Bowen's Birth Story Part 1

Wow! It has taken me almost a month to write this and frankly, there are a lot of other things I need to be doing, but I love to journal. Four kids is no joke. How come nobody ever told me how much work a newborn is?! ;)
Sunday July 28th at 38 weeks exactly, I started having contractions. Although I had had contractions all through my third trimester, I could tell these were different and a precursor to labor. They weren't particularly painful, but they were regular at about ten minutes apart. I did something very similar to this with Brooks and it lasted 3-4 days. I had to use the restroom for the zillionth time at the end of church when I discovered I was losing my mucus plug. I was pretty excited about that hoping it meant things would happen sooner than later. Fast forward a number of hours to the middle of the night. The contractions I had continued to feel (and had been able to sleep through) started to intensify just enough that they would wake me up. The timing was such that I couldn't quite fall asleep between them so it made for a long frustrating night. Just before 6 am I decided to go on my usual walk. I called my mom and we chatted and walked - with me taking breaks still every ten minutes or so to breathe through another contraction. When I got home they were actually a little further apart and more bearable.
I went through my morning as normal...same old story with the contractions. I had for sure lost the entirety of my mucus plug by this point though.  I had an OB appointment at noon were she checked me. I was at a 4! Woohoo! My belly had dropped significantly as well - I was measuring 3 centimeters smaller than the previous appointment.  I also had her strip my membranes hoping to speed up the process just a bit. I didn't want to do this for another 4 days. Even before the check/membranes stripping and after witnessing me endure a couple of contractions, my doctor kept saying things like, "I'll be surprised if I don't see you tonight or tomorrow" or "you are definitely ripe!". She also mentioned if I was one centimeter more she would admit me to the hospital right then and there. 
I got home, picked up the boys, chatted with my friend for a bit, and borrowed her birthing ball. By about 2:00 pm the contractions while still a ways apart were getting a lot more uncomfortable. I should mention as well that Dave knew things were moving along but we decided in the morning that he should go to work because I wasn't feeling like I was laboring in earnest yet. He was so cute - he called me every hour or less to make sure I was doing alright and to get a status update.
I tried to take a nap because of the short night I had had previously but they were simply too painful at this point so I simply did my best to get comfortable. Just before 4:00 pm I said a prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to either allow me to sleep so I could get the rest I needed to endure the difficulty of labor when it would come, or to let things happen quickly and be over so I wouldn't have to endure many more sleepless nights. Within five minutes my water broke...