Scarlett is Here!!!

10/15/10
10:36 pm
7 lbs 4 ozs
19 inches

My water broke at 11:50 am on Friday the 15th. At work right before lunch. I was really excited to eat too, hahaha. Luckily it happened in the bathroom NOT at my desk!!! And even more luckily, I work around adult diapers so my nurse co-worker grabbed me one! That made it far more comfortable getting to L&D.

At my last appointment that Tuesday I was only at a 2 and 75% effaced. My FABULOUS OB came in on her day off to check on me and even did my first check. At about 2 pm, after very mild, irregular contractions I was only at about a 3. She told me to eat then start the pitocin! So eat I did!!!!

The pitocin was started around 3:30 pm. I chose to wait on the epidural until I was actually in active labor to reduce my chances of a C-section, so I walked around for about 2 hours getting my contractions stronger and more regular. Once they got pretty painful I had the nurse check me. I was barely a 4!!!! I was so mad. It was almost 6 pm by this point and I thought this whole second baby thing was supposed to go fast!

I asked for the epidural anyway and around 7 I was pain free...that only lasted about an hour. I knew something was fishy when I started getting very mild pains along with my contractions. My legs where tingly, like they'd fallen asleep but not dead asleep like I remember with Oliver.

They checked me around 7:30 before putting the catheter in and I was a 7-8. The pain kept coming for about an hour. It was more annoying than anything so I tried not to worry. Though my nurse ended up asking me if I was anxious because my pulse was racing off the charts. I told her that I was getting a feeling that my epi wouldn't work and I'd feel everything. She told me to push my extra dose of epidural too see if that would calm me. I did that 4-5 times [a dose is released every 15 minutes]. This did not help one bit.

By 10 pm the pains went from annoying to OUCH! And I started feeling the pain in my butt. I remember pressure with Oliver, but this was pain! My amazing OB came to check on me again!!! She actually stayed to deliver Scarlett. She is an amazing woman. Anyway...She checked me and I was at an 8, we chatted at bit about the pain, so they ended up calling the anesthesiologist to come redo my epidural.
Dr. Lutz started walking away and made it just outside my door, when I started getting horrible shooting pain! My nurse ran to get her to check on me and when she made it back in my room and checked all she said is, "You're gonna have a baby in about 2 minutes." All the nurses were frantically setting up my room for delivery. I went from an 8 to almost crowning in about a minute.

Long story short...after 14 minutes of pushing, she was out and the pain was gone. She was worth every minute of it. :]

A few photos from the day/night:





P.S. I totally think natural birth is amazing. I understand why women choose to do it. You get the most amazing high after giving birth. The recovery has been a breeze too. I just wish I had been more mentally prepared for the fact that I was going to feel everything.. It happened SO fast!