10kDilsey

DH and I welcomed our new little girl Sophia Katherine into the world on October 20th at eleven minutes past noon. She weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces and was 18.5 inches long.

A couple of folks here may have known (and offered much appreciated advice) regarding the fact that I was expected to deliver via c-section because the baby would not assume the head-down position. I was scheduled to go in on Wednesday morning for the c-section and when the doc performed the ultrasound we found that she had moved into position. (Yeah!)

Since the baby was head-down the doc started me on a drug designed to ready my body for labor. She was hoping that inducing would prevent my baby from turning again. I had mild contractions all day and through the night (I slept through most of them) and then started on pitocin Thursday morning at 6AM. That is when the contractions became really bad very fast. By 9AM I was only dialated to a 3, but the doc ok'ed an epidural anyway. (A piece of advice: HAVE the epidural, it is the single best thing to happen to laboring women!)

At first the epidural only took effect in half my body... it was a very weird feeling to have relief in half my body and still feel excruciating pain in the other half. But the anesthesiologist had me turn on my side and pretty soon I was dozing off.

They checked me at 11:15 and I was still at a 3. Then my water broke right after they checked me and by 11:45 I was at 9cm. The nurse kept telling me not to push (not a problem, I was feeling NO pain!) while she called my doctor to come back to the hospital. My doctor showed up at around noon, had my sister hold my right leg (the epidural had left me with no control of my right side, I couldn't even hold my leg up) so I could push, my husband was right next to my head, and my MIL was holding my left leg.

I had pushed twice and my sister said "hey look, she has a full head of hair!" Then she looked at the nurse and said "I'm feeling a little dizzy". Immediately after she slumped forward and then back, entangling herself in my IV line. My arm was immediately pulled downward as she slid to the floor. I turned to see if she was alright just as my doctor tells me "I need your attention. Let the nurse get her. I just need one more push and your baby will be out!" I pushed as hard as I could and my daughter was born while my sister was being pulled toward the wall by my MIL and two nurses who were shoving smelling salts in her face.

It was the single funniest moment in my family's history.