She's here and this is how it went...

Violet Mae arrived after a very long labor followed by a c-section on October 6. I woke up around 1:30 am on October 5 and contractions were what I now know as mild and not too close together. When I thought they were closer to 5 minutes and I had to move around more, I woke up Bob. By 3:30 we were dowstairs walking and using a timer. Around 5:30 we headed out of the house and were at the hospital on a rainy night, by 6am. We were in a waiting delivery sort of room and they checked me, had me walk and checked again - I was 5 cm and admitted. We went to room 15. The midwife on call was Liz and our nurse was Tamara. By noon I was 8cm still walking around the room and using different positions to be comfortable, rocking chair, yoga ball and the jacuzzi tub and we had our first nurse change - Lisa. At 5pm pitocin was suggested because my contractions were not strong enough to move me past 8 cm. We declined and Liz went off duty at 6pm and Nancy was a our midwife. At 8pm we started the pitocin with an IV and I continued having contractions, now even stronger. What a trooper Bob was supporting me, encouraging me and a lot of times holding me up. I could not have gone as far as I did without him. Marilyn was our night nurse and she was incredible. She was helpful, encouraging and took care of the most embarrassing parts of labor lie they were no big deal - this was a huge issue for me to get past so a very important detail about her. At midnight I was 9cm and was told to 'bear down' basically pushing through to the 10cm mark. Around 2am I started pushing. We rotated positions every 15 minutes trying a total of 6, but sticking mainly with the 3 or 4 that had the best results. There was movement and eventually I was told that she had a lot of hair! Unfortunately, after almost 4 hours of pushing, the midwife called in the doctor for her opinion, which ended up being a c-section. I was exhausted. I hadn't eaten in over 36 hours, but was frustrated and sad. We had done everything we could, we fought so hard, I had no pain medicine, he hadn't eaten since lunch. He asked the nurses for a minute alone. We knew the choices, it just seemed so unfair, but neither of us could ask the other for any more, there was simply nothing left. At 6:30am on the 6th they dressed Bob in scrubs and started prepping me. I was wheeled around in what felt like a bad Disneyland ride. Bob had to stay outside while they numbed me and gave me a heated gown - both were really quite strange feeling. The anesthesiaologist stayed near my head the whole time and gave me some updates on the other preparations because now there was a screen between the nurse (now Sam), midwife and surgeon. Finally, Bob was able to come in and sit by me. He couldn't hold my hand because of the meds and there were tears in his already red eyes, but he held it together. At 7:35am we heard Violet Mae's cries and what a sense of relief it was, that small sound we'd been waiting over 24 hours for. They held her up, said she was beautiful, Bob said she was huge and how was she inside of me. Both of us now had tears in our eyes. They wiped her down and then brought her over to to me, took off the weird heated, inflating gown and placed her on me. I could barely see her because I couldn't move my head to tip it down and couldn't feel her because I was numb - but they tell me she pooped on me! (I guess that makes us even) The next 20 minutes involved what I like to guess was putting my organs back in place and stitching me up. Then things get fuzzy, I think Violet went with Bob and I went back to the room. Around 10am we'd already tried a little latching, more skin to skin time and the grandmothers were brought in for introductions. I was still numb waist down at this point.
The next days in the hospital are a blur of eating, sleeping, trying to get in and out of bed, and figuring out breastfeeding when you have no milk. We had 2 great lactation nurses and more regular nurses that we owe thank yous to as well. Lisa even took another shift with us and Marilyn came to see and meet Violet the next day.
Violet is now a week old as of this morning. We've been home since Sunday afternoon and Bob has returned to teaching. My mom and Bob's mom have both been a great help and our friends and neighbors have kept us supplied with food. I stopped taking pain medication in the hospital, but had to start taking it again at home, but am now off of it again although some times are more painful than others. Breastfeeding is going better, well for me, Violet is still struggling, but I am able to pump enough to give to Bob to feed her through a tiny tube (no bottle so there isn't nipple confusion). She weighed 7 pounds 4 oz when born and had dropped to 6 pounds 9 oz when we went home and we were having to use all formula then, even though I was pumping. Now she is up to 6 pounds 13 oz.
Soon we wont remember what life was like pre Violet, just like we don't remember what life was like before Lulu! Speaking of, both pets seemed to have adjusted just fine, thank goodness!