She's here!!!

She's here! Norah Caroline arrive at 9:20 am Saturday, 6/13. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and is 20 inches. She's perfect and came out wailing away ;0) The whole experience was great, especially since my labor from start to delivery was only about 8 hours.

At my 38 week appt. on Fri., I was told I was 1 1/2 cm. dialated. Since I had made no previous progress, Dr. Sternberg (one of my favorites at the practice) and I joked that since she was on call that weekend, I would probably see her later. Unbeknownst to me, she had stripped my membranes and further dialated me just a little bit.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant that is famous in Atlanta for it's labor-inducing eggplant parmesan (if you'd like to read about the place- http://www.scalinis.com/Bambino.htm) and put our names in the baby book for grins, since I wasn't due for 12 more days. At dinner, we discussed what we still needed to do for the baby arrival and that we probably needed to get it done this weekend. I said to Brad "it's weird...this could be the last weekend that it is just us..."

About 11:30, I had some "gas pains" that I dismissed since I had just eaten such a big, rich meal. I got comfy and had just started to fall asleep around midnight when my water broke. I was so surprised at what was happening, I just laid there. I shook Brad awake to tell him my water had broken. He starts throwing stuff in my bag (he had yet to pack his) while I showered, called my dr, and some of our friends. The contractions started on the way to the hospital and were coming at four minutes on the dot, but didn't feel like much more than cramps.

Our last picture of just us...


The oxygen was great!!


Brad waiting for his little girl to get here!!


We got the to the hospital and were admitted around 1:30. I was still at 1 1/2 cm but contracting regularly and since my water had already broken, I was on the clock. At about 4 am, I was in so much pain, but didn't want to get the epi yet. I got some fentenol in my IV and it did nothing for me but make me be able to relax between contractions, which made the actual contractions hurt even more. So after about 30 min, I told the nurse that I still hurt and she said she'd call the ansthesiologist and get everything ready.

I got the epi around 5 am and was still only 3 cm at that point. I was startig to get upset that I was only 3 cm and wondered how long this was going to take...but once the epi took affect, my contractions picked up even thought I could only feel pressure. I guess once my body couId relax, it really got to work on getting Norah out.

I snoozed until 7:30. I asked the day nurse what would happen next, and she said my dr. would be in around 9 am to check my progress, and that if I had any pressure in my bottom with the contractions to let her know. Um, I had been having that pressure for the last hour and a half, I told her. A little after 8, my dr. walked in and the nurse told her I was having pressure, so my dr. checked me for progress. When she went to check, she was shocked b/c I was already to 10 cm, +2 and she could see Norah's head all the way down in the birth canal. She asked if I was ready to push and I said "Can we wait a little longer"? All I could think was that there was no way she was ready to come out yet. The nurse and Dr. Sternberg started laughing and said they had never had someone ask to NOT push.

It took about 20 min for them to set up the room and I started pushing around 8:50. I could still feel the need to push when a contraction came and although the epi helped with the pain, I could feel Norah wedged in between my hip bones and pushing them apart- not fun!

After about 10 pushes, she was born. She cried and wailed and even though I had said I wanted her cleaned up before the gave her to me, once I saw her I just reached out and put her right on my chest all gooey and everything. She was looking around at everyone and very alert. She was perfect and scored 9s on her APGAR (the nurse said she would have given her 10s, but they don't do that at this hospital).

The rest of the hospital stay was pretty uneventful. We're got back home yesterday and trying to get into a routine!