The Birth of Our Daughter!

 Our baby M was born at 4pm weighing in at 5lbs 6 oz and measuring 18.5 inches long.

Little did I know while writing the last post that I would go into labor that very night. We went to bed at an early hour on our second wedding anniversary, and I had my normal pregnancy insomnia. My body was weary, yet my mind would not fall asleep.  After failing to fall asleep, I got up around midnight and went on the computer. A little later I went back to bed and attempted to fall asleep again. Boy did I fail at that one! I had just gotten cozy (not too easy a feat while 8 months pregnant) when baby girl gave a great full bodied kick. It was a rare kick at this stage of the pregnancy as she had replaced such vigorous kicking with more gentle movements due to the space confinements. All of a sudden with the kick I felt myself pop from the inside! I crossed my legs, rolled out of bed, and hopped my way to the bathroom. My water had broken! Thankfully not one drop reached the bed or the carpet. I called to N, and he rolled over. I called again and said, "In less than 24 hours we were going to see our daughter!" I wish I could say that we simply put our bags in the car and made our way for the hospital. That next day was the day I had promised to get the bags all packed. So, we went around the house finishing up our hospital packing and took out the video camera to get a pregnancy video I had promised my grandmother. In the dark of night we calmly headed for the hospital in the drizzling rain and met no traffic through the infamous tunnel. The drive to the hospital felt like the calm before the storm because, while I was in no pain, we knew our baby would be here within the day. I felt such relief that N was home when I my water broke and was at my side through the whole process.  We were admitted to triage at 3 am where it was confirmed that my waters had broken and that I was less than 2 cm dilated. We waited there for half an hour until we were officially admitted to labor and delivery. Two hours later I was still at 2 cm with irregular painless contractions. At 7 am they used a foley bulb to encourage dilation. As my labor was not progressing well against the twenty-four hour time constraint due to the waters having broken, I was started on an oxytocin induction at 9:30 am.  With this intervention my attempt for a natural labor ended. Since a medically induced labor was certainly not a natural labor, I had decided that if they said oxy I would say epi. By noon, I was at 7 cm and received the epidural a little while later. Getting the epi took two tries, two doctors, and three contractions. It was most uncomfortable having to be perfectly still through those contractions. Twelve hours into our hospital stay, I was ready to push. After having been awake for 31 hours, the thought of then pushing seemed an impossibly difficult task. Yet, I was astonished that the pushing process was invigorating and dare I say enjoyable. What a relief to work through those contractions rather than breathing through them! N was a great support as he counted for me and actually held his breath while I held mine. It was a family effort~ all three of us working towards the same goal. Pushing for an hour only felt like 15 minuets as I enjoyed watching my progress and was given a flood of energy for the task at hand. One of the most joyous moments of my life was touching our daughter for the first time while she was still inside me. It was a sweet hour of labor ending with the arrival of our tiny baby girl! They put her on me all slimy just like I had asked them, and then she went for a bath. Thank you for all your prayers, support, and love. We are blessed.

 I uploaded quite a few closeups so that you can get the views you would have gotten if you could be here with us.