Paige's Birth!

Paige Kennedy was born one year ago today (July 17th) in Spokane Washington. Here is the story... By the way- this might be way more information than you ever wanted to know, but oh well. Here goes...

On Monday, July 16th I went in for my 39 week appointment and my doctor said I was between 3 and 4 cm dilated!!! I was so excited. At the end of the appt. he said I was in "latent labor" and that he would be surprised if I made it through that night without going into active labor. I was thrilled. Then he said, "Let's get you registered at the hospital for tomorrow morning. If you don't go into official labor by then, we can give you some pitocin to speed it up." I was like, "Sounds great!"
All that night I had contractions, but they were never regular. We headed to the hospital at about 7 am. I was so excited and nervous. I was still between 3 and 4 cm, and they started me on pitocin at about 7:30 am. The contractions got more intense and regular pretty quick. They were painful, but definitely not as bad as I thought they would be.

At noon, I was still at 4 cm. The contractions were getting more painful, but I was still trying to put off the epidural. I didn't want to be stuck in bed all day once I got it. And I secretly wanted to do it natural, but I was scared that I would regret it once I started pushing. The nurses kept suggesting I just get it over with so that I could relax, so finally at 5 pm I was only about 5 cm dilated, and I decided to get the epidural.

That was a very unpleasant experience. The anesthesiologist was new (lucky me) and had to try 3 times. It was pretty painful and scary. Luckily, the pain went away pretty fast and I was able to relax. However, less than an hour later it started to wear off quickly. They put more medicine in, but it started to wear off again. I was somewhat numb, but not completely, and it was getting more and more painful. My doctor broke my water at this point and then the contractions were coming even closer together.

Two hours later I started to feel TONS of pressure. I told the nurse I needed some more drugs or something because my epidural just wasn't working. So the anesthesiologist put a "longer lasting" drug in my epidural thing. It lasted about an hour! I was pretty miserable. At about 8:30 pm I felt like I was gonna explode down there. It was a horrible feeling. There was so much pressure, and I started shaking uncontrollably. Then I threw up. I had imagined that once I got the epidural it would be smooth sailing. It wasn't smooth at all- let me tell you. So Nate went and got the nurse. She came in and Nate told her what was going on. She said, "That's great news! It means the baby is moving down and its almost time to push!!" I had read about those signs (extreme pressure, shaking, vomiting), but I forgot everything I had read at that point. She checked me again and I was 10 cm!! I had gone from 5 cm to 10 cm in 2 hours or less. She said it was time to start pushing.
That's when I really started freaking out inside. I was thinking, is it too late to get a c-section? I can't push this baby out! But at the next contraction she had me start pushing and from then on it was by far the most insane experience of my life. The contractions were about a minute apart and I just pushed like crazy. Nate could see her head almost right away when I started pushing. He kept telling me I was doing a great job. I could hardly think straight because it hurt so bad. I was SO focused on getting her out. They put a mirror up and I could see her head starting to crown, which terrified me. It made the pain and burning feeling worse when I could see what was happening down there. Yikes.

Anyway, after 45 minutes of pushing, Paige was born at 9:24 pm. As soon as she came out, the doctor laid her on my chest and Nate and I started bawling. We were so amazed. She was so sweet and perfect. I thought she was the tiniest little baby ever, and the nurses were like "umm, not really." She was 7 lb. 10 oz. and 20 inches long. Nate thought she looked huge. Anyway, it was a great experience, and once she was out, I couldn't feel the pain anymore. Sort of. :)

We love Paige so much, and we're so thankful that she chose to join our family.