The story of our surprise arrival

Monday night we had our friend Cathy over for dinner while her husband was out of town. Cathy and I were sitting on our oh-so-comfy couches (SARCASM here!!!) chatting away. She got up to leave about 8:15pm and I noticed that my back was pretty sore when I stood up. (This isn't unusual for me when I get up from our couch so I didn't think much of it). About 15 min later, the back pain wasn't getting any better -- and in fact started getting worse and began coming in waves. It was around this point that I went into the office to tell Matt to start packing bags: we were probably heading to the hospital tonight! (We had been on high alert from my doctor to not waste much time at home since this baby was likely to come much faster than Dylan). I showered, ate some food and we took one last belly picture (in between contractions)... I then texted my sister-in-law, Alicia, and warned her we might need her assistance watching Dylan later that evening, but I would keep her posted as the night went along. About 6 min later, I texted her again letting her know I'd see how the next hour went... And about 10 min later I called her and told her to leave now! We checked in at the hospital at about 11pm. In triage, I was 6cm dilated, but the baby was still very high. We then walked over to the labor and delivery room and I was 9cm, but again the baby was still high and hadn't yet come down into the canal. I knew this wasn't the same 9cm that I had with Dylan because in between contractions, I could talk normally and hardly had much pain. Additionally, the contractions themselves weren't very painful so I was trying to prepare myself for a long night. The doctor broke my water, hoping this would change things, but this just made the contractions come quicker and a little more intense -- but this baby wasn't descending into the canal! Around 1am, the doctor did another check -- still no change -- so he left the room for a minute. The nurse had me turn on my right side to try to help progress things along. Almost immediately, I felt the pain level skyrocket! I felt the most intense urge to push and thought the baby was immediately crowning. The nurse quickly called the doctor and waved everyone in from the nurse's station. A few seconds later, they flipped me to my back and told me to try to hold on for a few more minutes.... but Parker had other plans --- the doctor pushed the cart out of the way and raced to catch him because Parker just flew out -- literally!!! Parker Cole arrived at 1:04am on Oct 26th, weighing 6lbs 14oz. Proud daddy. Parker already causing trouble -- trying to pull his hat off! Passed out! It felt like the longest hospital stay ever! We had been up since about 4:30am Monday morning to go to work, and then didn't sleep at all Monday night/Tues morning because of Parker's arrival. During the day on Tuesday, nurses, doctors and visitors were in and out of the room all day -- not to mention attempting to feed Parker every few hours, so we were pretty much up from Mon at 4:30am until Tues night at 8:30pm, when we finally got an hour or two of sleep. So we jumped at the opportunity to go home on Wednesday -- I think I'll get a little more sleep at home! :) All packed up and ready to go home!