Our Baby Girl is Here!!

It has been a week since she made it safely into this world, and here is her crazy birth story.

 After all the preterm labor I went through, my body just wasn't dilating past 3cm. On April 24th my Doctor decided to be merciful and scheduled me to be induced on May 4th 2013. I would be 39 weeks exactly.So I went about my usual bed-resting "activities" for the week ahead. We bought Iron Man 3 tickets for Friday night, our last date before we have two kids. My mom is happy that I will be induced on the 4th, she has a class on the 3rd and wouldnt be able to watch Kaleb if the baby came any earlier. We had a plan. It was almost over. I could make it ten more days.

Thursday May 2nd was a fairly normal day, I got a lot more done than usual because i figured at this point my body just wasnt going on its own so I may as well get the house cleaned and ready for Saturday  That night my sisters family came over and we played games. and once it got dark enough we went outside to roast marshmallows on the new fire pit. We got in pretty late, around midnight and went to bed.

At 2:45 am I am wakened by a gush of fluid. My water never broke with our son, so I am not certain that that's what just happened..but just in case I poke PJ and say "umm, I think my water just broke" hes mostly asleep and says "ok,cool" I get out of bed and he says " wait. really?? do we need to go to the hospital?" I explain that I'm not 100% sure if it was my water and that I am going to time the contractions to see if they get closer together or more painful.I say a silent prayer that if its my water I will know by what the contractions do, because I really don't want to go back to labor and delivery unless this is the real thing.

By 3:15 am my contractions have increased from 4 minutes apart to right on top of one another and they have gotten significantly more painful. PJ asks if we need to go. I say "maybe, yeah, ok we do" We grab the things we has packed for the hospital (after many trips there, the bag was all ready to go) And I run upstairs to tell my mom that she will be the one waking up with Kaleb in the morning. I tell her I think my water broke and we are going to the hospital. She asks what we should do, Im in a lot of pain and have no solutions so I just say "I dont know, this wasnt supposed to happen" And we head to the hospital.

PJ says he drove 60 the whole way, and apparently we passed a cop and miraculously didnt get pulled over, but I wasnt paying attention to the road at all. We arrive at the hospital as 3:30 am. The next bit is a little scattered for me, so I am just going to do it in a timeline.

3:30am Arrive, i put on the lovely hospital gown. I swear they take forever to check my dilation and if my water has been broken. I start to freak out that they wont get here in time and that she will be born in triage

3:45 am They check. I am 5 cm, and my water has been broken. Thats the magic number, theyre going to admit me.Right before they admit me, they check again, its been 5 maybe 10 minutes, I am not sure. I am now at 7 cm. I am progressing ridiculously fast.

4:00 am They're trying to hook up all the monitors, trying to find the heartbeat and monitor my contractions. I remember feeling crazy annoyed at all the people touching me and asking me questions. I wanted to scream "STOP TOUCHING ME!"  By this point the contractions are so ridiculously painful I'm literally crawling up the hospital bed trying to find some relief. It doesn't matter how I lay or sit or move, they're so close and so painful I find myself screaming. They contact the anesthesiologist to give me the epidural.

4:15 am The on call Doctor comes in. He checks me. I am 8 cm +. They ask if i feel like i have to push, i tell them that it kinda feels like I have to use the bathroom and they freak out. Apparently that's her head, They tell me to try and relax and calm down and breathe in between the contractions, I scream "THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN THEM!!" They tell me to breath through them, calm down, maybe the I'll get the epidural in time. PJ said later that he was kinda surprised I didn't punch one of them.

4:21 am The anesthesiologist arrives. He informs me that I am too far for the epidural and that instead they're going to do a spinal tap. He list off the possible side effects, and says I have to sit on the edge of the bed and tuck my chin to my chest and try not to move (haha, like thats possible at this point) Im sitting on the edge and they say ok, ready, we're gonna clean your back and put it in. "Too late" I say "She's coming now"  The whole room panics. The anesthesiologist saunters out. I dont think I have ever seen so many people move so fast. They get my legs up and tell me to push. Natural birth, one of my biggest fears, and I have no other option but to go through with it. I remember thinking "I cant do this! I just cant!" and PJ said "She's almost out, you can do it" As if he read my mind.

4:25 am. Emma Lena  is born. One big push and she's out and screaming. After all the craziness my body went through, she is breathing, and BEAUTIFUL. I think I am in a bit of shock at this point.They hand her to me and I cry. I cannot believe she is here. I cannot believe how FAST she got here. She is 7lbs 3 oz, 18.5 inches long. And looks to be perfectly healthy. I cannot believe how tiny she is, how beautiful she is, or that she is here.

There were no complications for Emma or me. Our first nurses shift ended she said that she told the new nurse about us and said that we were doing so well I could have just had Emma at home. We were home by the next evening.

Nothing with this pregnancy worked the way I thought it would. Cant work, Horrid morning sickness the whole time,bedrest, preterm labor, a completely unintentional natural birth...But it was all completely worth it to get to hold our little girl in the end.  All the nurses kept saying how perfect she is. All my nurses kept asking me if I would do the natural childbirth method again. I laugh, if it goes that fast then sure, but if it lasted for hours I dont think I could have done it. I had not prepared for a natural birth, and yet it honestly was not as horrid as I thought it would be. And Emma is healthy, and beautiful, and such a little miracle.