Joanna Mae came last night!

I went to the OB on Tuesday, and my midwife thought my fluid levels looked low. They did a second test later that day, and my levels were indeed only 5 cm, and there wasn't any fluid on baby's butt!!! My husband and I were waiting to hear the next steps, and when she came into the room we were shocked to hear "we're going to have to induce you tonight!" We were excited because it was hubby's birthday, but we were both nervous as heck to meet our first baby! So we went to the hospital, and they put in a foley bulb sometime that evening. Ugh, the foley bulb was uncomfortable as heck and caused a lot of contractions... Hah! Little did I know what I was in store for the next day. Mind you all, I was intending on a natural birth (which SORT OF happened, but I did have a little medication because HOLY SHIT, birth is painful!) Anyway, they started me on pitocin at 6 AM yesterday, and it took forever for things to get rolling. I had contractions all day, and I started out at 4 cm... but towards the evening it still looked like I was 6 cm and the baby was only -3 station. With the pitocin and everything... and it now being around 7:30 pm, I decided I needed the epidural because the contractions were on top of each other and it seemed like there was no baby in sight... how would I make it 4 more centimeters with no relief?! Lucky (or not so lucky) for me, the epidural IMMEDIATELY dilated me and dropped her into the birth canal. I literally felt no effect from the epidural because now she was ready to be born, and the pain and pressure on the pelvic area was not affected by the epidural. When they said "it's time to push and the epidural is not gonna help." My response was "SHIT!" Because I just thought, how can I handle any more pain without even a moment of relief?! Thankfully, pushing felt AMAZING, and it actually reduced the pain of each contraction because it was kind of like "counter-pressure" in the pelvic area. Plus, I actually had motivation and felt like I was accomplishing something! Anyway, after only 1 hour of pushing RRALLY damn hard (and the midwife was so proud, but I was just like "get this baby out of here!!!!") Joanna Mae Walsh came into the world! She was 38+2, weighing 6 lbs 14 oz (thank God because big babies run in my family!), and was 20.3 inches long. She is very healthy, although she was a little chilly for the first few hours, so we did a lot of skin to skin. She is BFing like a champ! I have to say, even though I had a little pain meds throughout the day and ended up asking for the epidural, I was so proud of myself dealing with those pitocin contractions all day. My husband was also an amazing birth partner, despite being so young and easily freaked out. He even watched the entire birth and his excitement seeing her head crowning gave me so much motivation! He even cut the cord! I was so proud of him for not passing out or getting wimpy on me. After the birth he showed me the claw marks on his hand from me clawing and pinching him all day. My bad! It was a very long and painful day, but I'm counting my blessings because it all only took one day, and everyone is healthy! I love my little Jojo. We are now recovering at the hospital, and I'm so overwhelmed with her beauty and with God's goodness in all of this. 🙂