a baby story

I started having contractions on Tuesday the 21st... not the hard timeable "lets have a baby" contractions, but they hurt none the less. I think I walked (ok, waddled) more in that week than I have in my entire life! My doctor was going out of town on the 27th, so we really wanted to have the baby on the 26th. So I went in to the hospital on Sunday the 26th, so that he could strip my membranes and hopefully move things along. The aforementioned contractions never stopped, they just never got any harder. I spent all day on the 26th walking... nada. phooey. So at this point my doctor has left town, and I don't really care when the baby comes, just don't make me walk anymore! lol! I was miserable all day on the 28th, about noon my contractions actually started to be a little more regular, and definitely much harder. I knew it was only a matter of time. Knowing it was likely to be a very long night I decided I should try to get some sleep. At 11:45 my eyes FLEW open... I felt a very strange "you just peed your pants" sensation. I fought my way from under the covers... made my way to the bathroom, where I came to the realization that MY WATER BROKE! I had never had this happen so it was a very strange and quite messy situation. I immediately woke my husband and told him it was finally time to go. we grabbed our hospital bag, I changed my pants, for the third time and off we went. Usually the drive to the hospital is no fun, I am usually crying in pain, but not this time. I was still having contractions, about every 3 minutes, but they were not so bad that I couldn't handle it with a bit of concentrated breathing. We got to the hospital and they judged by my waddle and my wet pants that I was not fibbing, and they got us set up in a room right away. The nurse came to check me and I was at a 5... WOOHOO call the anesthesiologist! He made it in right away and gave me the epidural. I am so spoiled rotten, I only felt about 10 "lets have a baby" contractions total!

Anyway, the contractions were getting really strong, and it was making the baby's heartbeat drop a bit, so I got one of the sexy oxygen masks. (I know you are jealous!) At about 3:00 I started to feel a little bit of the contractions, I knew the epidural wasn't wearing off because I was still very numb, I decided that I would wait a minute and then alert the nurse. 2 contractions later, I called in the nurse, she checked me and it was almost like chantel all over again! I looked at her face and saw the panic... not really panic, just alarm. She stayed calm, and told one of the other nurses to call the doctor...

at around 3:25 the nurse looked at me and said, "are you ready? In about 5 minutes we are going to have a baby!" Mitch and I looked at each other, and almost simultaneously said, "this feels like the twilight zone!" lol... it was so bizarre! This pregnancy was such a surprise and it seemed to go by so fast, except that last week! I pulled my thoughts together, said a little prayer, and said, "lets do it!" The nurse said we needed to do one push just to get her all lined up... then I started pushing and she said... "whoa, how about half a push!" Just then my "backup" doctor walked in, she sat down and said, "o.k. give me a push!" We got to about 4 on the count and she was here!!!

a perfectly pink, black haired,dimpled chin, pissed off little woman! It was amazing! I didn't have a single stitch either, how lucky is that?! I especially loved with this delivery that I got to hold her immediately. for some reason with the others, they whisked them away and cleaned them up first. but I was so happy that they gave her right to me, I needed that.

I cleaned her off and started counting fingers and toes... she was perfect.

I could not have asked for a more perfect experience. 3.5 hours of labor, no pain, no stitches, one push, perfect, beautiful baby! I can't believe she is here! When the epidural wore off I had pretty bad back pain, probably from the epidural, but now 4 days later I am feeling great! Now just be prepared for lots of baby posts coming up because little miss Annie May pretty much rules the roost right now!