Some more details

I was a little tired when I wrote the last post, so now that I have gotten a couple more hours of sleep, thanks to Ryan, I can write a few more things about labor and delivery the second time around.

My contractions started at 9:16am but didn't start getting painful til about 2:30. Ryan came home from school and got me and took me to the hospital. Poor guy...the contractions were REALLY getting bad and were about 4-5 minutes apart at this point so I was really crabby. I could tell he was really excited but, man oh man those contractions made it hard for me to be excited!

So we got to the hospital and got admitted pretty quickly. I was only in triage for about 20 minutes before they wheeled me to my room. So at 3:30 I was dilated to a 5. As soon as the first doctor came in, I started asking for the drugs. So I got the IV in about 4, and along with it came fentanyl! I loved this drug for the first 30 minutes until it wore off. But luckily I only had to wait for 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to wheel her stuff in for my epidural. Then--she had to leave! She had to assist another woman who was going to get an emergency C-section. So I wasn't too frustrated. It wasn't like she was stepping out to take a cigarette break or anything like that. And she had a cart in my room. It's amazing how much longer you can hang on when you know relief is coming!So 30 minutes later she comes in and starts prepping me...the contractions are getting closer and stronger at this point, so I was really impressed when the sticking part and shoving the needle up my back part went on in between just one interval of contractions. By 6pm, I couldn't feel a thing and could rest. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!

So I got to rest for a bit before Mom, Dad, and Emily came. Around 7, the doctor came to check me and see where I was at and I was dilated to an 8. I really enjoyed having everybody in there with me. We laughed and talked and watched "Men in Black", a family favorite. Just before 8pm, I asked the nurse to check me because I was feeling a downward pressure pretty intense but not really the urge to push. So she checked and said I was at a 9. Then about 5 minutes later I felt my water break. It was a really interesting sensation! So Dr. Saiz (my OB was on duty!!) came in and started prepping me and had me push a couple times to finish dilating to a 10. Then she left the room, and Dad left to go to the waiting room and Mom to go to the bathroom. We all figured it would be a while. After all, I pushed for 2 hours and 47 minutes with Monica. So Dr. Saiz came back and I had pushed just a couple times while she was gone like she asked me to. Then she had me bear down and push. Mom came in just in time to help with the oxygen. I only had to push through 2 contractions (about 6-7 pushes) and out came Leah!

Mom stayed with me that night and she was such a huge help!! I love my mom! Anyways, my very first impression of Leah was "Oh my gosh, she looks JUST like Monica!" It was deja vu for me. And for the first couple days I kept wanting to call her Monica. But slowly and surely the differences appeared and I only think she is Monica's mini-me when she is sleeping. With her eyes open, she doesn't look like her at all. So everything went well and FAST which I loved!