The Big Day

We went into the hospital at 6am. We had to fill out paperwork and all of the usual fun stuff, so they didn't actually get started until 7:30 when they finally ran an IV (after four failed attempts and lots of holes up my hands and arms) of pitocin to start contractions. At 8:30 the doctor came in and broke my water. At 9:10 I received my epidural. At 9:45 I was practically crying, asking why the epidural hadn't kicked in yet.

By 10am it was clear that my right side was completely paralyzed, but my left side could feel everything. The contractions were excruciating. My hat off to women who do it naturally. I have no idea how you do it. I asked the nurse why it wasn't working. She called the anaesthesiologist back in and he gave me stronger drugs. At 10:10 the nurse said she was going to have to do an internal contraction monitor because they weren't seeing any contractions at all. She went to hook things up, but then hurried and ripped off her gloves and said, "no wonder you're miserable. You're ready to go." and she ran out to call the doctor. I had gone from a 3 to 10 in less than an hour. The doctor showed up just as a little head appeared. With a second dose of drugs making me strong and brave, within 5 minutes of the doctor arriving, we met a sweet, tiny little girl.

She has a smooshed nose - they say she was pressed into one place for too long and it got squashed to one side, but it should straighten itself out soon - but was otherwise perfect. Andy says if her nose doesn't fix itself, he'll pay to get it fixed when she's 24 so she can start dating. She has lots of dark hair, a tiny little body, and super long (Andy calls them monkey-like) fingers and toes. We loved her the second we saw her.