Labor and Delivery Story

This is about 7 weeks late, but here's my story.... My labor and delivery experience was very different this time around. First of all, I went 39 weeks, compared to 28 1/2 with Drew and Grayson, and those 11 weeks make a huge difference! I went to the doctor on Wednesday (2 days before delivery day) and was still only dilated to a 2, but since I had been naseated all week, my doctor told me to come back in on Friday. By Friday morning I was a "loose 3+." She decided to monitor my contractions - not painful, but coming regularly. She said I would probably be in the hospital by that night, but if I wanted to go now I could. I was pretty miserable and John was off work that day, so we decided the time was right, and went home to get our bags and make arrangements for Drew and Grayson.

John and I were at the hospital by 11:30, the doctor came to break my water around 1:00, and anesthesia came to give me my epidural around 1:40. Yes, you read that correctly, and 40 minutes is entirely too long to wait before asking for an epidural! But by 2:00, I was feeling mighty fine. My mom, dad, and sister showed up around 2:30, and we had a good time just talking away while we waited, and waited,....and waited! The nurse had told me that Roe was "sunny-side" up which meant he was facing my belly button instead of down like he needed to be for delivery. To correct this, they turned me from side to side every 30 minutes or so. I don't get how that works, but it worked! Unfortunately, Roe's position and the epidural slowed my contractions down, so they had to give me pitocin to speed up the process again. By 7:45, I was finally ready, so my parents and sister left, and I started pushing! An hour and 45 minutes later (including two vomitting spells), our little boy arrived! Roe was born on April 4, at 8:57 p.m. He weighed 7lb., 15oz., and measured 20 inches long. What a beautiful sight he was! Speaking of sight, he popped his eyes open and started looking around before John could cut the umbilical cord! His cry came a couple of minutes later as music to my ears.