Wednesday June 1st I had my appointment with the midwife. I was feeling good, nothing much to report - no indication that the baby was interested in coming out. Later that afternoon I noticed the mucus plug was coming out and then I started having frequent braxton-hicks contractions. Mom decided to stay the night just in case. Overnight the contractions increased in intensity, I was able to sleep a bit - but not much because the contractions were waking me up. Thursday morning they were still infrequent but becoming stronger and longer. I called the midwives to see if I should come into the office to be checked, but they said no - to just wait until they were stronger & more frequent. So I waited. They became stronger, but not more frequent. If I moved they picked up, if I relaxed they slowed down. I called again later in the afternoon wondering if I should walk or do something to progress the labor or not. The midwife told me to just relax and that the labor would progress when it was ready to. This was not exactly what I wanted to hear because I was not looking forward to going into another night of (now stronger) contractions. So I took a bath and laid in bed. And then they really slowed down - but after about a half hour they started coming every 3-5 minutes. By this time John was able to come home from work and take a shower, and mom got Angela to bed before we left. Got to the hospital about 7:30 and the contractions were still coming frequently in the car. Once we got to the labor & delivery reception desk, we were told all the delivery rooms were full, and we were dropped into an extra room outside of the main doors to L&D. I felt a bit tossed aside - the receptionist just left us in there with no indication when someone would be coming in. About 20 minutes later, though, a nurse did come in and shortly thereafter a midwife came in and checked my cervix - 4-5 centimeters dialated... which was a nice relief to know I had atleast made it into active labor. It wasn't until after 8:00 that I was in a room & I did get to see the midwife that I saw for many of my appointments, before she left for the night (8:30). It turns out - not only were they full of deliveries that night but they were also short 2 nurses. I had requested an epidural, but I guess the message didn't get passed on the first time, and it wasn't until later that I asked the nurse about it and she seemed to not know I had already requested it. I was definitely disappointed that my early labor lasted so long - the midwives had told me it was very possible I could have only a 12 hour labor this time, since it was 24 hours with Angela - no such luck - really, this time was longer than with Angela. So I got the epidural at 9:30 - this time I actually felt it whereas with Angela I don't recall feeling anything at all.
By 11:30 the midwife checked me again for dialation - specifically to check to see if I was going to need pitocin - turns out I was 9cm dilated. They left and I actually fell asleep for a bit and woke up about 12:15am, surprised that no one had checked on me since the last time. Finally the nurse came back in and I told her that I could feel the rectal pressures and was probably ready to start pushing, but she told me that the 2 midwives were both in the middle of deliveries and asked me if I could wait. I had the epidural, so I didn't mind waiting.
Shortly later, the midwife came in and was ready for me to push. This time was much more relaxed, no counting, no feet up in the air or knees to the chest (atleast at first). The only negative was that my epidural was stronger than last time and although I felt the rectal pressure when I was laying on my side - I couldn't feel it lying on my back, so I was actually pushing kind of blind, when I could feel my stomach and tell that I was having a contraction. Despite that, I made good progress in a very short period of time. The head was out, but then the midwife started telling me to really push, and keep pushing and pushing and pushing. The baby never turned his head so that the shoulders could come out one at a time, instead they were both coming at the same time. It got a little scary and she was calling in for help, but somehow I managed to push him out on my own and (don't ask me how) with only a minimal tear. Official birth time - 1:06am. Right onto my belly he went, which was SO much better than when Angela was born and I didn't even get to touch her until over an hour later. As he was on my belly and we were looking at him, I noticed that his hands were BIG... much bigger than Angela's when she was born. I got to hold him for a while and even nurse him before he went on the scale -and when he did and they announced that he was 9lbs 10oz all I could do was chuckle. They measured him at 21.5 inches but when I took him to the pediatrician they said he was only 20.75 inches.
Our post-delivery rooming situation was not so great (the food was good though & the nurses etc did a good job at not bothering us if we were sleeping or otherwise occupied)... we had a shared room because they were so busy. Not fun. We busted out of there as early on Sunday as possible.
It's not easy. The first couple of weeks were easy - he slept a lot and my mother was here. But the past few weeks I've been more on my own during the week and I've prayed a lot for help and I've tried to do my best to accept that there are going to be times (most likely every day) where things are not going to go my way - someone is going to be crying or acting cranky and my stress level is going to rise. By simply telling myself that its going to happen makes it easier to deal with while its happening. Summer is good for entertaining a child outside, except when you have a newborn that wants to be help constantly and you're all sweaty and a toddler who doesn't want to put sunblock on and wants to do things that are just downright impossible to do with a newborn. 
Although Angela wants my attention when she's cranky and I'm nursing or holding Cameron, she's been a great big sister. She wants to hold him a lot, gives lots of kisses and I often hear "baby baby baby" throughout the day. A queen of saying "sure" when people ask her questions - Laura, our neighbor, asked Angela if she could take Cameron home and Angela gave her a most definite "no". When she does want my attention and I'm holding him (usually trying to get him to sleep so I can play with Angela) she says "baby... chair" and points to his bouncy seat that he usually naps in right now. 
