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It's still feels surreal...

Amy • Mon, Sep 05

I was scheduled to be induced Wednesday, August 31 at 41 weeks exactly. I was called in for 8pm that night and was given misoprostol within the hour. They checked my dilation, I was at 2 cm, and was 70% effaced. I had been told that I could be given up to 6 doses of misoprostol, one every four hours. I only got 3. After the third dose, they checked me again. I was at 4cm and 90% effaced, and contracting regularly. They broke my water and told me I wouldn't need the pitocin if I kept the contractions where they were. They also told me there had been meconium in the water, and if Elizabeth didn't cry immediately after coming out, she'd be handed off to ICN so they could clear her airways. They'd be in the room, set up right next to me. An hour or so later, they gave me the pitocin.

In the course of the next hour, the contractions were amazingly strong and close together, and they anesthesiologist came in to give me my much needed epidural. I was checked again shortly after. I was fully dilated. I had gone from 4cm to 10cm in an hour with only having had morphine which I had been given a few hours earlier.

The epidural kicked in, and I could only feel contractions on my left side, dulled to a much more manageable level.

At 2:00pm my fiance's parents showed up. Half an hour later, a doctor came in to tell us they were going to have me do a few practice pushes at 3. They came in again at 2:45pm, shooed out my fiance's parents, and we began to push.

I felt nothing due to the epidural, and I remember thinking "this doesn't feel real." When she came out, I could feel her, but I wasn't in pain. I was holding my breath listening for a cry.

When I heard it, I broke down and reached for my baby girl. They handed her to me, and as I looked at her, she reached up and touched my face. Elizabeth Marie was born at 4:02pm on September 1, a moment that will be forever etched into my mind as the most beautiful moment of my life.