Hailey's Birth Story (Warning - May Be A Little Graphic)

We got to the hospital at 8am yesterday morning and I was surprised to find out I was 4cm and 50% effaced at a -1 station (I have been 2cm for like 3 or 4 weeks now). I wasn't really having any contractions on my own, so after talking to my doctor, we agreed that the best course of action was to go ahead and start the pitocin. For those of you who have talked to me recently, it wasn't really what I wanted but I realize that things don't always go how you want when giving birth so oh well. So, we got that started around 8:45am and he broke my water around 9:45am (he called it the water bag of steel - he had a very very hard time rupturing it, LOL). Things were off and running. The contractions were still bearable but getting a little more intense around 1pm so the nurse checked me again and said I was 6cm, 75% or so. Right after she checked me, I had a contraction that was like 2-3 minutes and so intense I thought I was going to throw up. I asked for the epidural and she checked me again to find that I just jumped to 7cm, 90% from that one contraction. The contractions were pretty intense waiting the 10-15 minutes for the epidural (I had to wait because they had to start a special IV since I have low blood pressure) but they finally got the doctor in and about 30-45 minutes later, the epidural was in and I was back to being a happy camper. They checked me again around 2:30 and said I was 8cm, 90% and put me in this special position that should help finish. I laid there for about a half hour and called the nurse because something felt different. I was done! The doc came in at 3pm and said he wanted to see me push to decide if he should stick around or if there was time to go see a patient who was waiting on him. I pushed once and he decided to stay. About 5 pushes later and her head was out. And then things got a little scary as her shoulder had become lodged (shoulder dystocia). Her head was out and I could see it but she didn't come tumbling out with the second push like Hannah did. Her whole head turned purple and the nurse stopped speaking calmly and started yelling to move this way and that way and before I knew it, she was on top of me, pushing from the top and the other nurse was yanking on me trying to get a good angle while the doctor was moving her, trying to get her free. I'm sure in reality it was only like a minute or so but everything seemed so slow and it was very scary. They finally got her out and I started crying when I heard her start to choke a little and then cry. They did let me hold her for a minute but then they took her away because she had swallowed quite a bit of fluid and her birth score obviously wasn't so great (5 of 9). She did have some blood sugar issues at first, as they said a lot of babies who have a more traumatic birth do, but once we got her nursing, she has been doing great. She has been checked out by numerous doctors and nurses for nerve damage and other complications that can arise from shoulder dystocia and all have said they think she will have no issues. Anyways, so that was my uneventful labor followed by an eventful delivery. We feel so blessed to have our little Hailey, safe and sound!