Labor and Delivery

If anyone is interested, I decided to document Marlee's birth story. I figured this is the best way to document how the whole day went

I apologize if any of it is too much information!! Consider this your warning!!


I had my membranes stripped at my 38 week appointment on Friday 1/23/09, since I was already a good 3 cm and 75% effaced. The CNM warned me the hospital was busy and if it worked, we faced the possibility of delivering in traige. I took my chances just to get things moving. I had a good night and was able to rest pretty well. At 4:30 am, I woke Bob to let him know the contracctions seemed to be coming every 8-10 minutes. At 6 I finally showered and asked him to get ready too. We timed the contractions until 9:30, when I finally thought we should go to the hospital. I was still afraid we were going to soon and they would send us home. So we stopped at McD's for breakfast!! I had the pancakes and they were really good!! In triage, I was relieved to hear we were going to be admitted because I was already 6 - 7 cm. Now I was starting to think we waited too long because I knew I wanted an epidural. By the time we got to our L&D room and they fought with my IV and they gave me the fluids I needed, the anesthesiologist was dealing with an emergency with another patient. . . so I had to wait. I'm not sure how long I waited but it started to feel like an eternity. He finally came and the epidural went fine, that is until my blood pressure dropped and I started to feel faint. Within a few minutes, my pressures were good again. The epi took effect, I was finally getting some relief from the contractions. The CNM came in and broke my water and found I was already 9 cm. She came back in 30 minutes, I was 10 and ready to push. She asked me to push once just to see how close the baby was and she was already crowning. One more controlled push and her head was out. Then another push and she was out. I think it took a total of 3 minutes of pushing!
We were overjoyed to see our new addition! The midwife delivered her right to me and allowed me to hold her for the longest time. . it must have been a good 40 minutes before they even took a good look at her. We were starting to wonder if they were planning to look her over. Daddy was able to cut the cord too. Gee gee left shortly afterwards and brought Jessica and Rachel to see her too. They were very happy to see their baby sister!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience!