The Story

(This is my version. Other people may differ.)
Ok, so you saw the post a few days ago where they said we could come in at 7p and they'd induce? Right after they told me that I called the FP Gal and let her know we were on the clock. This was roughly 545p. I then started to make some Mac & Cheese (alfredo style) and waited for her to get home. When she arrived I was eating. She said something about us being late and I told her not to worry. She was worried that if we got there at 702p, they would send us back home. The word 'divorce' was bandied about but I didn't take it seriously.
We arrived at 658p (and will stay married). We went in the hospital with our bags (sadly, the pack mule stayed home). After some wandering and asking of questions we got to the baby ward. Some nurses took pity on us. One said, "I think we'll put them in 40". Room 340 that is. The one they call 'The Ballroom'. Let me tell you, it was an unbelievably big room. Dimensions don't mean anything to me so I'll just tell you that we could have fit 40 or 50 people in there if we had to. Or possibly played racquetball. Or even thrown a formal dance.
Once we picked our jaws up after looking at our room, we called our 'support staff', the FP Gal's mom and my friend Jodi who would be in charge of pictures and general common sense. Jodi lives nearby so she'd be there pretty quickly. Mom was further away. Our first conversation with the nurse involved talk of a cream that softens the cervix. After 12 hours they move on to something else. We quickly regretted calling in the cavalry.
The next nurse told us something a little different though. A quick exam showed that she was between 2 and 3 cm. She said that we were probably far enough along that we'd go straight to the stronger stuff. An IV drip was put in place around 8p. She also had monitors put on her belly, one to show the babies heartbeat and one to gauge her bellies muscles. Our 'support staff' showed up and we started getting our stuff sorted out. We found out that she was already having contractions, just not dramatic enough that she could tell what was going on.
Around midnight I broke up our card game so that I could get some sleep and be rested for later. For me that meant 2a or so. By this time the contractions were obvious and each one was an event. The FP Gal had already gone for a walk around the unit and had been using the yoga ball. Next up was some time in the tub and some nice hot water. In she went and you could tell that the pain had increased. Contractions were closer and closer together with less time in between. I wanted to time them but the situation was a little crazy and I couldn't really glance at my watch each time. My sense was that they were about two minutes apart.
The pain was very bad and the nurse started mentioning epidural more and more.
The FP Gal finally said 'yes' but I made them wait. No request is valid in the middle of a contraction. A few minutes later she asked for one between contractions so we went ahead. The specialist was called for and we went ahead with it. We had to tinker with position to get the effect on both sides but once it hit you could tell a huge difference. Contractions were still there but not overpowering. (Our nurse seemed to think that she should be numb from the waist down which is not how epidurals had ever been described to us before.)
I asked the FP Gal if she'd had an urge to push in the tub and she said she had. I asked them to examine her and they found that she was at 8cm. This baby was on the way! We started noticing more and more people. Other equipment was brought in. Contractions continued (and were much easier to bear).
Soon after they told us it was time to start pushing. They gave us a plan as to what each of us were to do. Pushing started at 520a and moved on very quickly. The doctors were amazed at how fast it all went. Did I watch? Nope. Well, one quick peek very early in the game when she was crowning but not after that. It was probably amazing but I'm just too squeamish.
At 545a (roughly twelve hours after they told us to come in to the hospital) the baby arrived. They brought her out and the doctor said she was a Mister. Another quick glance showed that she was actually a Miss. They put her on mommy's chest and I said, "Here's Aurelia!".
She was a good shade of purple. A natural Viking fan I guess. They weighed her and laid her out. She didn't look like a newborn. Very big and smooth all over. I'm not an expert but having seen plenty of birth videos and seeing some recent babies I was very surprised.
She looked beautiful.