She's Here!!!

At my last appointment (the 6th) when I was checked I was 3 cm dialated, 60% effaced and she was at a -1 station. So, I knew this labor would be quicker than last time, if only because I had a headstart. But this was no where near what I was expecting!

On Monday May 12th, I woke up a little after 1 in the morning to use the bathroom (you know, one of those standard pregnant gotta pee in the middle of the night breaks, lol). I got a contraction shortly after waking up but I didn't think much of it really because I'd been getting a braxton hicks contraction atleast once a night when I'd wake up for over a week. But it was so intense, and then within 10 minutes when I had another one equally intense I figured it was time. I woke Dennis up (good thing I didn't wait at all this time!) and told him it was time to get ready to go. The thing was, these contractions were about as bad as I remembered when I got the epidural last time and I was at a 7 then. They also quickly went to 2-3 minutes apart and at times felt almost on top of one another. I decided before we left, forget the going natural idea, I couldn't take hours of this, lol.

Dennis wanted to take his time and get something to eat before we left but I told him no, we needed to get to the hospital. He wanted to wait and wake mom up at the last minute but I told him no, to get her up, cuz we were leaving. Then he called Tiffany (since she was coming to the hospital) and she was called at 1:56. When we got to the hospital, they didn't take me back immediately but instead made me stand there while they got the insurance information and stuff. Talk about torture!!! Finally they wheeled me back and the nurse had me go change. While I was changing I jokingly told her "please tell me the anastesiologist is already here so I can get an epidural now".

After that, I went to go lie down on the bed so she could put the monitors on my belly. As soon as she started trying though a contraction hit that was even more intense than the others had been. All I wanted was to stand up so I could deal with the pain. Up until this point that's how I'd been dealing with the pain was leaning onto something (like a counter) and then rocking my pelvis back and forth. Well, she thought I meant I wanted the back up on the bed so I could sit up and Dennis was trying to help maneuver me to standing, but then I HAD TO PUSH. So, I'm sitting sideways on the bed with my feet halfway hanging off and leaning up against Dennis. The nurse immediately checked and sure enough there she was. They hadn't had a chance yet to call my midwife who lives like 20 minutes away so they called the closest OB who lives only 2 mins away. The nurse was also calling in other nurses to come help.

Well, let's just say when you don't have an epidural and it's time to push, that's all there is to it. You don't even do the pushing it just happens. Before I even had time to think I had delivered the baby's head and then there she was. My water had never broken so she was born with the membranes intact, or still in the caul. Some cultures consider this a sign of great luck. So, Danielle Lilliane Y arrived at 2:16 am weighing 8lbs 5oz and was 21" long after a labor a little less than an hour long! Wow, what an experience!

I just wanted to add that I held and nursed her immediately and she just did great from the get-go and we didn't end up having any problems like we did with Charity, I'm so thankful for that!