She Made It!!!

Well, Lydia decided she would come out after all. I was beginning to doubt she would ever make her appearance. Let me tell you, though, she didn't come out without a fight.

Here is our birth story:

I started having contractions about 12 minutes apart on Tuesday night after a day of shopping with DH's cousin (who just had her baby yesterday!). They were definitely stronger than the "contractions" I was having the Saturday before when we had our false alarm. I honestly didn't think much of them, because at this point I didn't think I would EVER go into labor!

Wednesday morning DH and I DTD (sorry moms...) before he left for work. I thought it might make the contractions feel a little better. They were a little stronger at this point, and about 10 minutes apart. The contractions were still not painful and I still thought they were nothing.

3:00pm - We had an OB appointment Wednesday afternoon to check where I was at and check how Lydia was doing since she was late. DH left work early to come with me. At this point contractions were about 8 minutes apart and I finally decided to tell DH that it might possibly be something, but probably not. Lydia passed her Biophysical and Non-stress test with flying colors - she was doing great! And physically, I was doing great too, but I was so ready to meet my little girl. The OB attempted to do a cervical check but I was still really really high and he was not the best at "getting up there." It was quite painful and we almost decided to just skip it. But after talking about when we would schedule my induction for, we decided it would be helpful to know where I was at. Amazingly, I had progressed to 2cm dilated! WHOA! Was it possible that these contractions were really doing something?! The OB disrupted things up there as much as he could and we scheduled my induction for Friday morning. Finally, an end was in sight!

5:00pm - From there, contractions got significantly stronger. So much so that I actually had to stop for a second when leaving the OB clinic to wait out the contraction. It wasn't particularly painful but it was definitely uncomfortable.

6:00pm - DH went to Perkins to grab some dinner and see how things were going to progress. Contractions are now 6-7 minutes apart and strong enough that I wince through them. Since we were just in the hospital for a false alarm, we decided to wait it out a little longer. We went home and got everything ready to go. We were going to sit down to watch a movie but contractions were getting quite strong.

9:00pm - I decided I wanted to walk. DH and I went to Target by the hospital to walk some laps and see if things would progress. We walked and walked and walked until I couldn't take much more of the contractions and the waiting. Contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart.

11:00pm - We checked in to the hospital and they monitored me for a while. They decided to admit me. I was 3cm dilated at around 2:00am. They told me to get some sleep - riiiigggghhhhhttttt. The contractions were really painful at this point and I was really struggling to get through them. I decided the only way I was going to get through the night was to sit in the shower to try to make the contractions feel better...I was in the shower for an hour and a half. It helped. DH napped for a while.

7:00am - They started me on Pitocin to help things progress

7:30am - The Dr. come in and broke my water - This was also quite painful. I woke DH with my screaming.

8:00am - I was 4cm dilated and finally got my epidural. FINALLY! Things were quite lovely from this point until about 5:00pm. My parents arrived at the hospital around 9:00am to bring us breakfast and we sat and chatted and read magazines. I even napped a bit.

1:00pm - Nurse checks me and I am almost fully dilated and she predicts I'll be pushing my little baby girl out in about an hour.

3:00pm - I'm fully dilated but baby girl has still not come down. They decide to let me labor a bit longer to see if she'll come down via contractions.

5:00pm - The epidural catheter got knocked out of place and caused EXTREME pain in my back. It took 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to make it up to my room to fix the problem. I thought I was going to die. I was bawling and didn't know how I would possibly make it any longer.

5:30pm - The anesthesiologist fixed the problem and I was feeling good again. I slept for another hour and when I woke up I told them I was ready to push.

6:30pm - She still had not come down but I was done waiting. I put on my "battle music" (Raggaeton) and we started pushing. And pushing. And pushing some more. For about 2 1/2 hours.

8:45pm: The nurse calls the doctor in and tells me to go ahead and push with my next contraction. Then they yelled at me to STOP! Lydia was ready to make her appearance but the Dr. hadn't gotten his gloves on yet. When the doctor was ready, I gave another push and out she came!!! She was beautiful...and quite. She only made 2 little peeps but was doing just fine and was alert and looking around. She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 22 inches long (including her cone head). She is built like her papa and has a full head of dark brown hair. We can't hardly believe it!

Other little tid-bits about the labor (Warning: TMI): I threw up multiple times. Probably more times than I had in my entire life, combined. I pooped a little bit while pushing and sooo didn't even care. And tore just slightly, which the doctor fixed with a couple stitches.

I'll write more about how things are going later - I've got to hold Lydia so DH can eat dinner.

Day we went home - Lydia, 2 days old: