Miracle Birth-Hadassah Grace

As promised, here is my daughters birth story! We really feel the hand of God was evident throughout!
Hadassah came at 39 weeks, 2 days of gestation which was quite long compared to Ben's 36 week 6 days! My hope for her birth was that it could be longer, gentler, and hopefully healing instead of destructive-both physically and emotionally. To facilitate that, the plan was to have no pain meds and to prolong the pushing phase as much as possible since it is impossible to control speed of dilation (and based on Ben's birth we were assuming that could take mere minutes).
As her due date approached there were several false alarms-I was in prodromal/latent phase labor for the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy. This means I was having decently strong contractions every 3-5 minutes, 24 hours per day but my cervix was stubbornly staying at 3/30%. I had been having contractions for weeks but not regularly all day. I was becoming exhausted because these were difficult or sometimes impossible to sleep through, my abdomen was constantly sore and tender, and I wondered what strength would be required to actually start the process if these weren't enough! Due to my growing fatigue and several other factors, the decision was made to induce her on the 13th. While I felt very comfortable this was the right thing to do, I was also sad and scared of an induction and really praying she would come on her own before then.
On Saturday the 11th I started having a lot of watery discharge. We were concerned that maybe my water broke so even though the contractions were still about the same (aka what most people don't feel until they are actually in labor) we decided to go in for a check. We ate breakfast, packed some things, took Ben to Grandma's house, and the headed in.
When we got to the hospital, they swabbed to check for amniotic fluid, then did a cervix check-3 and 50%, baby at -3 (high). So there was finally a tiny bit of change but not enough for me to get my hopes up. Soon they were back saying they had every doc in the hospital look at my slides and it was inconclusive-it looked kind of like amniotic fluid but not really. So they wanted us to stay and we would recheck in about 2 hours. When they came for the recheck, I braced myself to hear "unchanged"-instead, the verdict was a definite 4/50/-3 and the cervix was moving anterior! I was in active labor, finally! It was 3 pm and we were staying!
It took a while to get admitted, mostly because it took 3 people 2 hours and 9 tries to get an IV in! But once we were admitted, they checked me again-5/75/-3. And that's how it went all night-they would check me every 2-3 hours and find a centimeter or so of change, maybe a little effacement. Just very slow and gradual but something always changed! As the hours ticked away, I was so thrilled-this was the part we couldn't control but also the part we think did the most damage last time, and it was happening slowly and steadily! I walked, rocked on a birthing ball, etc-but the crazy thing was, there was a bit more pressure than what I had been having for weeks but really not much, even as we approached 6, 7, 8 cm. Both my doula and nurse said they felt like they didn't have anything to do because I was calm, comfortable, still talking and laughing during contractions even as they started to get strong enough to trigger early decels.
Josh and my doula had been asleep for several hours when the intensity noticeably changed. Transition! I thought, excited because though I knew this meant the really tough and painful part was coming, it also meant we were almost done. As I said, I truly was thankful as the hours ticked away, but we were at a little over 12 now and I was starting to get exhausted from being up for days as well as shaky from lack of food.
Well, things kept getting more intense, I got checked and was 9/90/-2. Josh and my doula woke up to help, and we labored on. We soon realized I was stuck-my cervix did not change in over 4 hours (yes, of transition) and Hadassah was not moving down. I was not at the point of screaming despair and terror like with my last birth, though by then I was in just as much pain. My doctor suggested breaking my water (oh, forgot to tell you-it wasn't broken before!) to get her to drop her head. This would make things more intense but I didn't care-I was already having to yell during contractions and I could tell I was rapidly approaching my energy reserve endpoint and knew we needed to do something. So we waited for a break between contractions so I could roll onto my back, then my doctor ruptured my membranes. Boy, she wasn't kidding about increased intensity! My body took over and pushed, though I was in control enough to do short pushes instead of long sustained ones, and I was also able to stop between contractions. Even still, she was out in 15 minutes and her head and body came out in a single push just as I was absolutely sure I could take no more. I have decided that the sounds I make during this phase of labor most closely resemble a dying rhinoceros and tried between contractions to apologize.
And then she was here and on my belly and it was all absolutely worth it! I had to have an extensive exam of all of my internal and external tissues to assess the damage-and that was NOT fun-but the results of the exam made me cry-grade 1 lacs throughout! Nothing that required stitching or repair of any type but just enough to restore bloodflow to old scar tissue. Hopefully that plus Hadassah's passage through will jump start a healing process!
The reason she wasn't coming down is that she had a short cord which was wrapped around her body twice. So short they could only get her to my belly button while we waited for it to stop pulsing and be cut!
Really God's intervention was evident throughout the process but highlights to me
1. Even though it was a false alarm, the thought my water had broken got us into the hospital. If left to how I felt, we would have started heading in during transition.
2. There were 17 hours between the official start of active labor and delivery. Everything had time to stretch!
3. My doctor is so awesome-she came in even though it was the weekend and she wasn't on call. She labored with me through the night, providing counter pressure, reassurance, and the right call on breaking my waters.
4. No new tearing! I am on modified bedrest for a month to facilitate healing of old wounds but after that we are very hopeful!
5. My daughter is beautiful!
6. Other than transition and pushing, the word I would use to describe Hadassah's birth is "gentle." I kept wondering if I was actually in labor-all the way up to 8 cm! And even during transition and pushing there were breaks and moments to breathe and gather myself in between (this did not happen last time and it is soooo helpful!). And yes, I birthed unmedicated.

Thank you all for your prayers-they were heard and answered beyond what I dated to hope for!