Grace's Birth Story

Grace was due July 25th, 2010 and didn't come until August 2nd.  We had a scheduled induction which I wasn't really excited about, but either way it was time, Grace needed to come out.  Brian and I drove to the hospital at 7:30am Monday morning feeling excitment, nervous, a little unsure of what lay ahead but over all so ready to meet this little girl.  We check in, which was odd, kinda like going to a hotel and saying we're here to check in for the night. We show up and say, "Hi we're here to have a baby today..."  WIERD! They get us into the birthing room and settled and my doctor comes in and the first thing she does is break my water.  Once she broke my water contractions started up pretty quickly on their own.  I was most nervous about having to start labor with Pitocin, but thankfully things were already under way before they gave me a small amount of Pitocin to keep things moving along.  Let the laboring begin! I was able to labor how I wanted comfortably in our room. We had a wonderful nurse, Bethany, with us who took great care of me throughout the whole short process. My best friend Johanna was nearby at a doc's appointment and wanted to stop by and say Hi. So she came around 10:45am and at that point I was dilated to a 6. I decided I'd like to get an epidural soon so I could just chill out and "enjoy" the rest of labor.  I threw up which dilated me to a 7 :-) then the anithesiologist shows up around 11:15 and asked Johanna to leave the room while I got my epidural.  She gives me the epidural and it's just starting to only work on my right side. All of the sudden I'm in so much pain I can't think straight and I'm just wondering when this epidural is going to kick in and then my doctor is there telling me it's time to push! WHAT?! but I'm still in pain? is this normal?? I dont' think I can do this.  9 minutes of pushing and then I hear this beautiful baby cry and they are laying this baby on my chest.  Grace immediately poops all over me (which Josiah also did that to me when they laid him on my chest).  And all I can think is Praise God we have another miracle.  They take her away and call out that she weighs 9lbs. 3oz.!!  I just can't believe I was carrying this large baby around last week. No wonder I was so uncomfortable! So after just 4 hrs. of labor I am oh so thankful for a nice big healthy baby!  Things calm down and I realize my friend Johanna was asked to leave a little bit ago. I wonder where she is and what she's been doing? Brian goes to get her and she comes in and I'm holding Grace. HAHA! She'd been waiting outside the door wondering what all the yelling was for if I was just getting an epidural.  It was so fun having her be part of the experience.  Grace is now 4 days old and already I can see changes in her and how she looks.  She is doing a beautiful job of nursing and she is becoming normal for us to have her here.

Johanna (due Aug. 23rd) and I right after Grace was born