started active labour around 11 PM
-130 AM May 9th, called Sam back (she'd gone home for a couple hours sleep) as I was in active labour
-my blood pressure was up and baby's heartrate was high (not good)
-I developed a temperature (also not good)
-the heater in the birthing tub didn't work (picture Ben and midwife dumping buckets of boiling water into tub and bailing out cold water)
-contractions that were coming on top of one another but not dilated enough to push, for what seemed like hours
THEN:
-midwife concerned with continued high blood pressure, temp, and baby's high heartrate, combined with my lack of progress and eventual swelling of cervix, which then led to my contractions STOPPING (REALLY not good)
-midwife telling us we had to transfer to hospital, me to rest and get my blood pressure down, and take an epidural
-we got to hospital at just after 6 AM, and baby was so low that I could feel her pressing down, what a feeling....
-epidural (by that time I was thankful for it, trust me, but upset that I had to have it started, plus a catheter, what joy
-midwife Marie arrived
-there was still a lip of the cervix left so the OB on call, Dr Murencic, came in and helped push it under the baby's head so she could proceed down
-pushing...pushing...pushing...
-more pushing...
-constant beeping from the fetal monitor
-baby's heartrate was still high, and my blood pressure didn't go down as they anticipated, since epidurals will often cause a drop in blood pressure
-meconium appeared in amniotic fluid so midwives concerned even more, and we're told the baby will be intubated and deep suctioned immediately after birth to prevent chemical pneumonia in the event she had aspirated meconium
-OB notified of what was going on
-we were told that I had to deliver the baby ASAP but I couldn't get her past the pubic bone, even with help, so the next option to prevent C section, we were told, was forceps (I was picturing all the horrible things that can go wrong, let alone the tearing and/or episiotomy involved
-transferred to delivery room, more like a surgical suite than anything, with big padded stirrups and everything - cold, bright, and very intimidating and scary

-Dr Murencic is an AMAZING OB - when he came in the room I said, "please don't cut me" and he said "Oh no, I don't do that"...he told me when to push, when NOT to push, and used the forceps oh so gently to just guide the baby's head under my pubic bone
-as the head was coming under, I felt a "POP" and a weird sensation in my tailbone, but didn't think anything of it
-what seemed like HOURS later, and many contractions, her head was out!! Ben had tears in his eyes as he watched...
-finally, after several more contractions, and many pushes, at 11:11 AM on May 9th, 2008, our baby was born!! Ben announced the sex - a GIRL!! And I said, "Delilah Eve!" and they whisked her away (Ben yelled., "I'm going with her!" and followed)
-the looks on everyone's face as they saw how HUGE she was
-I delivered the placenta, looked like a large liver
-I had a tiny tear, one stitch (thank goodness, man I must have good skin), to fit a 35.5 cm head AND forceps...
-I remember Sam saying "You worked for every inch of her!"
-the OB came back in after inspecting her (I still hadn't seen or held her, at this point), and said that he'd let Ben tell me how much she weighed..so I figured she had to be huge
-turns out she cried before they could intubate her, so they just suctioned her nose out and got her to cry a lot to get the meconium out
-her Apgar scores were 9/10 at 1 minute and 10/10 at 5 minutes-wow!
-finally she came back into the room in Ben's arms, all wrapped up and with a hat on - the most beautiful baby in the world, and he told me she was 9 lbs 4 oz!! She was 20.5" long.
-I got wheeled back into the birthing room, and held my daughter for the first time
-Delilah nursed for the first time, at 1140ish
-I got transferred up to my room on the mothers and babies floor
-when the epidural wore off completely I realized what the "pop" had been - my tailbone had been broken again (which has caused agonizing pain in the weeks since her birth)
-later that day I had a massive hemorrhage which would eventually lead to my receiving a blood transfusion several days later
-several horrifyingly painful obstetric procedures were performed on me to ensure no blood clots remained in my uterus
-my blood pressure remained high
-Delilah was perfect and healthy but I had to remain in hospital until Sunday morning (Ben stayed the whole time, of course), Happy Mothers Day to me! Release!
-my blood pressure still remained high so I was put on medication to lower it
-Ben was off work but had to go back Thursday so my Mom came Thursday morning and ended up taking me back to the hospital to get 2 units of blood to bring up my hemoglobin levels, which had dropped to 68 (should be a minimum of 115-120)

BUT
-Delilah is beautiful and healthy, and I'm getting there
-I'm already down to my pre-pregnancy weight