Lillie Anna's Birth

Well, I finally wobbled my way upstairs to update all of my internet friends about the new arrival. As you can see she waited quite a while to come out. We decided to induce on Friday morning, because her head wasn't moving off my pubic bone to dialate the cervix. Also, my doctor wasn't on call over the weekend and we wanted to make sure she would be there during the birth. So we went in on Friday morning and they started me on pitocin, and then broke my water around 8am. I had the epidural about an hour later, because your labor CAN progress very quickly after your waters break. That didn't happen to me of course. So I spent the rest of the day dozing off and waiting. Around 6pm my doctor came back and started a Foley bulb to help dialate my cervix. That took me from a 4 to a 6 immediately, and then finally a 7 when they took the whole thing out. Then my contractions got really painful, which I wasn't expecting because of the epidural. Apparently her head pushing on my pelvis, combined with the fact that she was face up made for a very painful combination. I'm no hero when it comes to pain, but the anesthesiologist said that he could have paralyzed me from the chest down and I still would have felt the same pain. The epidural just doesn't work on that kind of pain I guess. Finally, we decided to have me push through my last centimeter while the doctor came down to the hospital. When she got there I pushed for an hour or so, but the baby just couldn't get past that bone, even when we tried several different labor positions. So we used the suction, as I pushed, and within 4 good pushes she was out. I can't explain the feeling of relief to anyone that hasn't given birth, but it is immense. Plus, just to look at her face finally, made the whole thing worth it. I don't think I want to do that ever again, but it was still worth it. haha