It all started at my 39 week appointment. We had recently had another ultrasound at 38 weeks because my measurements were still small. It revealed that our baby girl was now in the 13th percentile and was measuring quite little. So at my appointment, my doctor was a little concerned about this and said it would be better to get her out sooner rather then later. He wanted to schedule an induction before my due date because I had high blood pressure and the baby was measuring so small. My husband and doctor both took out their calendars and started looking at dates. As they did that I was sitting there and thought to myself, "what about me? Don't I get a say in the day?" I joined in the conversation and said I didn't want to have her on my birthday, which was the 26th, and Matt was going to be gone on March 1st so we couldn't do it close to then. So our only real choice was the next day. We decided on the 23rd and we went home.

The next day I prepared everything so that we were ready to go in that night. I called the hospital at 6:30pm as instructed by my doctor to see what time they wanted us to come in. They told me to be there at 8pm. By this time I was shocked that we would need to be there so soon and I quickly got everything we needed into the truck. We left our house an hour later and stopped by the store for last minute snacks. When we got to the hospital, we went to the maternity center and I picked up the phone to tell them we were here for our induction. The doors opened and we walked in. They greeted us and brought us to our room and we filled out the necessary paperwork. I put my gown on and sat in my bed that would be mine for the unforeseeable future.

They started the pitocin by 9pm and my contractions started. I watched the monitor and could see my contractions come and go. At first I could barely feel them but soon they started to get stronger. I moved from the bed to the floor with a pillow under my knees and it seemed to be more comfortable. As the contractions got stronger I would lean on my husband and grab onto his shirt to get through them. Hours had passed and I continued this method. I looked at the clock and time had flown by. By now it was 3am. My nurse came in and decided that with how much I am moving, it would be good to try the cordless monitors. We switched it over and I got back into the bed.

Three more hours passed by and now it was 6am. I had started to shake and the nurse had brought in some warm blankets to help stop the shivers. By now I was exhausted and between every contraction I was falling asleep only to be woken by the next one. I had been at 8cm for a few hours so we changed positions to help get to that ten. The contractions got more intense and my water broke. I went from an eight to a ten and by 8:45am I was ready to push. They called my doctor in and the first thing he said was "why don't you push the button." The nurse replied with, "She doesn't have an epidural." His face looked shocked and he looked over to me and called me a superstar. He totally thought I was going to get one. The pressure was getting stronger and I didn't want to wait anymore. I was ready to be done. I pushed for 45 minutes and my doctor told me that he would need to make a cut so that I wouldn't rip. I agreed and I had two more pushes and our sweet little girl was here. She was born on February 24th at 9:31am and was absolutely perfect.They put her on my chest and I held her for the first time. As the doctor stitched me up I pointed at him and said "You didn't believe I could do it!"By this I mean't couldn't do it without an epidural. Everyone in the room laughed and he said "Well, you proved me wrong."

Everything settled down after that and I got to take a shower. They measured her, weighed her, and checked her over and handed her to my husband. He smiled at her and I could see the love he had as she slept in his arms. We named her Everleigh Knight and she weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and measured 20 1/2 inches long. The rest of the day we waited to be moved over the the mother baby unit. I got something to eat and Matt got a little bit of sleep. After hours of waiting in our delivery room, finally a room opened up and we were moved over to the mother baby unit. Matt's brother's and their wives came over to meet her and my brother and his wife came too. We got to chat and it was nice to have some company.

We stayed the night and Everleigh got her first bath, hearing test, and the nurses put her into a cute little outfit. The next day, my doctor came in to check on how we were doing. I was up and walking around when he came by and he was very impressed with me. He talked about prescribing me some drugs for when we go home but then he said "the way that you handled labor, you will probably just go home and chew on a stick for the pain." We finished up our conversation with him and called in the nurses for our discharge instructions. We finally finished that and we got to go home. We are so full of love and we are learning how to be great parents every day. Can't wait for what the future has in store for us.