She's here!

My little angel is here and she's perfect in every way! It's still a little hard to believe sometimes. And I really can't believe that she'll be 3 weeks old tomorrow! It's already going by so fast.

So apparently I slacked off at blogging a bit during my pregnancy.

Here's my birth story:
I was induced on October 15th. We got to the hospital around 7:15. Lab came in first thing and took my blood. That was the worst needle experience of my life. She had to dig around for my vein!

My doctor came in around 8:15 and broke my water. It was really weird. I just felt a big gush. And then lots more gushes every time I switched positions. At that time I was about 2 1/2 cm dilated and 60% effaced.

At 8:30, the nurse started the pitocin. Around 10:00 I started feeling contractions. They were pretty mild and didn't hurt. Shortly before 11:00, the nurse checked me again - I was now at 3cm/60%/-2 station. Contractions were also getting a bit stronger.

Around noon I got out of bed and sat in the rocking chair. My contractions were even stronger and I mostly felt them in my lower back. It helped when Nate or mom pushed on my tailbone during contractions. After about 10 minutes of sitting in the chair, I got really nauseous, really fast. I started vomiting right before they got the trash can to me. I was still puking when the pediatrician came in to visit for the first time. Great first impression I made!

Apparently vomiting helps with dilating. The nurse checked me again after I threw up - 3cm/80%/-1 station. Some progress! I threw up several more times during labor. Each time it came on really fast.

At 1:00 PM, the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I sat on the side of the bed, leaning on the bed tray. I think I jumped a little when he gave me the first shot to numb the area. It stung a little bit, but wasn't too bad. He worked pretty quickly and was done before I knew it. Each contraction after the epidural hurt a little less. I even got to take a little nap while Nate rubbed my feet!

At 6:15, I was around 7-8cm/100%/and between 0 to +1 station. At 6:45, they had me start pushing. Then at 7:00, shift change! My wonderful nurse left and a new lady came in right after I started pushing. Nice.

The contractions were hurting again. I thought maybe the epidural was wearing off, but maybe the contractions were just that intense. I don't know. Either way, it sucked. Nate stayed up by my head and held me up when I was pushing. He also had to count to 10 A LOT. I had to push 3 times during each contraction, and sometimes the mean new nurse made me go a 4th time. I could barely make it through the 2nd push each time, so I can't imagine the 4th push ever being that effective. Several times I just physically couldn't push anymore and would just stop. Then Nate would say, "7, 8, 9, 10" really fast. Ha. I don't remember laughing at all at the time, but I do remember thinking that was funny.

Mom held one leg and the nurse held the other while I was pushing. Around 8:30 or so, my doctor came in and they started getting everything ready. I knew things were getting close! I was almost done! At one point, a nurse came in and said there was another woman in labor at another hospital and that Dr. S was available for me. She wanted my doctor to leave me! My doctor had to say a couple times that he would go there when he was done - he even sounded irritated at her! (Nate, my hero, said later that he wasn't worried about my doctor leaving - that there was no way he was going to leave the room until the baby was out. =)

When the baby was crowning, the doctor said something about her having lots of hair. To which Nate said, "Are you jealous?" Ha! Not the time to piss off the doctor! Luckily, he laughed at that!

So at 8:53 PM, after 2 very long hours of pushing, my baby girl was born. After the nurse started to take her away, mom said that I wanted to hold her. She brought the baby back and laid her on my chest. Hands down the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.

She laid there on my chest while we both cried. They cleaned her off and eventually asked if they could go weigh her. I suppose. =) She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20.25 inches long. With the one minute APGAR test, she scored an 8, and she scored a 9 on the five minute.

She totally stole my heart. I am head over heels in love with her.

Thank you God for my beautiful, wonderful, healthy baby girl.