Ruby Cuties Births, Birth Stories & Mama's Calendar

Here's how it all happened for me........

Well here is a recap on what has been going on with me. I had the baby on 7/18 Friday afternoon at 4:10 p.m. (details..... sorry if its TMI) My water broke at about 12:30 or 12:45 a.m. that morning. I was just about to go to sleep and beg my baby to come out since he was going to be 4days over due. But at the same time we were going to the movies the next morning to see Bad Boys 2 so I kind of didn't really want him to come. But anyway I was laying there and I kept saying to myself it feels like I have to pee and it felt like I was peeing on myself but I knew I wasn't using any muscles to pee so I said to Rico (S.O.) that I didn't feel right and I went to the bathroom. Well it just so happens that I had to use the bathroom anyway (Bowel movement sorry again TMI) and then I noticed that for some strange reason that I seemed to be peeing for a very long time so that's when I realized that my water broke. So when Rico came to check on me I told him to start getting ready. So we got in the shower and headed over to the hospital.

We got there about 2 a.m. and I checked in and everything. And I tell you what a small world it is. One of the nurses on the floor was a girl I went to J.H.S. with and we remembered each other instantly. Anyway after all that and they checked me and got me in my room it was about 3:30 almost 4 a.m. So I laid there and tried to get some sleep and not worry about anything going wrong. By the way I wasn't feeling any of my contractions which were coming every 5-8 mins apart so they said that wasn't good I needed to be feeling something and I wasn't. So my doctor told them to give me pitocin to help along my contractions and they did but I still wasn't feeling them like they wanted. When the doctor came to check me at 9 that morning he said that I was the same from the time I came in which actually was the same way I've been for about 2wks (4cm). So he told me he would be back at 1 and if there wasn't any change that they would more than likely have to give me a c-section. So I asked him why wouldn't there be any change and he said because more than likely the baby was either too big to fit through my pelvis or that he wasn't positioned properly or the most common answer no known reason. So they upped the dosage of pitocin and told me to try to sleep. I finally started to feel the contractions so I just knew that I was making progress.

Ok so at 15 mins to 2 the doctor came and checked me and there was absolutely no change. The only thing was that when he checked me this time he did something and it hurt really bad. I dont know what he lost but he must have went to search for it and found it cause I now felt nothing but pain and I was shaking and crying uncontrollably. So I was really scared about getting a c-section because they would have to give me an epidural which I told them from the beginning I didn’t want because I have a very bad back and I don't like people messing with my back and on top of that I was shaking so bad that I thought I might be moving too much when they needed me to be still. (Throughout this whole time my S.O. is trying to keep me calm and laughing so I wouldn't be scared of the c-section) So they took me to the operating room and I barely was able to stand since I was in so much pain since the doctor checked me. I had to tell the anesthesiologist to let me know what they were doing step by step since I was shaking so bad I wanted to let them know when I was having a contraction so they could wait to continue prepping me. The doctor was telling me to let him know if and when I felt pain since I kept shaking. So I told him that I was feeling a little dizzy and he was saying that I shouldn't feel dizzy and I didn't get a chance to respond to him because I was told that I passed out and I had a seizure. Now I remember hearing everything that went on around me and I was trying to respond to people but I couldn't. In my mind I was there and I thought I was talking but I wasn't. (sorry if I scared u there) So they had to give me magnesium to calm down my heart rate and bring me back to consciousness. At that point they were just asking me a bunch of questions to see if I knew where I was, how I got there, etc. (making sure there was no memory loss) It was then that they told me that I had a seizure and I couldn't believe it. I never had a serious medical condition in my life. They said that when they put the needle in my back that they hit a blood vessel and the medicine reacted negatively which caused me to have the seizure. But after that they of course had to do something to give me pain relief since they still didn't perform the c-section yet. So they gave me a spinal tap and after that all was well. The baby was fine throughout the whole situation. He never went into distress or anything.

Ok they let Rico back in the room and began the operation. I was awake the whole time and about 20 mins later Anthony Ricardo George was letting his presence be known. He was 7lbs 7.7oz and was 19.5 inches long. He has straight black hair and he looks like his daddy with a little touch of mommy here and there. (not much as far as im concerned and as everyone who has seem him says he looks like his daddy.

All is going well with us. I'm happy most of the time. As long as I don't think about what happened and think about the negative stuff that has happened (the seizure and the c-section) and can happen (god only knows). So far no real postpartum drama. Im mostly happy when Im around the baby. When he's sleeping Im constantly checking him just to make sure he's breathing and he's not too hot or whatever. Im still in a lot of pain from the operation so Im going to O.D. on my drugs as needed. In the hospital I did pretty well since their drugs are so much better. I actually chose not to take them so I could handle the pain without medicine since I knew they wouldn't be as strong when I came home.

And thats all folks. Im going to try to post some pictures by next week if I can ever figure out again how to do it.

here is a link to my birth story. long.

http://swlink.net/~kfa/house/birth.html

We awoke the morning of Monday July 7, 2003 at 5:30 am for the big day. Today was the day Ryan Scott would be born. I was a nervous wreck, in tears, scared of what the whole labor process was about to bring my way.

At 7:00 am we arrived at the hospital to check in and get ready to start my induction of labor. By 8:00 am my I.V. was in place. Ryan’s heart rate was wonderful! This whole time they were concerned about it, and so far so good.

At 8:45 am, Dr. Hundley came in to check my cervix, stating that I was at 2cm. She promptly broke my water, which felt like I was peeing all over the place. She stated she would be back later in the day to see how the process was moving along.

The nurses came in afterwards to start my pitocin. The pitocin seemed to kick in right away. I started out having mild contraction for about an hour, but by 10:00 am they were coming strong and hard. They lasted about 60 seconds and occurring about every 90. There seemed to be no breaks in between.

At 10:15am I was in a lot of pain. The nurses had convinced me an epidural was a good thing so I decided to have one. There went my natural childbirth plans right out the window. By 10:30 I was in no pain. The epidural seemed to be a good thing.

At 11:00 am your heart rate dropped very low. The nurses called in doctors and I was quickly surrounded by about 5 of them. As quickly as it had dropped, it went right back up to where it was supposed to be. That was really frightening, but as usual, Ryan pulled through it.

Around 1:00pm my doctor came back in to determine I was finally at about 4 cm. Finally some progress had begun. I started feeling excited about the whole childbirth thing.

Around 3:00pm I started to feel every contraction, and it was no joke. They gave me some more medication and it gradually went away.

At 6:00 my doctor came in to check me and make me aware she was leaving for the day. That really ticked me off. The whole reason for the induction was so she could deliver the baby! Good news was I was now 5 cm dilated. My new Dr. came in to introduce himself. About 45 minutes later, my new doctor checked my cervix to determine I was now fully dilated! 10 cm!

Then things got crazy. The doctor started prepping the room and none of my family was around. Everyone went outside to smoke and all of a sudden I was alone on the bed pushing my son out. I kept begging for them to wait for everyone, but they didn’t want to hear it. Finally they came back and everyone was in complete shock. Derrick almost passed out on the floor. He didn’t know how to handle everything. It was only 15 minutes later and the doctor decided we needed to use a vacuum and forceps. By 7:30 we hadn’t gotten Ryan to budge an inch. They continued to have me push but Ryan was in a head down position, only his head was transverse. He couldn’t fit through my pelvis. The doctor made me aware that we made need a cesarean if we didn’t make anymore more progress.

By 9:00 they were wheeling me away to the operating room. I had to be given a spinal tap in order to do the cesarean.
At 9:35pm Ryan arrived.

Well this should be prett short and sweet since that is how it all happened. I had my 39 week appt on Thursday the 24th and I asked my dr how long I would have to go overdue before they do anything. She said if I hadn't had him by Sunday the 27th to call her that morning and she would make arrangements for that day. Before this she checked me and I was dialted to 3cm, so I had made 2cms progress since the week before. She said it may be awhile yet because my cervix was still far back. I went home pretty excited I knew that one way or another I was gonna have my baby soon. Later that night I noticed some streaking when I went to the bathroom, at first I just figured it was from the exam and that I wasn't gonna get my hopes up. It continued on through the evening and mil and fil kept Alex for the night, just in case. I slept all night with no contractions appearing. I woke up at 5am and was disappointed because I hadn't had any contractions, that changed within the hour. I started to have contractions so I got up and started to do somethings around the house. I put some clothes in the washer and watched some Tv and waited for them to keep coming. They pretty much started off at 5 minutes apart so I took my shower and told Steve that he probably wasn't gonna go to work today. He called work and told them that I thought I may be in labor. I called the dr's and they wanted me to come into the office before going to the hosptial. We got ready to go to the dr's and dropped off Steve's car at my mil's house. Steve drove like a race car driver all the way there, thank god it was only 5 minutes away. We got to the office and I was feeling pretty sore and my contractions where getting stronger. They took back a few patients before having me go back. I got back to the bathroom and the nurse asked me to get on the scale, I told her I was weighed yesterday and then had a contraction and then thought I peed my pants. I gave the obligitory urine sample and they had me go into the room. I got up on the table and thought I peed my pants again. The midwife said, let me check, she got a litmus strip out and sure enough my water broke. SHe asked when it happened and I told her it must have happened about 5 minutes ago when I thought I peed my pants the first time. She checked my cervix and I was 5cm, she predicted I would go before noon, when she would be at the hospital. So we where sent to the hosptial to have a baby. I got the the hospital and had to wait in admitting for my paperwork to go through, Steve was freaking out because I wasn't in L&D yet. He asked if I told them that my water broke or not. So he went over there all hyper, it was quite funny, and there I sat in labor watching Steve bug out. I finally get up to L&D and the nurse met me at the door, and asked if I didn't want to wait till Sunday, apparently the dr had made my arrangements that morning. So I get in my room and get all settled in and get my shot of Nubain. Which didn't help and sat there for a few hours and got stuck at 7cm. So out came the pitocin, YUCK!! The contractions got a lot stronger and thats when I started talking to myself. I had to talk myself into doing it and not saying that I couldn't do it. Before I had gotten to far into labor I told my nurse about my first birth and how I was afraid of the same experiance as before so they where very understanding and where not gonna make me push till I was ready. When they told me I could push I was the one that got to make the decision to do it not anyone else. This time I did have the urge to push and after about 5 pushes his head came out. I did scream twice but it wasn't like the out of control feeling that I had the first time. I felt in control this time and was more relaxed. He was born at 2:15 pm weighing less than his big brother at 7lbs 14oz and was 21 inches. He is the total opposite of his brother so far and its gonna be interesting to see how he grows.

The birth of Grady Macleod...

Here goes...

On Wednesday morning (the 23rd), I woke up with contractions at about 4 a.m. or so. They were actually pretty painful, enough to take my breath away, but I didn?t honestly think it could be the real deal (edd was 7/30). So, I stayed in bed, and just dozed between contractions. They were about 10 minutes apart at that point. Fionna had her 3 yr. check-up scheduled that day at 8:15, so I went ahead and got up at 6 a.m. Literally, when I stood up, the contractions sped up and moved to only 5 minutes apart. At this point, I realized that this was most likely the ?real deal? (as it felt just like it did with Fionna) so I woke up Lenny and convinced him not to go to work (a true miracle) and to go with me to the pediatrician appt. so I'd have backup. After alerting my mom and sister-in-law, we started getting ready. The contrax were pretty steady but not getting any faster. I was able to just stop and breathe thru it and then continue with what I was doing. We leave the house about 7:45 a.m. to go to the dr. appt. and I made it thru the appointment. In fact, the pediatrician told me that I definitely ?wasn?t in labor? because I didn?t have ?the look.? After we left there, I called my midwife. She said why don't we just come by her office so she can check me, thus saving an unnecessary hospital visit if this wasn't really "it." WE got to her office, they get me right in, and she checks me. I'm 90% effaced and dilated to 6 cm. She tells me to go ahead and take care of whatever I need to (dropping Fionna off, etc.) and then go on down to the hospital. She said that if I didn't have him before then, she'd be there by noon and break my water and get things going. We have my sister-in-law meet us at the hospital, and she takes Fionna. It's about 10 a.m. at this point, and the contrax are still about 5 min. apart. None of the hosp. staff even believed me that I was in labor; they even made me walk up to the maternity ward. After all the formality junk, a nurse finally checks me and I'm at 8 centimeters. They made me lay down for about an hour so that they could monitor the baby. This was hard as the contractions were much more painful while laying down, all centered in my lower back. Afterwards though, I started walking, etc. My midwife gets there around 11:30 and encourages me to get in the tub/shower. So, I alternate getting in there and walking, etc. I'm guessing it's around noon that she checks again. I have a small lip of cervix remaining, she says I'm probably still at 8, but she goes ahead and breaks my water. Not much water comes out so I start walking, squatting, swaying, etc. After moving for a bit, I get a big rush and then continual leaking of fluid. But, still no urge to push or anything. At that point, I just felt really sleepy. So, I say, I'm just gonna lay down for a sec. I lay on my side on the bed for about 2 minutes and wham, it hits me. Bad pain and an uncontrollable urge to push. (I forgot to say, my mom had since picked up Fionna and my SIL was there with us). So, sister-in-law runs out to get the midwife, and she comes in and says okay, let's go. She checks me and I've still got that little lip of the cervix remaining so she keeps her hand in "there" to massage it out of the way. I'm laying on my side with my knees way bent and pulling my legs up to push. I pushed maybe 5 times and he was crowning. The midwifereally worked to get me to push slowly as he crowned to prevent tearing but ultimately I tore a little because one hand was up against his face, and I tore there. As soon as he was born, they put him onto my lower belly. He had a really short cord, so he wouldn't reach any further! The placenta was delivered immediately after, and the cord cut soon too. Then, they moved him up to my breast where he right away started licking my nipple and rooting around. They let him do that a bit, and then took him to the warmer to suction him out, etc. I had a postpartum hemorrhage with Fionna, so the midwife was working hard to prevent a repeat of that. I got a couple of shots and first two, then one more cytotec (sp?) pill. It wasn't working at first and I was gushing a lot of blood but they started an IV of pitocin (I had a hep lock in for this possibility), and they got it under control. You all might remember I have that stupid cyst on my perineum. Since I had already tore, my midwife was willing to try to remove it as she repaired my tear. This was ouchy & took forever. It ended up being two cysts, and she had to dig them out. Ultimately one of them did burst, so there is the possibility that it/they could come back. Anyway, she said they looked consistent with the "safe" kind of cyst that they were diagnosed as, but she's sending them to pathology just in case. Sewing me up was really ouchy because the outer most layer of skin wouldn't deaden, and I felt all the stitches but oh well.

Now...Grady. As soon as they laid him on my belly, I saw something that shouldn't have been there. On his left hand, he had a small sixth finger, right next to his pinky but dangling by just a thread of skin. I immediately pointed it out, and the midwife assured me it's pretty common, don't worry, etc. But, I'll admit I was upset., just a feeling like something went wrong, I did something wrong, I don't know. The pediatrician saw it the next day, and had it x-rayed. There is no bone involvement, so it's merely this little piece of skin and a tiny little vein that were sustaining it. I admit I really, really just wanted them to cut it off, but they wouldn't. Instead they tied it with a piece of suture and will let it "die" and fall off. This should take about a week. He went in for a weight check on Saturday at the pediatrician?s request (to make sure the finger wasn?t causing any pain and impacting his gaining). He was only 3 oz. under birth weight and had already gained part of what he lost in the hospital, so that?s great news.

The birth of Isobel Pearl...

I woke up at 5 til 4 am. Having cramps. I thought still half asleep, "these cramps feel very familiar" after I had a few more I realized the familiarity came from my last labor. I thought"oh yeah, this is what it's like". I can't believe that I forgot. They were 9 min. apart. I took a shower and told my husband not to leave for work. They increased in strngth and time. But, never were a certain # of min. apart. At about 10:45, we called yhe doc and the nurse said I should go into the hospital to get checked. I was reluctant thinking that I may be in false labor because of the time between my contactions. (by the way, I nursed my 2 year old all thru out my labor. It made my contect. even stronger). We went and in the 15 min drive I had 4 contractions. I was admitted when they told me I was 7 cm and 100% effaced. I got there at about 11:30 . I was having a slight amount of bloody discharge the whole time. My contractions were coming one right after the other. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. O felt the baby coming down and they checked me. I was fully dilated, but my water was still intact, making it more painful, not letting the baby descend. The doctor broke my water and I pushed hard about 4 or 5 times and she was here. My daughter (2 yrs) came in right before I delivered and watched her baby sister be born. I had no medication as with the first and I didn't tear or need an episiotomy. She was born at 12:33 pm, an hour after we got to the hospital. She was 7'14 and almost 21 in. long. Healthy as can be and beautiful like her sister. :lol:

Dimitri's Birth Story~

Monday morning I went into my regular ob checkup. I was thinking that my ob would be scheduling an induction for sometime later that week since I was overdue. She checked me and I was dilated to a 3-4. So, I was put on the monitor to see what would show up. Contractions were there but not too regular. I probably would have been sent home but I live an hour drive away from her office & the hospital I would be delivering at. So, away I went. I got there and just took things very easy for awhile. Walked the halls, rocked, etc. Contractions picked up and they were not too bad at all. I did this until about 6:00 pm and was checked again. More effaced but still at a 4. So, my water was broken at 7:00 pm to speed things up. Holy balls! It did for sure. I was checked right after breaking my water and I was immediately at a 5. Contrax were way more intense and close together. Getting worse for pain. And I asked for an epidural. They sent for the anesthesiologist and he came right up. But then took a look at my chart and said that he would advise against getting one. Turns out I had an infection somewhere in my body as my platelet count was way too high. They called my ob and she also said that she would rather I not but it was up to me. They laid out the complication risks so I opted not to. But was a bit bummed. Oh well, not much I could do about it. I did get some Stadol (sp?) in my IV though. Didn't help, I just felt really loopy. Things progressed from there and the contrax were getting really bad. At a 9 at 10:00. Felt the urge to push around 10:15 and was told no by the freaking nurse, that she had just checked and I was only to a 9. I told her to this feeling is not new to me and to call my ob in. :roll: LOL! My ob came in and checked. I was fully dilated and to go ahead and start pushing. I started at 10:20 and Dimitri was born at 10:35!! 15 minutes!! I was pretty happy about that. We had a scare though. He was not responsive and first Apgar was only a 3. They paged some PICU nurses in and they came running. Worked awhile on him while I was kinda in shock, Marshall was pacing and my mom was bawling. Scary! But he started bawling and was pinking up. Yay!! We also couldn't believe how big he was! They estimated him around 8 pounds or so when I was still preggo. When the nurse announced 9 lbs, 10 oz, I about died! Also about how long he was. I was pretty happy about delivering him w/o any tears or an episiotomy. I guess that was the talk of L & D that night I was later told! LOL!! :D We were in the hospital until 12:30 this afternoon. Not too long. But the hospital is awesome and really nice so it was nice to recover there for awhile. Dimitri is wonderful. Very, very laid back. Eats great, sleeps a lot still and has these fun alert times where he just checks things out. The only times he has cried is at diaper changes. The girls have really taken to him. Morghan is a great big help and Mykenah likes him for awhile, and then gets bored quick. No jealousy yet. Here are a few pics-
http://www.pregnancy.org/albums/Kell.../ajf.sized.jpg
http://www.pregnancy.org/albums/Kell.../ajg.sized.jpg
http://www.pregnancy.org/albums/Kell.../ajh.sized.jpg
And the link to his hospital page-
http://www.siouxvalley.com/ClassLibr...lParentId=8937

Sorry it took so long but here is my birth story. As I said before there isn’t really anything to it. My DH and I followed the doctors orders Monday and about 10 minutes later I started having contractions. At about 8:30 p.m. that night they were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 60 seconds so we went in to the hospital. We brought my DD with us and she was good for the most part. When we got there we went to a room to see if I was in labor and I was still 3cm. So they called the doctor and they made me walk for a hour. When I was done walking I was 4cm so I got to stay. By 11:00 we were in the room and they made me walk again for 45 minutes. When I was done this time I was 5 ½cm. The contractions were getting pretty bad so I asked for an epidural and about 15 minutes later I had that and I was happy. Right after the epidural they broke my water. Then I got to sleep for a few hours. They woke me up to check me around 5:45 and I was 9cm. At about 5:55 they had me change sides and then they checked again and I was 10cm. About 10 minutes later I was pushing and at 6:20 am Josephine Aurora was born. She weighed 6lbs 8.2 ounces and 18 ½ inches long. Well that is about it.

The birth story of Ella Grace:

She was born on July 27, 2003 @ 9:42 p.m. She was 7 pounds, 15 3/4 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.

Here's the very exciting birth story.......it's a doozy and long

Well, we spent Sunday at our friends Karl and Shelly's house. Ben had a blast playing in the sprinkler and had his first popsicle.

Around 3:30 we went home and Ben fell asleep. Mark and I spent some quality time together and then I took a shower. Then I got online and noticed my back hurt a little.

Around 6 we woke Ben up and my back still hurt. Within minutes it got much worse and I noticed it was coming about every minute. I continued to ignore it, but then I timed it and they were coming every 45 seconds. We called my parents to watch Ben and they weren't home. Then we called my friend, Jill, and she came over right away. While we were waiting they got worse and I was pretty sure this was it.

Then my parents called back and they headed to our house, too. By the time everyone was here I was sure and we got ready to go.

By the time we got to the hospital at 7:30 I was at a 7 and 100% effaced, but the baby was really high. The contractions were pretty bad, but I was doing okay.

At 9:00 things were the same, but the baby was much much lower. The pain was still all in my back, so I was prepared for an painful exit just like with Ben. The contractions continued and felt slightly worse.

Then all of a sudden at about 9:20 they got horrible. I was dying and crying hysterically. I knew it was probably too late for meds and I was so scared because it hurt so bad. I was actually growling. They were one on top of another. During this time my water broke all over Mark because he was pressing his leg against my crotch as counter pressure. YUCK! The nurse told me just to hold on and keep trying, because it would be soon.

They kept coming, then I felt this horrible feeling and all the pain was in the front. She had turned and was ready. I felt the horrible pressure and screamed that I felt like I had to poop :oops: The nurse knew what that meant and called the doc right away. Then she yelled over for me to turn around and she paged for another labor nurse "stat". As I was turning Mark yells, "I can see the head coming." I sit down and the nurse turned to get stuff and was telling me not to push. I was just crying and yelling that it burned and then Mark yelled, "The head's out".

The nurse turned around and grabbed her and cleaned out her mouth and nose. Right then the other labor nurse came in and then Ella just slid out.

I looked down and all I could see was butt. I asked what the baby was because I couldn't tell if I saw testicles or what. Mark said "It's a g......" and then he said "There's no boy parts, it's a girl!" The nurse confirmed and I just sat there totally surprised saying "Are you sure?". They let me hold her for a second then had to clear her out because she had so much mucus.

At this point the doctor was still not there. The placenta didn't come right away, so they decided to wait for the doctor. He came about 15 minutes post delivery and was joking when he came in. However, when he got to me and started removing coverings he got really serious. I had lost a couple units of blood and I guess it was still gushing out.

He tried to deliver the placenta and it wouldn't come out. He had me massage my uterus and he tried a few things. Eventually it came out, but pieces of it and the sack were still inside so I kept bleeding. I was getting really woozy and more and more nurses kept coming in. It was weird because Mark was over with Ella and he was just watching with this scared look on his face.

It took awhile, but he finally got all the pieces out. (It hurt SO bad!) During this time I was going in and out of consciousness (sp?) and I guess my blood pressure got down to 50/0. They gave me Pitocin to make my uterus clamp down and get the bleeding under control. They also gave me Nubain for the pain. I was so out of it, I didn't care about anything. It was very scary.

I didn't get to hold or nurse Ella for about an hour and a half. She nursed like a champ from the get go though.

We eventually got to a room at 2:30. I wasn't allowed to get up until the next morning. I'm still quite dizzy feeling, but better. I opted not to get a transfusion (I was borderline on my blood level). Instead I'm on a high iron diet, supplements and I'm supposed to take it easy.

Well, it has taken me almost 6 weeks to write this, but here it is! Actually, about 6 weeks of not doing it and 30 minutes of typing this morning. Sorry so long!

I went into labor on July 1st. I was uncomfortable most of the day and had period-like cramps. I was training a co-worker on some things to take care of while I was out on maternity leave and about noon she said to me, ‘You don’t feel good do you?’ I told her I was a little uncomfortable and she replied that I was going to have the baby soon. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I started having some discharge and had to go out and by some panty liners, so I picked up lunch from Subway, too.

I worked until about 6:30 and soon realized I was having contractions as I started the drive home. They were about 8 minutes apart. I still stopped and picked up fast food to eat, but the fact that I couldn’t finish the food made me a little more certain I was in labor. Got home about 7:45 after sitting through traffic because of an accident and laid on the couch till about 10. DH got home about 9 and I told him I thought I was in labor. I wrapped his birthday present and ran the dishwasher and emptied it. About 11:30 I tried to lay down and get some rest – they were about 5-6 minutes apart then. From 11:30 – 12:30 was the worst part of labor for me, laying down made the pain worse, not better. So I started walking around. About 1:30 they went to every 3 minutes apart and I called the Dr. at 3:00 AM and she said to go on into the hospital.

We left about 3:15 and got to the hospital about 3:30. We were checked in to the triage room and the nurse said I was almost 5 centimeters dilated. I was so happy they weren’t going to send me home! We called my Mom and told her so that she could get organized and get on a plane.

They moved me in to a delivery room about 4:15 and started the IV of fluids that you need before your epidural. I got the epidural about 5:00 AM – and everything was wonderful after that! Getting the epidural wasn’t as hard as I expected and the result was better than I expected. I still had a little control over my legs, but I didn’t feel any more contractions at all.

We called DH’s parents about 5:30 and by sister about 6:30. We rested (read, slept, and watched TV) until 9:00. About 7:45 the dr. came in and said they could start pitocin. I was about 7-8 centimeters, but the contractions had backed off in intensity from the epidural. They also put in the internal contraction monitoring device then. At almost 9:00 my nurse, and 2-3 additional nurses rushed in and said that the baby’s heart rate had dropped and I was to start pushing. They checked me and I was 10 centimeters. The dr. came in and as I started pushing, DH got a little scared and kept going to get some water. They Dr kept asking him if he needed to sit down!

The baby’s heart rate came back up strong, so they let me stop pushing for about 20 minutes in hope that she would come down a little more on her own. Then, I started pushing again. The dr. was in and out checking on me, but the nurse was with us the whole time and very supportive. About 11:30 the dr came back in and they all decided we were very close. They called in the baby’s nurse and a respiratory specialist because of the dropped heart rate. About 11:45 they decided to use the vacuum. But, it wouldn’t stay suctioned to baby’s head (a new one and the dr. kept asking for one of the old types). So, she used forceps and we had Anna at 11:54 on July 2nd!

The pushing didn’t hurt; I did get a little tired toward the end. The delivery itself was just a lot of pressure, but no pain there either. My nurses were very nice and DH did great.

They held Anna up for me to see her, but took her straight over to the bassinet to be checked. As they were getting started there was a knock on the door. The pediatrician on call from our practice was doing rounds and asked if he could come in – I said sure, so he saw Anna right when she was born and took over the camera for a few minutes so DH could be in some pictures too. I hadn’t met him before, but he was very nice and we were pleased with the attention he gave us and his good personality!

When they finished stitching me up (about 20 minutes), I held Anna for a bit and then tried breastfeeding her. While they were working on me, DH took a few moments to go show digital pictures to his parents in the waiting room. It took a few minutes to get her latched on, but she ate for about 5 minutes so I felt great! Then, I did the dreaded first bathroom trip and was taken to the post-partum room.