Labor story

Okay so call me crazy for having time to write this. Mark has 2 wks off of work, we split the night duty last night since I am formula feeding so I have a good bit of energy so far today. I thought I would sit down and write out Hannah's birth story while she is napping and Andrew is playing.

My doctor at my appt. on Tuesday asked me when I wanted to have the baby, I was on the verge of freaking out and was so ready. He said that he was on call on Wednesday (the day after that appt.) or I could wait a week and a half which would put me past my due date. I elected for the next day. He wanted me to come in that night and start with a gel on my cervix which would help efface me through the night. We went into the hospital at 8pm, they didn't put the gel on until 10pm. I started feeling crampy almost right away but took a much needed sleeping pill and went to sleep around midnight. At 2am I woke up with contractions. They were 2 1/2 minutes apart and getting stronger and stronger. I let Mark sleep until about 4 because I knew that this was it and I wanted him to be rested up for the long haul. At 4 am my contractions were pretty hard so I finally woke him up and told him I was in labor and that he needed to get up. I wasn't expecting to go into labor with the gel, a lot of women don't go into labor with it. At 6am they checked me and I was only 3 cm dialated and 70% effaced. They started me on a low dose of pitocin, at this point my contractions were still 2- 2 1/2 min. apart and getting longer in duration. Mark and I were listening to worship music and praying during each contraction. When I am in labor I get into a deep relaxation where I can focus during each contraction and relax in between. Mark is the BEST labor coach around. I did almost kill him this time.....quick funny story. We had on one of my favorite worship songs, I was in the middle of a hard contraction and was singing along w/ the song, he thought it would be funny to change the song in the middle to a heavy metal song. It messed up my concentration so much, I got so mad at him I just started yelling. Now looking back I see it as funny, but at the time I was so mad at him! Okay back to the labor....I was ready to get my epidural around 6am, but Mark really wanted me to wait until I saw my Dr. who was coming on call at 8am. I let him be my voice of reason and waited until my doctor came on call at 8 to start talking about an epidural. At 8am when he came in, he checked me and I hadn't progressed at all, still 3 cm. He broke my water then and we contacted the "epidural man" and he came to give me my epidural at 8:30. It didn't kick in until around 9am. My nurse came in to check my progress at around 10:20, she said I was only 5 cm dialated but I was 100% effaced. I was discouraged that I was progressing so slowly....I was faster w/Andrew. But about 10 min. later I started to get really uncomfortable and feeling the urge to push, I paged my nurse and told her. She checked me again and I was now fully dialated. So in 10 min. I went from 5 cm to 10 cm, WHAT??? She could see Hannah's head. She paged my doctor, we couldn't find him. Come to find out he was doing a surgery in the surgical center in the building a few buildings down. There were no other doctors on call. My doctor quickly finished his surgery and sprinted across 3 parking lots to get back to me. He came in sweating and panting, he was so shocked that I was ready to push. It took about 20 minutes from the time that I felt the urge to push until I was able to. I had to work really hard to hold her in until the doctor got there, that was quite uncomfortable!

Once my doctor was ready he said "okay Lauren, you could sneeze and your baby will come out." So I pushed lightly one time and out she came at 10:51 am! Beautiful as can be!! All in all my labor was around 8 1/2 hrs, I only had the epidural working for about 1 1/2 hrs of that. I had no stitches at all, and am feeling a little crampy. But other than that I have to make myself stop cleaning the house already.

I am so blessed today! All I can think about is how long I have been praying for her, and now she is here. She is such a joy, barely cries, and just loves to look at her mommy and daddy. I cried when she was born, I was so overwhelmed with love for her but also love for my God who heard my prayers and answered them! Mark and I are filled with gratitude and thankfulness! Thank you for everyone who has held us up in prayer the past 2 yrs, your prayers were heard and this miracle is just as much proof of your prayers as it is of ours!