Baby arrives! Friday, October 23, 2009

Thursday night after dinner, Frank and I arrive at the hospital and we have the entire Women's Center to ourselves. No other moms or babies that night, so it was pretty quiet there. So we settle into the labor and delivery room, which is pretty nice with a TV and CD player/radio. Dr. Malak arrives and in 3 seconds, inserts Prostaglandin (I believe!) into me to ripen the cervix. Just in time to watch Survivor on TV, then the nurse gives me a sleeping pill around 9:30 and my mind starts to drift for awhile. Around 11:15, the action begins. Here come the contractions. These contractions seem like mid-labor contractions. They were kind of strong, with only about 30 seconds in between them. My Dave Matthews CD was put in and it was time to concentrate. This is how it was during the entire night. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom and the poor nurse had to un-hook me from the monitor and eventually the saline IV all night. Then, finally, around 7:30am, she checked and there was hardly any progression. I was still at 1cm, with 50% effacement. The doctor then authorized some pain meds and I fell asleep for a short amount of time. The doctor came in around 8:15 - Frank and I had snoozed for about 40 minutes. He then broke my water, decided not to give me Pitocin, and that's when all heck broke loose. The contractions were much stronger with less time in between. We were not going back to sleep.

This went on for about an hour and a half. Then, I got the epidural. I had caved during the night and let it be known that I definitely wanted one this time (with Ainsley, I did not have one, the anesthesiologist was MIA!). Still not a lot of progression, but when I was sat upright and given the epidural, I went from 2cm to 7cm right then! I also asked for my mommy, who rushed from home and came into the delivery room with us to witness the birth of her tenth grandchild!

Everything went smoothly with the epidural. I felt no pain, but I could feel the pressure, which enabled me to push. After about 4-5 pushing sessions, Camille Grace Klaric came into the world at 11:37am on Friday, October 23, 2009. She was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 19 1/2 in long. What a complete miracle!