How it all went for our 1st delivery.

On Sunday Sept 21st I began having stronger, more regular contractions around 7pm at Elissa's while eating dinner. They were 15 min apart and lasted all night. The next day I woke up with a feeling that we might be going to the hospital that day. I did my yoga, walked and then decided to pack our last bag just in case. I went in to work and the contractions went from 15 min to every 10 min around noon. I took a nap after lunch because I was soooo tired. Then at 3:45 I woke up with contractions every 5 min and really hurting. So we began to time them. I call Dr. Dias and spoke with Nurse Karen who told me that we should wait about 45 min and then head to the hospital. I waited till Tyler got home from work. He picked me up from Mom and Dad's and we went home. I took a hot shower and slowly got redressed while he called L & D. After I was ready to go the contractions began to not be so strong. So we decided to wait around and see what happened. After the last time in the hospital I didn't want to go on a false alarm. We watched TV, I walked a bit more, I sat on my yoga ball and ate oranges and bananas. Then at 7pm I decided that we should go on in. I was going to pick up the last bag from our bed when a contraction hit again and had me doubled over on the bed. That is when Dad called to see how we were doing. I guess he heard the pain in my voice or something and told us to get to the hospital. He knew she was coming soon. So we went. I was checked into L& D and was told I was only 1 cm. It was the same nurse from last time and she asked if I had been up there since she last saw me. I hadn't. She asked if I had been walking and doing what she had told me to do. I had. So she monitored me for a while and then asked us if we would like to walk around the floor for 30 min. I said sure I couldn't hurt. So we did walk very slow and called Mom and Elissa to let them know what we were doing. I was back in the room at 8:30 and was being reexamined still at 1 cm. She said she wanted to monitor me for 30 more minutes. Right after she walked away I felt like I was peeing uncontrolled. So not realizing that my water just broke I asked Tyler for help and to get me paper towels. I was so embarrassed that this was happening and couldn't figure out why. When the nurse walked back in I told her I had a small problem and she said "um well yes your water had broken. You are now admitted." I was amazed and immediately began to cry. My prayers had been answered that we were having Elizabeth in about 14 hours. Tyler went out to call Mom and Dad and tell them that we were being admitted. In the mean time I had 5 nurses around me asking questions, filling our forms, and inserting the IV. I hate needles and was not looking forward to the IV when Dr. Johnston walked in and calm me down. (She is awesome by the way!) She explained that since my water had broken at 1cm, which is in the 5% category of first time Moms, then they would have to induce me for dialation. That meant pitocine. Then she asked me about our medical history and thankfully Tyler was back. He was thinking much clearer than me and told her everything. After I was admitted and hooked up they wheeled me to the L & D room where I met Jennifer, my nurse. She was so calm, collected, and just sweet. She again asked for my history, explained to Tyler what they would be doing, got us settled in, and began the pitocin drip. It was ok for the first hour but then the contractions began to really hurt and Mom and Elissa arrived. That was comforting. Tyler was fixing up the room and I was told that I would probably labor till the next afternoon. So I shouldn't expect for anything fast to happen. So I didn't. Tyler set up the DVD player and we were watching our favorite movies while I was breathing through the pain. After about 2 hours and 1/2 increase in dialation I was in serious pain and crying. At that point Jennifer asked me how I was doing and I begged for the epidural. At 11pm the anesthesiologist came in and got to work. He was like a grandpa...very calming. He walked me through everything and made sure I was ok. After the catheter was in place he explained that it would take about 15 min for it to work. He asked me how my legs felt and if they were beginning to feel numb. They were so he told me to lie down. Then he asked me to move my legs which I couldn't and asked me if I could feel from my waist down which I couldn't. The only place I had a hotspot was on my front left hip. It wasn't terrible and I could feel the strong contractions. That helped me to push during delivery. I was also told that this would take a while and I should settle in. So we did with a good DVD. I tried to get some rest figuring it would take a while. At 1am Jennifer checked me at was surprised that I was at 5cm. Then she checked me again at 3am and I was at 9cm. She was shocked and asked me where my family was. Tyler quickly called Mom and Dad who were just getting to sleep and told them to hurry up if they wanted to see me before Elizabeth was born. Mom wasn't quite awake and said she would see me in a little while. Dr. Johnston was called in and told Jennifer to wait till 5am to see if Elizabeth would descend on her own. I was told to let then know when I felt any pressure. Jennifer kept a close eye on me and constantly asked me if I could feel pressure which I couldn't but I could feel the contractions. She checked me again at 5am, explaining that we were hoping Elizabeth would be in position at this point so I wouldn't have to push so long. She again was shocked to find Elizabeth almost crowning. So she ran to get Dr. Johnston and we began pushing at 5:05. By 5:17 Elizabeth was born. I was so amazed that our baby girl was born and shocked that it happened so fast! Tyler was the best coach helping to keep me calm and focused as well as taking pictures. And Elizabeth passed her APGAR test with a 9.9. We had finally become our family of three!