Monday's "didja know??"

Here's my new idea for Mondays: A "Didja Know?" entry about something you may not know about me or my life.
"Didja know?" that I was all set to have a home birth with my son...but ended up being rushed to the hospital to give birth?
Here's the (very) short version of what happened. Throughout my pregnancy, I had never seen a doctor but instead had all of my prenatal appointment with my midwives. Everything progressed perfectly and we were completely ready for a home birth as my due date drew closer.
I was 41 weeks pregnant on November 26th, 2005. At 3:58am that morning, I woke up with my first "real" contraction. By 11:00am, contractions already made me stop to catch my breath and by 3:00pm, the midwives were there to help out. Things got really intense around 5:00pm and at 8:00pm, I was checked for the first time and found to be fully dilated, fully effaced and ready to push. Yes, that's 18 hours of unmedicated labor at home--mostly in the bathtub!
But, after my water broke and I started to try to push, the complications started and by 10:00pm, the midwives said, "Y'know, to be on the safe side, you need to be in a hospital." I put on a robe and slippers and we were out the door and the midwives called to say we were coming and to describe the situation. We arrived at the hospital by about 10:10 and my angel was waiting with a wheel chair at the E.R. entrance. I was whisked upstairs to the labor/delivery floor, where I was the only woman in labor that night. The on-call doctor had been summoned and arrived at about 10:15 saying, "You've got to push this baby out or you're going to have to have a C-section!!" So I pushed with all I had and then some, and our DS was born at 10:27pm on Saturday, November 26th, weighing 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 21" long. The whole thing was a lot like those dramatic birth scenes from the movies, that I would watch and go, "Y'right, like that really happens."
So there's me, having given birth in a hospital to a BOY! I really thought I was having a girl. We now know that I was just sensing his sweetness and that close bond we shared and assumed wrong. Oops. But what a crazy feeling, as I lay in the operating room right after he was born (that's a whole other story) and processing the last thirty minutes. "I just gave birth to a baby boy...I'm a MOM!!!...I'm in the hospital!!...I have a SON!!" Wow.
There's a lot more to the story, of course...so I'll just say that it was heart-breakingly disappointing to have ended up in the hospital and to have been denied so many of the things I wanted out of our birth experience. BUT, I did get the natural birth I wanted and he was born perfectly healthy. And going to the hospital really was the best decision in the end.
But, wow. It sure did add an interesting chapter to my life story!
I'll throw in some pictures just for fun: one of me happily laboring at home and one of our first pictures together.
And now you know! :)