The Birth Details, for those who are interested in that sort of thing...

Friday morning we went in to be induced. We were due there at 7am, we got there about 7:30... it didn't really matter, though. They didn't start the gel until around 8:30. We got settled into our room and waited for pain to descend.

For awhile, we just sat and read. Slowly contractions started. Very, very slowly. Lee was reading Lord of the Rings. I was reading the Psalms, Corinthians, and Harry Potter. Doctor Long was my doctor for the morning, he had good recommendations for Psalms to read and told me how much his wife loved Harry Potter.

By lunchtime I was dilated to about 2 centimeters. That was something, but the baby was up very high. High is normal for me; it creates problems in all my checkups.... anyway. The doctor was encouraged enough by my progress and the regularity of my contractions that they decided not to do pitocin, just to do another round of gel. By 2:00 I was definitely having a lot of pain and hit the jacuzzi. It helped a lot, it really helped me relax through the contractions, which in turn helps the body progress. I couldn't tell I was progressing until I got out and realized that the pain had in fact gotten worse, I was just dealing with it better.

For a few hours I alternated between staying in bed and being monitored and going back to the jacuzzi and dealing with the pain. While in bed I was squeezing the life out of Lee's arm - I totally relied on him to get me through the pain emotionally. I never before realized how much he helps me stay in balance emotionally when I need him.

By 9:30 at night I was getting heartsick. I felt like I should not have been induced because the boy obviously was not ready to come down. But it was too late to turn back. I felt like I would be stuck in pain forever. I didn't express those feelings or contemplate them very long because I knew that wouldn't help anything. We had a new nurse for the evening. Her name was Jen and she was amazing. She was a great combination of friendly, sensible, and supportive. She was of a similar age to Lee and I. Doctors changed shift, too, so that now it would be Doctor Manning looking after me. She had broken my waters around 7:30pm, which had strongly contributed to the increase in my contractions. But now the baby was still up high, so they decided it was time to do Pitocin. That scared the crap out of me. The nurse asked if I wanted to get an epidural first, and I was so relieved because I thought it was too late. I didn't want to deal with Pitocin-level contractions in my so-far drug free state. We agreed that I would get out of the jacuzzi, get drugged up, and do Pitocin.

That was all agreed upon around 10:00pm.

I started to feel pressure in the Jacuzzi.

They drew up the paperwork for the epidural.

I got out of the Jacuzzi.

The baby dropped. All the way.

Lee likes to tell this part of the story because I went berserk. The pain became unbearable (still drug free remember) and I didn't know what to do with my body or my emotions. They somehow got me into the bed and with three painful pushes, we had a baby. That was it.

It must have been the threat of drugs that made the poor boy drop :)

So with approximately 8 hours of labor, but only 5 insane minutes of pushing, we had a beautiful 7 pound, 4 ounce baby boy. They threw him onto my chest before I had even delivered the placenta. He nursed for a solid hour, both sides, before they even took him away from me to be weighed and measured. I was crying and saying thank you Jesus, thank you over and over again, and apologizing for my momentary insanity. (they assured me that they have seen much worse). I was so happy. The amazing thing was that I didn't even tear or need cut, so I feel so great now. I feel better than I did a week ago. The only pain I have is the afterbirth contractions (increased by nursing) to get my womb back into shape. I feel so healthy. I am so overwhelmingly grateful.