Picking Peanuts - a birth story

I have been having false labor for the last 2 or 3 weeks it seems like. I was just about ready to give up, I'll be pregnant forever. Castor oil didn't work, mango didn't work, just more false labor. I've just decided that if there's no bloody show or broken water, I ain't in labor...
It was a stormy Sunday night. We had debated on staying with my parents if the weather was gonna be bad, but we thought it was going to go north of us, so we stayed home. Boy were we wrong. It had started raining by the time we went to bed around 10 pm, the castor oil I had taken not even making me go to the bathroom (this was my second shot at the castor oil). We joked about Peanut deciding to come out during Carrie Underwood's or Miranda Lambert's performances on the CMA's that night, but nothing happened. So to bed we went.

I woke up with my back hurting... nothing new really.  So I went to the bathroom, no bloody show. Discouraged, I sigh and head back to bed, noticing that it's 12:16 am, and still flooding outside. But I couldn't get comfortable. Laying down seemed to make my back even more uncomfortable, so curious I got up and grabbed my phone to Google the chances that I might be in labor without a bloody show and of course check Facebook. I went and sat in Peanut's room for about 15 or 20 minutes, til finally I was able to determine that the back pain strengthened and weakened, like contractions.  I went and sat in bed next to Hubs, trying to wake him. Unsuccessfully, I might add.  He sleeps like a rock! Finally I just grabbed his arm and squeezed through a contraction.
"hmmm... Do we need to go, babe?" He asked me.
"I don't know, but we should probably get ready to." I was so nervous about it being another false alarm.
So we get up and begin preparing stuff to go to my parents house. That had been the plan all along, take Bug to my parents and labor there for as long as I could before heading to the hospital.  Even the nurses told me to labor at home or somewhere comfortable, that it would raise my chances at a successful Vaginal Birth After Cesarean.  I call my mom to let her know.  I was having to hold back tears as I spoke to her, I told her that we would head over there soon, but maybe not just yet.  She had been looking at the radar and said there was some bad weather about to get to us and it was probably best to go on ahead to their house. So we loaded up the car with the hospital bag, Bug's snack bag.
The rain was really coming down hard. I was crying by this point. We left the house around 1 am. Sitting in the car made the pain less bearable. I wanted to be up and walking, it alleviated the back labor.  But instead, here I was sitting in my car for a 20 minute drive in the rain to the hospital.
That can't be right... by that clock my contractions are abut 1 1/2 minutes apart! We pull off our dirt road and onto the highway and I clutch my seat and scream through a contraction.
"Do we need to just go to the hospital?" Hubs wonders.
"I don't know!"
"We're going now. Call your mom."

Good thing, too. We get about 5 minutes from the hospital when my water breaks. I call my mom again, making sure she's on her way. No, she's not, there's a tornado in her area. I hear the sirens. You've got to be kidding me. I don't have much time to worry about that though before another contraction has me screaming for Hubs to hurry.  "The road is too long." "It's too far away" "I remember why I got an epidural last time!"
Hubs assured me we would make it and I could get an epidural when we got there. We both knew deep down that I was too far into labor for one though. But somehow, that was what I needed to hear to ease my mind.
I kept reminding myself not to tense. Just relax and breathe. The pain was bearable when I wasn't tensing against it.  I loosened my grip on the seat as we neared the hospital.
We pull up and still no sign of my parents.  Bug is going to have to go in with us.  I know I should wait for Hubs to get her out of the car, but I run into the emergency room and straight to the elevator that leads to L&D, which is locked of course, its 1:20 am.  The lady at the desk tells me I need to register down here. "I have to get up there as quick as I can" I lean over a chair as I bear the waves of pain and Hubs quickly gives them my information.  They want us to wait for a nurse to bring a wheelchair. No chair, let me walk, it's better that way.
I go practically running through an empty, calm L&D unit.  The nurses are waiting for me, surprised that I'm walking.  I go to change clothes, there is blood. Ugh, I feel like I gotta poop... probably shouldn't try that though. So I go into the examination room and they make me lay back on that uncomfortable bed. laying makes the pain worse.  Bug is just sitting in the chair where Hubs left her, a security guard got mad at him and told him to move the car. Where was my mom.
The nurse checked me. "There's a head" She says, and calls the doctor, who was not even there. It's about 1:30 am now and I'm having to pant through contractions now.  The nurses keep trying to put in an i.v. Failed twice due to me tensing my hands with the contractions.
They quickly roll me to our permanent room, telling me not to push, breath, breath.  Refraining from pushing was getting difficult.  We get to our room, Bug doesn't want to stay on the couch.  I'm getting worried, where are my parents. Hubs can't be beside me because he is way over there holding Bug, my beautiful baby bug, who is about to be a big sister. There's a midwife there, so I let my body push, without actually forcefully pushing.  They don't have my chart yet. I mention my previous cesarean.  They all freak out.  I assure them that my regular doctor and I had discussed a VBAC.  They seem aggravated that in the midst of my rapidly progressing labor, I failed to mention that.  Why hadn't they pulled my chart!!
Doc finally gets in there, and takes his time getting ready, ugh. I was so ready to push that baby out, and for them to stop telling me not to push.  Just as he's getting ready, my mom walks in. Whew, Hubs quickly joins me just when I need him most. It's about 1:45 am when I start to push.  It was a lot easier to push than when I had Bug and an epidural.  This was how I wanted it. drug free. Natural. Letting my body do what it was made to do. What it needed to do.
What if it can't? What if he gets stuck like Bug did. Both Hubs and Doc assure me he's not stuck and that I'm doing great.  I just want it to be over with. I push and I push, for what seems like forever. I don't want to do this anymore.  Hubs is so supportive.  I'm doing great, we're almost there. I can do it. Then it stops. We wait. The nurses check the monitor for any sign of a contraction. I have a moment of rest. I just lay there, take the moment to talk to Hubs and the Doc, reassure myself. I feel the contraction building as Doc says this should be the last push.  What a headful of hair.
I push and I push hard! they're all cheering me on, so close. I stop for a breath, but don't relax, go right back into pushing again.
That feeling, the burning and pressure that builds up the more you push, I won't sugar coat it, It's not fun. You want more than anything for it to end.  Then it does. And that wonderful feeling of release as your baby springs forth from your super body, that is the most magical feeling I have ever experienced.  I look down and there he is, loads of hair, pink, and tiny, and perfect.  They place him on my chest and I just look at him.  He's so different from Bug, but still so precious. And I have him now.  I waited so long and now I finally have him.

Peanut was born at 2:10 am, February 11, 2013, in the middle of a severe thunderstorm and tornadoes.

That afternoon we learned that everything was flooded, and roads were washed away. And it was still raining!

Bug is the best big sister. She was so easy and gentle around him and was talking to him and calling him Bubba. I was brought to tears over the love and joy she displayed for her baby brother.

God was amazing through all of this. He gave us just what we needed, when we needed it, how we needed it.  I chose to pursue a VBAC because the risks of it were dangerous, yes, but less likely than those of a repeat cesarean.  I also wanted to experience what I was told was an empowering experience.  I believed that with Bug, my body was forced into labor way before it could prepare for it by induction at 37 weeks.  I progressed, sure, but I pushed for so long and she was face up, she wouldn't fit through my pelvis. I also had an epidural, and felt it interfered with my ability to push.  I had felt the pain of my hips spreading in preparation for Peanut, and knew my body could do what it needed to when it was ready.

I hope my story is inspiring for someone who is on the fence about a VBAC.  It was one of the greatest decisions I have ever made.  I was blessed with a 2 hour labor and a successful birth.
And my baby boy is so precious, and I'm glad I have an awesome story to tell of his birth.

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1 Peter 2:2