Brooke's Birthday!!!

Here I am with my baby girl almost 4 days old finally being able to write about her birthday.  I had begun having mild contractions on Sunday while my sister and I spent the day together. I was hoping to go into labor before the scheduled induction, but now I'm glad I didn't. Jeff and I arrived at the hospital at 4:50am. Filled out tons of paperwork even though they told me I was "preregistered." They got us into a room about 5:30am and took my blood and started the IV with fluids and PCN. Around 6am they started the pitocin. I was still only 1 cm dilated when they checked my cervix. I just knew this would be a long day!! Boy did that pitocin kick in quick. The contraction weren't really painful at this point, I could just feel my stomach tightening and I mean it was tight. They sent Dr. Dan in (my favorite Dr. ) He was my epidural man. He came in to go over everything for the procedure and let me know he was ready once they got the bolus fluids in me. Bring on the fluids!!! Well not too much longer my contractions started getting pretty intense. Poor Jeff probably didn't have any blood flow to his hands during these contractions. At one point Jeff asked me after a contraction was over "Did it hurt?" to which I replied "No, it felt good!" Mom and I were laughing at him, even though I was in pain. I know Jeff hated seeing me like that.  Then came Dr. Dan, my fluids were in and boy was I ready!!! I didn't think having the epidural put it was all that bad. The only part that bothered me was when he did the test injection and it shocked my left lower back which made me jump. After the epidural I was feeling no pain. The nurse checked my cervix again and I was at 2 cm. I guess a little progress. At this point it was about 10am. We did get a slight scare when 3 nurses came walking in with these serious looks on their faces. They didn't say anything to us about what was going on which scared me even more. Apparently the baby's heart rate took a scary dive so they put an internal heart rate monitor on her head. They stopped the pitocin in case that was putting the baby in distress. No problems after that. I still think it was the position I was laying in or she shifted which she was doing all morning. The nurse came in about 30 mins later and restarted the pitocin since I wasn't contracting much without it. About 12ish Jeff and I were exhausted, so everyone left the room so we could sleep. At this point I was 3-4 cm dilated. We tried to get as much sleep as possible in a hospital room. I may have been able to sleep if it hadn't been for the blood pressure cuff pumping up every 10 mins. My dad and brother came in around 1pm to see how we were holding up. We were watching the contraction monitor and how mild and far apart they were. We were expecting an evening delivery. A couple contractions I told my dad I felt a little pressure, but being my first birth I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't in pain so I thought nothing of it.  About 30 mins later the nurse came in and said it was time to check my cervix.  Of course Dad and Steven bolted out of the room like lightning at the news of that. Much to my surprise when the nurse checked me she said I had NO cervix. At first I thought she meant that I was completely thinned out which I was pretty much when I arrived. Then I thought, well I had a cervix I thought!!! Then she said I was at 10cm!!! That's when I looked at Jeff and started crying. My emotions hit me, the baby is about to come out and I couldn't wait or contain myself at the thought of her being so close to birth. The nurse didn't really panic or anything. She just said she would start getting everything ready for delivery. A few minutes later Mom, Nina and my sister appeared in the room. I quickly told them I was 10cm dilated and of course was crying again. Again I was in no pain at all, just the thought of holding her in my arms after 9 months of carrying her in utero. They got the room set up and we began pushing with contractions. The contractions were still the same as they were earlier. Not strong or close together. So the pushing may have lasted almost 45 mins, but the pushing was only with contractions so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. We were laughing and crying(mainly me at this point) and making jokes in between. Apparently when the nurse was telling me to hold my breath and push my sister and Nina were in the corner doing it as well. The baby was having a hard time getting past my pubic bone and they mentioned maybe having to suction her out. At this point I put everything I could into pushing her out without help of suction (which sounds scary to me!!) At 2:43 pm on Jan 12th our little girl Brooke was born!!!! She weighed in at 7lbs 5.1 oz and was 20.5 inches long. I had to have quite a few stitches so I didn't get to hold her long. I watched everyone ooooohing and awwwwing over her.  If I didn't mention before, my mom, my sister and Jeff's mom were also in the room for the delivery. Jeff (daddy) was a definitely a proud father. I don't think many people got to hold her because he was being a baby hog!!! I absolutely loved watching her with him and vs versa. Everywhere she went, there was her daddy. He got to go to the nursery and video tape her first bath and even put her first diaper on. Jeff said he must not have done it very well because when we got her back she was in a new one....LOL.....he tried!!! We are thrilled to pieces to finally have our little Brooke with us in our arms and lives. We will try to keep pictures posted on here as much as possible.