My main reason for typing this whole thing out is so I don't forget. I often wonder how one can forget the details of the birth of their first child, but, leave it to me.
On November 22nd Jeff and I left for the hospital at 7:00am to go have our baby girl. Neither of us said it, but we were nervous wrecks. We live a whole 2 minutes from the hospital, so waiting to leave was agonizing. We checked in for our 7:30 induction and it went a lot faster than I expected. They hooked up my Pitocin and broke my water within an hour. After that it was all waiting.
The last belly picture- 39 weeks
We had a lot of visitors throughout the day so we were easily entertained and never really got "bored." We were just trying to soak in the moments that were ahead.
Hanging out, waiting for the arrival of Cece
I can't really complain, I had a very fast and easy labor- with the exception of the epidural. That hurt like no ones business. But, I'll take a short amount of pain over the pain of delivering a baby.
After my epidural, it was pretty much smooth sailing. I progressed rather quickly until about 3pm where I stalled at a 7. There happened to be a storm coming that night and I always heard the Old Wives Tales of how when the barometric pressure drops, babies are usually born. Well, I never thought that would be true.
At about 5:00 pm, I kicked everyone out so I could rest. I couldn't understand why I started to feel so tired and sick all of a sudden. Everyone left, even Jeff so I could try and get some shut eye. I *slept* for about an hour and a half while the nurse was coming in and rolling me side to side trying to get her to drop just a little bit more. At about 6:30pm, right as the storm was starting to pick up, I was fully dilated and ready to go. I've never seen Jeff look so scared and excited at the same time. He called his mom and dad and brother and sister in law and told them it was time. Little did I know, we already had a fan section in the waiting room.
I started pushing at about 7:00pm. I later realized I became tired as if my body was resting before the big event...and boy did I need it.
At 8:24pm, the most beautiful girl I have ever seen was placed on my stomach. Her eyes were open and alert and she didn't make one squeal (which was somewhat scary, but Dr. H assured us she was perfect).
Cecelia Grace 6lbs 1oz 17½ inches
Jeff and I fell hard. We were so in love with this tiny little thing we had just met. Dr. H. was right. She is perfect. She is the reason we are here.
Our first 'family of 3' picture
