As we were leaving the restaurant at about 8pm, I thought that maybe I felt my water break.  But, it never seems to be like the movies where everything just gushes out, so I couldn't tell.  I whispered to Noa that I thought that maybe it had happened, and he was a bit concerned and asked if we should get a taxi back to the hotel.  As I was feeling pretty good, I just said let's walk back and see what happens, so we walked back to the Hilton.  We gathered our belongings and made our way to the car.  After much discussion with Sonia (who is a L&D nurse - convenient huh?) we decided we'd better make our way to the hospital just to check it out, since it was only 5 minutes from where we were, vs. 25-30 min from home.  Liko and Sonia took Nanea home and ended up staying overnight with her.  We were so lucky that they were there!

Once we got to the hospital, we were told that it was a bit busy and we'd have to wait a little bit to get into triage.  As I was still in no pain, and hadn't felt anything else that may be leaking amniotic fluid, we were happy to wait.  We actually ended up waiting about an hour, just watching tv in the waiting room.  As I was checking in, and Noa was still parking the car, I was happy to see one of Noa's hula sisters, Haunani (she had danced with Noa's mom since she was about 7 years old, and is now 24 and dances with Mamama), coming out from the back.  She too is a L&D nurse, and was on duty that night.  She is a new nursing school graduate and was truly fantastic.  We were fortunate to have her assigned to us.

Of course nothing is easy, so when we got into triage, our 2 nurses couldn't really tell if my water had actually broken.  I had to sit awhile and try to see if there would be any leakage.  Eventually there was, and I felt pretty confident we would be checking in.  Sure enough, our nurses whisked away the sample to look at it under the microscope and popped their heads in to say we would be admitted.  Haunani came and took us to our room and we got settled in for what we hoped wouldn't be a long, long night.  As I was still not having contractions (it must have been about 10:30 by then), we figured it may be awhile.

Eventually mild contractions started, but decided to wait for the epidural until I felt like I needed it.  The plan was to start pitocin at 2am if I hadn't progressed by that time, so we would plan for the epidural at 1:30 if I didn't feel I needed it sooner.  After 6 attempts at an IV (you should see the bruising on my arms, this must be what a druggie looks like!), I settled in for the duration.  At 1:30am Haunani checked my progress and I was 6.5cm dilated so she called the anesthesiologist to come.  He was with a patient and had one more after that, so she said it would probably be 20-30 min till he got there.  At that point I was beginning to have my doubts since the contractions were getting quite strong.

By the time he got there a little after 2am, I was having serious contractions.  He went through his spiel of explaining the procedure, risks, etc., then had me sit up.  Right when I sat up I had a major contraction and just knew it was too late.  It felt like continuous contractions right after another and I could not get comfortable enough to relax and sit up for the doctor to do the procedure.  I told Haunani that I thought the baby was ready to come so she had me lean to the side so she could check.  10cm and complete.  Time to push.  The anesthesiologist was very nice and said that it was up to me, and he could still do the epidural but it probably wouldn't kick in until after I had already delivered.  I did consider it, but realized I could not possibly sit up and still for the 10 min he needed to complete the procedure.

Once that was determined, it was a whirlwind of activity.  Haunani had already gotten on the phone to page my doctor, and a rush of people were all of a sudden in the room.  Since my doctor did not call back, she had the on-call doctor (a very nice man with such a kind face and I can't remember his name), a resident, a med student and 2 other nurses.  It seemed like it took forever for them to set up and get ready, but in under 10 min I was pushing and with 1 push, her head was out.  Half a push later, her shoulders, and I was so relieved to be DONE.  My doctor walked in right after that so got to finish up.  She was disappointed to have missed it, she got there in under 10 min after she received the call, since it was so, so fast.  2:27am Makena was here.

In retrospect, not having the epidural was not as bad as I would have expected.  I think this is largely due to being a second birth.  I am confident that I could not have done it the first time.  But, the difference in recovery has been dramatic.  I felt pretty good soon after, with little pain.  Again, probably largely due to being a second birth, but I think the lack of drugs, namely IV drugs, made a huge difference for both me and Makena.  We ended up going home Friday night instead of Saturday, and it's been good to be home.  Noa has been taking Nanea to the beach every day to hang out with Holly and the family, so it's been nice to have the time to relax and spend time with Makena.  

Thank you Holly for taking such great care of my often precocious and non-stop talking Nanea!  It's been more help than you know!