It has been a bit hectic here and things are finally starting to slow down a bit. We still aren’t sleeping the greatest, but with Mike home we can take naps during the day. So I thought I would post my birth story here for family, friends, clients to see and then I don’t have to repeat it on 50 different websites/emails/etc. I also have some photos ready to show of baby Delilah!

On Thursday, November 6th (about a day before I was suppose to be induced) around 5AM I started having very mild but annoying contractions. Mostly because I figured they were false labor and secondly because I couldn’t sleep after they started coming about every half hour and waking me up enough to keep me up till I finally rolled out of bed. I then started getting ready for the following day, cleaning house, vacuuming, bathing Parker, etc. I was still having these contractions but they were very little and not that noticeable. My Dad, Mom, Jenny and Becky were heading up around 10/11 at night to stay with Parker and to be there when they induced on Friday. My dad showed up around 2 and my contractions had started getting a bit more painful. We decided to run some errands. First to the post office where I had a few stronger contractions while standing in line to mail photos. Then to the groomer, so the dog would shed less when baby came. We were then going to go get groceries, but we decided that I couldn’t handle that. So Dad went out by himself to get food and I stayed in timing my contractions. They started to get closer together and stronger and even though I still thought they weren’t real I decided to call the doctor. Mike got home right around this time and my doctor called me back and said to get into the hospital right away. I was still a little surprised, but we got everything all packed up, called my dad, and family and headed out. My mom and sisters headed out early so they could get to Holland in time and I still thought we would be sent home from the hospital. Or at least I thought that till right around when we got to the hospital and boom, my contractions started to be a lot less tolerable. They were very hard to handle as we headed to the maternity ward and when they checked me I was dilated to a 4/5. About 30 minutes later I talked to the nurse about how fast labor was last time and how when I started really going it was a swift process. She said she would check my again and said, yeah you are coming along fast. I was at a 6 and they ordered me my epidural. This took about 45 minutes for the tech guy to get set up and in place. We had some trouble with threading the catheter. Or at least that is how they explained it. In the mean time, my head was down and I was wrapped around a pillow and was hyperventilating a bit. The nurse had to hold my head down cause for some reason I couldn’t think straight and kept wanting to get up. Finally it was in and they checked me again, 8. They then broke my water and I once again explained that last time they broke my water it was really fast after that. So a bit later they checked me again and I was all set to push. We had arrived at 5:30 and we were getting ready to push some time after 8. It all seamed very unreal to me. Especially after pushing through two contractions and the doctor announcing that the baby was here. I was like, WHAT? I didn’t do anything! So she was born at 8:31 and was much easier than her big brother had been. The rest of the hospital stay was nice and mostly relaxing and I actually missed it after getting back home. So now we are just trying to adjust to a new life together and trying to keep up on the little things (like paying bills) that need to be done. ☺

I am sure Jenny will be thrilled that I posted this one, but I thought it was so funny. He he.

Parker is such a good big brother. He is a bit grumpy and possibly wants all the attention, but he still loves his baby sister.