1/31/12

Okay so this post is mostly just for my own walk down memory lane so sorry for the long rant with some slightly pointless details but really, who reads this besides me anyway? ha ha. Anyway, my sweetheart of a baby was born on January 31, 2012. I had an appointment at my doctors office to have my membranes stripped  at 8:50 a.m. I was already dilated to a 4 and was 39 weeks.. needless to say I was begging to have her out. The first time I had my membranes stripped, the week before, it didn't hurt at all. This time, however, it did. As soon as my appointment was over my doctor had me head over to the hospital to have a non stress test and see if I was progressing at all. We checked in to the hospital at 10:30 a.m. and after an hour of testing, I was having contractions (that I couldn't feel) every 2 minutes and was dilated to 4.5 cm so they decided to admit me to the hospital. I was so nervous. The nurse came in to start my IV and I started shaking thinking about what was going to happen that day. I was such a wreck. The nurse blew my first vein and told me I had small veins.. which I know I don't..(I'm still mad about it) Then once the IV was started I sat... forever. The nurse came to check me every couple hours. I quickly progressed to a six but then kind of plateaued. My OB said he would come at 5 if my water didn't break before then... It didn't. He got there at 5:30, broke my water and I felt like I peed my pants. A lot. As soon as he broke my water I started to feel the contractions. They got more and more painful. My mom begged me to get the epidural but I was too nervous so I waited and waited until I couldn't wait any longer and can I just say, I was worried about nothing and should have listened to my mom. After 2 hours of contractions I finally had the epidural in my system. It didn't hurt at all and I felt so much better after that. An hour later I said out loud that I felt like I needed to push. No one listened except my sweet mom. She tracked down the nurse and the nurse looked at me and said "well, I'll check you but that would be pretty fast.." So then I felt stupid and started saying well, maybe I just don't know... so as she went to check me my mom was touching my hair, my husband was sitting in a chair a few feet from the end of my hospital bed playing words with friends and my sister was sitting next to him doing the same. (It had been a long day) Suddenly the nurse starts calling out to Caleb over and over again, I had no idea what was going on but because he wasn't listening to her I said "CALEB!" He finally looked up and she said very casually "this is your babies head." He instantly stood up and started pacing the room all excited. I loved it. She then explained to me I was 10 cm and was at a +3. The doctor came in and I pushed for about 35 minutes. At 9:17 p.m. My baby was born.When she finally came it was the best feeling ever. She was so beautiful. We all cried. It was one of the best moments of my life. Now, two weeks later, I can honestly say being a mom is the hardest most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. I could not be happier.