Happy Birthday!

I was scheduled to be induced at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 18.  My doctor had diagnosed me with "Gestational Hypertension", which basically meant that the pregnancy had caused my blood pressure to creep up there during the last month.  (This probably wasn't really a surprise to anyone who had seen me though because I was retaining a ton of fluid - as evidenced by my heavily swollen feet, ankles, legs, and hands!)  I was really glad to make it to my induction date because my doctor was out of the town the week before my due date and Chris and I both loved my doctor and wanted her to be the one to deliver our baby girl.

So we showed up at the hospital at 8 a.m., and were shown to our labor & delivery room.  They started the pitocin around 9:30 that morning and then broke my water and all that fun stuff to get labor started.  Here I am before getting an epidural - I was loving the dual foot massages from my mom and Chris!!

Overall, most of the day I was feeling pretty good and just kind of uncomfortable at times, but not really in too much pain.

We were so ready to meet our little girl and become parents!

I didn't want to get an epidural right away because I wanted to be able to feel some of the contractions, so I waited for a while before I asked for the anesthesiologist.  The first epidural didn't work (only my right leg was numb), but once they gave me the second one and that kicked in I was back to feeling good!

I didn't start pushing until close to 7:30 p.m., and after a couple of hours of pushing (with a couple little breaks in there), our baby girl finally made her appearance at 10:02 p.m.

-Ellie