Labor & Delivery

So by now everyone knows we had the baby. It was a very eventful couple of days. Monday night we were admitted into Labor & Delivery at St. Vincent's hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Things pretty much went quick. They got my registered and gave me a sleeping pill and cervadil to try to get something started. My nurse was so sweet. Jeff and I were both really tired so we went to bed fairly early. The nurse said she would wake me up @ 4:00 am so that I could get showered. I, of course, needed to make sure I looked pretty for Ashlyn-Kay's debut. I showered and the doctor came in and broke my water. It wasn't bad at all, but the afterwards was well....just icky. So our timeline so far. Pitocin drip was started at 5:15 am, doc broke water @ 6:30 am. The family all started to arrive around 7 or 8. Once my water was broken I could feel some contractions but they didn't really hurt that bad. The doctor dropped by and I had dilated to 3 centimeters. Right before that I decided to go ahead and have a little pain medicine. All the people were starting to get on my nerves and I thought that would help. Which it completely did! I actually fell asleep. Once I had made it to 3 centimeters the doctor and nurse suggested I go ahead and take the epidural. I didn't really want it yet, but they sort of made me. The guy with the good stuff came in and gave me the epidural. It didn't hurt at all. There were some things that happened that I will spare everyone but it was a little icky again. I made it though! So I took another short little nap, posed for a couple of pics, and then it happened. The nurse sent everyone out and she checked. She told Jeff and I that it was time. I had dilated to 10 centimeters in about 3 hours, maybe not even that long. It was only 10:30 am. Everyone was shocked. My family gave me hugs and kisses. My mother told me I had to wake up and start to push. So we did. It was so weird though because I couldn't feel my legs and or anything below my waist for that fact so pushing was a little difficult. They had to put an oxygen mask on me because her cord was wrapped around her neck and couldn't breathe when I would contract. Jeff and the nurse would watch the monitor and then tell me to go. The first time I just made some blowing noises and the nurse told me that wasn't going to cut it. I tried again, successful this time. The doctor finally showed up and then we were really cooking. 10 pushes later, 26 minutes, here she was. They pulled her out, put her on my stomach, and I just stared! I couldn't believe that she was out and that she was what Jeff and I had made. I just looked so hard at her. I didn't know how to react. I also couldn't keep my eyes open. I was still really doped up and didn't really grasp what was going on. Here she was. Weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and 20.5 inches. Strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Of course those blue eyes probably won't stay. I was so excited about the hair, I think it was the 1st question I asked.
It was a box of emotions! My family came in and she was wrapped up in their arms for hours. The pregnancy was easy, the delivery was easier, and now we will see about the baby raising! More to come later. Sorry it took so long to get back to things.