She's finally here!!

"11 Hours and 45 Minutes after your water broke and still no baby!!"

Once they started the pitocin the contractions came quick and STRONG. I like to brag that I have a high tolerance for pain but man, those things hurt. I had already talked things over with Kristy before I actually went into labor about what all my options would be. These days, when you walk into the hospital they will immediately give you an epidural. I knew that wasn't the route that I wanted to go. I had decided that I would atleast get to 4 cms before I would agree to the epidural. When I got to the hospital I was still only 1 cm dilated. They confirmed that yes my water had actually broke and it was time to get the ball rolling. We did the antibiotics then started the pitocin. They checked every few hours but I wasn't moving as fast they was anticipated. By hour number 12 I still wasn't at 4. We had tried everything. We changed the position of the bed, I got on the exercise ball, and I got the miracle drug.. Stadol. If anyone ever tells you "don't take the Stadol" DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!! It took the edge off the pain and made me sleepy. That was perfectly fine with me by this point because we were up early remember.

What my husband was doing while I was in my Stadol coma

Finally, hour 12, I made it to 4!!! Epidural please!! While they were prepping me I asked my AWESOME AWESOME nurse Ms. Price if she would hit me up with one last shot of Stadol. Little did she know that I really didn't need it but I knew it would help me get through the "stick" of the epidural. I have yet to mention that I am TERRIFIED of needles. So terrified that I almost opted out of the epidural because I couldn't stand the thought of it. Thank God he knocked some sense into me. By the time the doctor was there to give me my epidural I could have cared less what happened. I did tell him of my phobia and he did tricked.. I never even knew he had stuck me but it wouldn't have mattered anyway!! Epidural.. check, catheter.. check.. all that was left to be done was the doctor wanted insert a monitor that measured the strength of my contractions because the one on my stomach seemed to quit reading as well then Brent could come back in. Thank the Lord above that he did because we found out what was making my progression so slow. My sac which the baby was in (aka what breaks when "your water breaks") had resealed! Can you believe that!! Just my luck!! He rebroke my water and we set sail again. This time things started to progress quickly. By hour 14, I was at 6 cm and moving right along. You would know there has to be a bump in the road somewhere. I was hoping we had already crossed it but little did we know it was only getting started. My nurse came in with the doctor because he has been monitoring the baby's heartbeat from the nurses station. Everytime I had a contraction and it was on the downward side the baby's heartbeat would drop because she was laying on her umbilical cord. He came in and said that he wanted to try something first but if he couldn't get it under control that we were going to have to do a c-section. Once again, I was devastated and scared to death. I had come all this way to hear those dreaded words "c-section". He inserted a catheter directly next to the baby and pumped fluid into it that way when the contraction stopped she would continue to float instead of laying on her cord. I also had to be turned every 15 minutes like a rotisserie chicken and had to be put on oxygen. The doctor said he would watch for 30 minutes then make his decision. My mood of the delivery changed drastically as you would imagine. Everyone was tense and anticipating what the outcome would be.

Brent sat beside my bed, held my hand and stared at the monitor watching the baby's heartbeat. The 30 minutes came and went and no one returned. At the hour mark I made Kristy go out to the nurse's station and find out the deal. Thankfully, what he did was working. My nurse came in and checked me 30 minutes later and I was at 8 cm! She told me if I felt any pressure or thought I needed to be checked to call out. Not 10 minutes later I had her check me again and it was time to push!!

I pushed 4 times in a span of 20 minutes and our little girl was here!! Man, that was a breeze!! You didn't actually think I'd post her picture now, did you??

Pictures by Mandie Newsome Captured (http://www.mandienewsom.com/)