What was your labor and delivery like?

Everyone is different. And every pregnancy is different. With my 1st, I had a lot of back labor & was afraid to get the epidural. Had about 14 hrs of labor & a 4th degree episiotomy- ouch! With my 2nd, labor wasn't as long, episiotomy wasn't as bad, but had to have the Dr. "help" me deliver the placenta- which was awful! With my last, I had the epidural (was induced) & due to her coming out w/ her hand up by her face, it damaged my tailbone (which took almost a full year to heal)

I was taking my usual evening stroll around 7pm the night before my due date, feeling fine. Along the way I started getting contractions. Mild at first so I went home but within 2 hours I was on the floor. I waited another hour because they were only about 5 minutes apart and some weren't as bas as others. We went to the hospital at about 11pm and they hooked me up to check me out and said they may send me home. Came back about 20 minutes later and said they were going to admit me and asked if I wanted an epidural right away or wanted to wait. I wanted to wait. I lasted about an hour before I said shoot me up! So they did, and I fell asleep after that until about 8:30am. Woke up, and watched some TV. My water still hadn't broken but I was almots fully dialated so they broke it for me and discovered meconium. The nurse explained what that mean and what they'd have to do so they gave me some petocin to speed up the process......

I watched some more TV and within an hour I realllly felt like I needed to use to the bathroom so they doctor checked and said it was time to push. I pushed for like 5 minutes and he was born at 9:42am that morning, on his due date. The whisked him away for a second, cleaned him up, checked him out, pronounced him healthy and handed him over. Then the doctor spent what felt like years between my legs stiching me back up. I never felt a thing.

After 11hours of labor my dd turned around and pooped in me, they had to do an emergency c section. My 2 nd was a scheduled c section.

a planned c section
planned from 15 weeks
1 month early- also planned

delivery was fast, quiet, numb from chest down, could not see anything, as a curtain was up, until they handed me my baby, which nurse held, as i was so drugged up i most likely could not hold her myself, it was pretty painless, until the end when they were cleaning me out (i had placenta previa and they thought i might have to have total hysterectomy, but i did not- when they were checking that stuff out, i remember moaning and they upped the morphine. then off to recovery room by myself until i could move my toes- about hour, maybe a bit more- then i got to go to my room where my baby and her father were waiting

I woke up around 2am feeling like I really needed to go to the bathroom, I knew it was contractions. I timed them, and woke my DH up when I was for sure going into labor. Got to the hospital between 3:30-4 am, nurses checked to see how far along I was. I was dilated to 3 cm; nurses checked again about 30 mins later, I was progressing so I was admitted. I had my epidural around 9:30 or 10, the doctor broke my water around 11. Within 15 minutes or so, I was pushing, and my first child was born at 11:58 am. With my second, I was induced at 39 wks and 2 days. Except for the induction, it was very similar to my first. They were born almost at the exact same time. My DD was born at 11:56 am. My ob/gyn joked that he wished all his patients' labor were as easy as mine. I was perfect for having babies.

Induced 6:45am, most of morning was spent dozing off/loopy, around noon contractions got more intense, at 1:00 was told no more drugs, soon time to push, and my son was born at 2:48pm.

#1-woke up at 5 am in labor, by the time I got to the hospital at 8:30 I was 8 cm, they thought he would be here by lunchtime. Labor stalled, he got stuck, they had to use the vacuum and then break his shoulder to get him out. He was born at 5:36pm. I also had an episiotomy and tearing. Very painful.
#2-again woke up around 5am in labor. Easy labor, he was born at 12:30.
#3-induced at 6 pm, dd born at 11:30. Easy labor.
#4 and 5 were csections

Both of mine were long (41 hours and 36 hours) inductions. Neither were that painful, although the second hurt more than the first. I got stuck at 4 cm with both and agreed to an epidural (at 36 hours with my first and 35 hours with my second) to try to relax me more. As soon as I had the epidural both times, I progressed fast. I delivered 5 hours after my epidural with my first, after just under an hour of pushing. I delivered an hour after my epidural with my second, after pushing for 6 minutes.

First one was almost two weeks early. Water broke in the middle of the night. Took a while for contractions to start but when they did they came on strong. Got epidural as soon as they got a bag of fluid in me and hardly felt a thing after that. Pushed for what my DH said was half an hour but felt more like 10-15 minutes to me. From beginning to end it was about 10 hours.
Second one water broke almost three weeks early (nurses thing she was further along due to the creases in her hands and feet). Water broke early morning when I was on the way home from dropping our dog at the vet for some kind of venomous bite (his face was swollen). Went to the Dr. to verify that it was amniotic fluid and not just piss (I already knew) and then got admitted. Labor progressed at a good pace. Got epidural about half hour before DD was born (held off as long as possible) and doctor almost didn't make it for the birth. 8 hours long.