The Big Day!

Mommy and Daddy woke up bright and early after a very fitful night of next-to-no sleep. Well, Mommy didn't sleep but about 2 hours.. Daddy on the other hand slept like a rock!

Several times throughout the night I felt like we may not make it to 6am. I was having a new crampy sensation, different than the early-labor contractions I had been having. My back had also started really hurting.. but in a very strange and sudden way. I would have quick jolts of pain that would make me need to sit up and readjust how I was laying/sitting to get comfortable again.

We were convinced we'd become one of those stories about women going into labor on their own just hours before their scheduled inductions.

But no dice.

After staring at the clock all night along, watching the minutes slowly tick by... 445am finally rolled around.

Quick showers, quick breakfast, double-check all the bags we were bringing, say a quick prayer.. and we hit the road.

First stop: Donut Shop.. breakfast for the nurses on the labor and delivery floor!

Second stop: Starbucks.. Mommy's last latte.

Third stop: Where we would meet our daughter. 600am. Check-In Time.

Our emotions were all over the place, often caught somewhere between being incredibly nervous and overwhelmingly excited.

We had to check in at the Emergency Room because their admissions desk doesn't open until 8am.

The attendant was very friendly, very talkative.. talking to us about his wife and kids and how they were expecting their third child very soon.

After about 15 minutes of paperwork and questions and signatures, he asked if we knew how to get up to the labor and delivery floor.

Yes, sir. We most certainly do.

That elevator ride upstairs was indescribable.

I was on my way up to meet my daughter.

I had no idea what to expect in terms of the induction process (well, I knew what the books told me to expect, but I also knew everyone's experience is so individual!).

I had no idea how long it would be before I was able to gaze into my daughter's eyes.

I could not wait to see my husband become a father.

I was scared.

And elated.

We buzzed into the L&D wing, were greeted with a few smiling nurses wishing us the best.. and taken to our room.

LDR #3.

YES! We finally get to upgrade from the Antepartum rooms.

Now we're in the swanky L&D suites.

It was about 630 before I was actually laying in the bed.

The nurse on night shift got me all registered and hooked up to the monitors.

We were surprised to see contractions already registering every 6 minutes or so. I knew what I had been feeling were contractions, and my instincts were right.

The contractions at that point just felt like cramps, not the whole-belly tightening I'd heard so much about, just crampy in the lower abdomen. Pulling my knees up and sitting up a little bit helped ease some of the discomfort.

7am was shift change, and we were delighted to meet our day nurse, Barbara.

She was very comforting while still being very matter-of-fact. Just the right mix I needed on such an epic day.

She checked me before starting any of the IVs/drugs, and I tried to not let myself get discouraged by learning we were still 3cm and 80% effaced.

IV was started just around 7am.

Pitocin was started around 730am.. she started the Pit at a 2, and increased it by 2 every 30 minutes.

At 830am, my doctor came in to see us and after assessing my situation said he would like to break my water to really get things going... we were stupidly excited about that decision, but learned very quickly how much more intense the contractions become once your cushiony water is gone! WOW!

In a matter of 30 minutes, the contractions went from totally bearable to me wanting to jump off the bed with each one.

I asked for the epidural at 9am and the anesthesiologist came in just about 30 minutes later.

As soon as he walked through the door, I just lost it. I had a complete panic-induced meltdown about having a needle in my back but Andy and our wonderful nurse did a great job at talking me down and really, in all honesty, it wasn't bad! The most I felt was the pinch from the numbing shot then a quick jolt in my hips/lower back when he inserted the needle (totally normal so he said).

At the time the epidural was put in, I was still 3cm but was almost fully effaced.

There was about a 2 hour period (max) that I felt pretty comfortable after the epidural, but I soon started to feel every contraction again, and with growing intensity.

The nurse came back in the check me again around 1215pm and said I was 6cm and fully effaced (finally some good progress!!).

She couldn't help but notice how much pain I was in, I was hardly able to answer her questions and was crying and writhing around in the bed, so she called the anesthesiologist back in to give me some kind of "turbo boost" shot through the epi-catheter.

The shot he gave me really just made my legs feel even heavier than the original epidural, but did little to nothing to alleviate my pain.

My doctor came in shortly after that, around 1240, and said I was now a good 7cm.

Between that time and 230, I was getting very emotional about all the pain and becoming very tired. They kept asking me id I wanted to redo the epidural but I was having a hard time deciding because there was no way I would be able to sit still on the edge of the bed at that point (with the amount of pain I was feeling), and I was terrified of making the anesthesiologist slip or something.

I waffled on the decision so long and was in so much pain at that point that my doctor came back to talk to me and to check me again.. We were fully dilated!!

I denied the 2nd epidural at that point and we all decided to try to start pushing -- at 245 pm.

At first the pushing was a huge relief, and actually felt better than the contractions/pressure, but it didn't take long (maybe an hour?) before I was losing steam and getting discouraged because she wasn't coming down the birth canal. She would move down with each push, then move right back up again.

After 2 hours (TWO HOURS) of pushing with little to no progress, they strongly encouraged me to redo the epidural because my pushes were becoming less and less effective the longer we went/more tired I became. The nurse also said that after 3 hours of pushing with no progress, we would likely have to go into a c-section.

I totally lost it.

I was terrified of redoing the epidural, but even more terrified about having to have a c-section.

I was determined to get this little girl out WITHOUT surgery, so after a meltdown and a LOT of pain sitting on the side of the bed trying to remain still with contractions coming one right on top of another, they got the new epidural in.

It did absolutely nothing.

We continued pushing with just the nurse in the room for about 3o minutes before she called my doctor back in to help. He was very encouraging and told me we wouldn't jump straight to surgery at the 3 hour mark - he kept telling me he was confident things would be just fine to continue pushing a little longer and that Camryn was tolerating labor very well, so we pressed on.

She started coming down the birth canal (Hooray! FINALLY!) about 545pm and Oh. My. Word., the pain was IN-TENSE. I became the crazy laboring lady that was probably scaring all the other PG women on the floor with my screaming between pushes.

Not screaming just making noise screaming, screaming "Oh my God! What happened to the epidural? WHY CAN I FEEL THIS?" type of screaming. It was terrible.

Once she finally finally started crowning, they called in the baby brigade of nurses and broke down the bed.

Andy started getting even more excited than he had been all day. Once Andy could see her head, he became like Super-Coach cheering me on.. and just let me say - he was a ROCK STAR all day. He never left my side, he was always more than encouraging and comforting, he was offering me ice chips and cold rags and rubbing my back (when I would let him touch me).. I could not have asked for a better labor coach. He was amazing.

We continued pushing and at one point I could hear a chorus of people (there were about 8 total nurses/doctors in the room) rooting for me, "Come on Rebecca! Great job, keep going. Here she comes." I had no idea how many people had poured into the room and when I could suddenly hear so many new voices I said, "How many people are in here?! Where did you come from?" Everyone kind of chuckled, and strangely enough, it was pretty helpful to have so many people there encouraging me.

Our sweet little angel was FINALLY born at 615 pm and of course, I just cried.

She had the cord loosely wrapped around her neck once, but the doctor said that was fine.

She only took a few seconds to let out a big wail.. and hearing that cry, I don't even have any words for the feeling. Here was my daughter, laying on my chest, looking right at me... and crying. She's here. She's real. She's ours! It was the most overwhelmingly emotional moment of my life.

She was a lot bigger than we were expecting -- 8lbs 3oz -- and even surprised our doctor with her weight!

When she came out (before the cord was even cut) Andy said, "So my guess was 6-13..." and everyone in the room just laughed.. she was definitely much bigger than 6-13!

Nobody could believe how much hair she had! Lots of dark dark hair.. so beautiful. She can't hold a candle to her future-friend Audrey's incredible head of hair, but we were still surprised! :)

Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9, and she checked out perfect with the pedi nurse - perfectly healthy, 10 fingers, 10 toes.

The amazing thing is after all that pushing, I had no real tearing and he didn't ever feel the need to do an episiotomy or use the vacuum/forceps (which I had begun to worry about the longer we pushed). He said I had just one superficial tear on the inside that he couldn't even categorize on the degree-scale, it was so small. YAY!

While they were checking Camryn out on the other side of the room, with her Daddy by her side, I felt like I was being tortured with the whole afterbirth adventure! Apparently I had 2 pieces of retained placenta so my doctor has to remove those and I have never felt anything like that. That may have been worse than the marathon pushing. He's confident he got everything, so we just have to keep a close watch these first few weeks postpartum.

When I was cleaned up and stable, Andy carried our daughter over to me from the bassinet/warmer.

Watching him walk up to me, as a brand new Daddy, cuddling our little girl - I think that is one of the most joyful moments of my life. He got to the edge of my bed and just stood there with her, staring at her.. I gave him a minute then said "Do I ever get to hold her?" kind of laughing.. he said "Do you want to?" Well YES! He didn't want to give her up! :) But Mommy pushed for 3.5 hours.. I think I deserve to cuddle and kiss my sweet girl!

We tried to nurse right away, but she was having a hard time latching on so we went ahead and gave the green light for our families to come in and see our beautiful daughter.

We tried to nurse again about an hour later, but she was still struggling (which brought on some major mommy emotions).. but the nurse assured me she would get it soon, just to keep trying.

It wasn't until we were in our postpartum room, about 4 hours after she was born, that she finally latched on with the help of a shield. I was so happy to be sitting there feeding my baby girl. What an awesome day.

We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night, but I don't think either of us minded much. We were perfectly content to spend every hour of the night just staring in amazement at this little life we just welcomed to the world.

She is perfect.