YEAH! We had the baby!

Here's the story. I woke up yesterday morning with an unusual amount of pain and pressure in my lower abdomen. I couldn't even walk across our house without this severe cramping and pain. I was sent into the hospital, by the doctor, to be evaluated. The point was to see if I was experiencing labor or if I was just having a EXTRA strange day. No labor - pain and cramping, some contractions and nothing else. An hour and a half later, they sent me home.

I decided to take the kids to Albertson's to pick out $1 movie they haven't seen before so I could get some rest. While in the video section, my water broke. It was in a less dramatic way than some might imagine. As a matter of fact, I kept questioning if my water had broke. Only one way to find out, go back into the hospital. After evaluations and a "I'm not too convinced," by the nurse--my water had broke.

BUT, I was not having regular or consistent contractions just similar pains to the morning. So, I did have to be induced. I was immediately given Pitocin (sp?). This was somewhere around 3:30 in the afternoon. Hours pasted....no more dilating, no more effacing, the contractions from the Pitocin were getting more painful. I had an epidural. It took 3 tries to get it into my back. YIKES!

Around 8 pm I finally started dilating, but no effacing. This is when we discovered two things. I was leaking amniotic fluid, but my waters had no completely broken. So, we had yet another intervention on the labor. Dr Sanders had to "break my waters" again in their entirety. It wasn't too long after this that my epidural stopped working. For some reason the I.V. had been turned off. Whew!

They got it going again and my oxygen level dropped and the babies heart rate dropped. It was a little crazy for a while. Eventually, I could feel the pressure of the baby and knew it was coming. They called for the doctor. He came to see us, told me to try pushing while he was going to run to his office. By the time he got back, I should be ready to deliver. That's when all the craziness happened.

I pushed during three separate contractions and the baby started to crown. The nurses asked me to stop pushing because Dr Sanders wasn't back yet. AAHHHH!! So painful, I yelled, "please, no" because I was trying to be polite. I had some awesome nurses and they worked me through it. With the contractions alone, the baby did start to come out completely. Dr. Sanders didn't even have time to put on his gown.

Oh, the sweet relief when the baby actually comes out!! He had a GREAT APGAR score, and both the baby and I cried to be done with this.

He was 7 lbs 8 oz; 20 inches and we named him Eric. My total labor time was somewhere around 10 -12 hours=shortest labor; biggest baby!