Life-changing event

I'll try not to get too detailed, but here's the story of Daniel's entrance into the world:
As you can tell from my previous blogs, I'd been having contractions for about two weeks. Ten or so minutes apart, not too painful, a little annoying. Thursday night around 6:00, I started having contractions, ten or so minutes apart, not too painful, a little annoying. By about 8:00, I decided that they were more than a little annoying and started keeping track. By 10:30, they were 3-5 minutes apart and I was grimmacing through them, refusing to talk to Doug or answer his questions. With about 10 minutes left in the second National Treasure, I decided we HAD to go. No more waiting or wondering if "this" was it - I knew it was showtime.

We got to triage around 10:45 and got hooked up to the monitor. I was measuring right at 4 cms and my contractions were pretty consistent - 3-5 minutes apart. Amy, my nurse, asked Doug and I to walk around for about an hour to see if I progressed any further. After MANY laps around labor and delivery, we went back to triage. I said about the tenth prayer of the night, Amy said I was at 5 cms and we were staying. I sighed a huge sigh of relief and thanked God, again.

By the time we were admitted and got to a room, it was about 2:00 am. By this point, my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and very painful. Hook me up to that epidural - STAT! Dr. Prus came in and started the drugs. Slight bump in my so-far perfect labor - Dr. Prus thought he "missed." Not missed in the sense that I'd never walk again, but missed in the sense that he thought he may have punctured the spinal membrane. Not terrible, but if had fully doped me up, we could have been in trouble. All this meant was that I only got a mild dose of the epidural. He told me to get some sleep and he'd be back to check on me later. Amy checked me then and I was at 8 cms. Talk about flying. . .

About an hour later, I woke up and could feel the contractions again. I called Amy and asked if Dr. Prus could come redo my epidural. Fortunately, he didn't have to. He checked me out and had not missed. He gave me another dose and I was out like a light. I slept until 7:00 when Amy checked me again (9.5 at this point), checked out and handed me off to Aimee and Kim, my new nurses. They were a hoot. Here's where we really start flying.

At 8:30, Dr. Strong showed up, checked me out, and declared that I was 10 cms, Daniel was in position, and I should get ready. Aimee and Kim suggested that we "practice" pushing. We talked about it, waited for a contraction, and I gave it all I had. I heard Kim say, "He has dark hair!" and I almost died. I couldn't believe she could already see his head! Two more pushes through that contraction, and they were off to find Dr. Strong.

He came in wearing a polo and jeans. Somebody told him, "Uh, Dr. Strong? I think you should get dressed."

"Yeah, I guess I should go put on some scrubs." About two minutes later, he was back, dressed, and ready to catch. My next contraction stared, I pushed once, and we had a head. I pushed again, and we had a baby. Literally five pushes was all it took. Woot for walking 2 miles a day!! :o)

Daniel was perfect (still is). 7 lbs 8 oz and 18 inches of pure bliss. I would imagine that this page (and blog) will be mostly dedicated to my life as a new mom, so stay tuned for updates.