November 10

Julia Elizabeth couldn't wait to meet her new family! She decided to enter the world a whole month early. No complaints from her mother though, who was ready to be rid of constant heartburn and discomfort sleeping!!

Here's how it happened:

Thursday, November 9th

9:30 pm
Shawn had all the guys over playing poker that evening. I was sitting on the couch, watching the UofL-Rutgers football game. My water broke! It was a month early, so I wasn't expecting it at all. I called Shawn upstairs and after we concluded that was what had happened, we called the afterhours number for my doctor and they told us to come in to the hospital. Of course I hadn't packed my bags yet, so we had to do that first.

11:00 pm
We arrived at the hospital where we checked in and were sent to be evaluated, (baby's heart rate monitored, etc.)

Friday, November 10th

12:00 am
I started to feel my first contractions between 11:30 and 12:00, but they weren't painful at this point. We settled into the Labor and Delivery room and watched Conan O'Brien! I still wasn't feeling anythiany pain yet. My nurse, Staci, set up a nice big air mattress for Shawn wo slept for a couple hours while I watched TV and ate ice.

4:00 am
They decided to use pitocin to induce my labor.

4:30 am
I could really feel the contractions now so I decided to get an epidural. :o)

5:15 am
The epidural was administered. I think this was the worst part of the whole process. Having the needle stuck into my back during one of my contractions was not fun.

6:00 am
The epidural started to take effect and I felt great. All I could feel initially was a little tingling in my legs.

7:15 am
My new nurse, Michelle, came in and attached internal monitors to the baby's head.

7:30 am
I was about 1-2 cm dialated.

10:45 am
I was a full 10 cm! The nurses suggested I sit up as much as possible to let gravity do alot of the work getting the baby to drop into the birth canal.

11:45 am
Time to push!

12:00 pm
Welcome baby Julia!

...I really hope the next one is that easy...