I am still amazed by the entire pregnancy and birth and I must say that having a child is truly a miracle! A definite gift from God!
Short version of the story:
I started having contractions Sunday evening around 8:00. I didn't think anything of them. They were mild and were about 15 minutes apart. Felt like minor cramps. I called my college roommate Sophia (who is a nurse), and she said to wait until the contractions were 5 minutes apart for 1 hour before going to the hospital. I thought that would be sometime Monday morning because I know the first stage of labor usually takes a while. Plus, I had been to the doctor on the previous Thursday and was not dilated at all. So I thought this would be a slow process. Well, by 11:00 the contractions were coming closer together and were definitely starting to get stronger. I tried to go to sleep and was hoping to wake up later on in the morning when they were closer together. Then we could go to the hospital. Sleep was not an option. By 12:30 a.m. I was in a lot of pain and I told Ricky to start timing the contractions. They were 3 minutes apart!
I decided we should go to the hospital just to get checked out. I figured the worst they would do is send us home. We got there around 1:45 a.m. and come to find out, I was not dilated at all. I'm sure the nurse thought I was a wimp because my contractions couldn't have been that bad if I wasn't dilated. She said she would monitor me for a little while. She came back 45 minutes later and told me she would give me something for the pain and she was about to say "go home and come back a little later". But before she said that I told her that I was starting to feel fluid leaking. (sorry for the details) She checked me again and said "oh my gosh, you are 3 cm dilated, you aren't going anywhere". That was music to my ears!
We were moved to a labor and delivery room and they took blood, hooked up my IV, and gave me some pain medicine. That didn't help at all, just made me a little loopy. After another hour, I was 6 cm dilated. By the time the anesthetist came by to give me the epidural, I was at 7 cm. She told me I was going to have this baby in the next 2-3 hours so they recommended just a temporary spinal block instead of an epidural. Basically it just numbs you for a short period of time. That worked for me! By 6:30 a.m. I was pushing and Sydney was born at 7:14 a.m. She did not waste any time making her way into the world! Which was fine with me!
Ricky and I are thrilled to be parents and can't believe she is finally at home with us. We are all doing well and will definitely enjoy this Christmas!
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