The Birth Story

Needless to say, we all thought Natalie was going to make an early, fast intrance into this world, but she had other plans. Instead of being a January baby, she held out till February after all!

Well, labor started Saturday night at 10pm. The contractions were fairly regular, but nothing too strong...just enough to keep me awake all night wondering what in the hell was going on with my body. Anyway, at 6am Sunday morning I finally called the hospital and they told me to come on in to be monitored. At this point we still had no idea if we were going to have our baby that day or not.

So we get to the hospital and get checked in. They hook me up and the nurse checks my cervix. She says it is between 2-3 cm dilated. We are a bit concerned because my doctor told me the Tuesday before that I was 3-4 cm dilated. Anyway, the contractions were showing up and the baby's vitals were strong so I just layed there and waited. The contractions slowed down to 20 minutes apart. I started walking around...they picked up a bit but were nothing too strong. Finally, my doctor broke my water at about 1pm. I stood up to walk around and instantaniously the contractions started to get really strong and frequent. I think the epidural came about 2:30pm...it was great. I layed in the bed and watched as my contractions happened about every 2 minutes after that. I would have died if I had to experience those contractions for 3 more hours. Anyway, I started to feel the contractions again about 5:30pm. At 6pm, I started pushing and Natalie was born at 6:28pm.

We all thought she would be bigger. After all, the ultrasound I had two weeks before she was born said she was already 6 lbs 12 ozs. By the way I felt the last month of pregnancy, I was just sure the kid was a 9 pounder! But she was just a little thing and we love her just the same.