Labor and Delivery!

Ok, finally I am caught up (kind of) and can start posting some pictures of Gracie! :) For several weeks before I went into labor I had been having contractions and she had dropped very low. At my 36 week appt my doctor was a little concerned that she was measuring so small so she had me go in for an ultrasound. I was very nervous that they were going to slip up and tell me the sex, but the lady was great - but right away she kept saying "NOT a small baby, definitely NOT" At 36 weeks the average baby weighs just under 6 pounds, she was supposedly measuring 7 pounds 4 ounces and had a 40 week sized head! The measuring big part made me feel better because I had been telling my doctor that I felt like this baby was bigger than Bradley, and I was right. BUT the 40 week head part SCARED ME! Even the ultrasound tech said that we needed to keep an eye on it because if it got much bigger they might want to induce me to make sure I can still push it out, so that worried me a little. At my 37 week appt I was measuring 1 cm, then the 38 week appt I only progressed to 1 1/2, so I was a little sad it wasn't more progress. Then my contractions seemed to be slowing down. I had been feeling like it was going to be any day for weeks and then that Saturday I was telling Tammy maybe I wasn't even close. Then Sunday I was having lots of contractions again. I even kept telling Kevin all day on Sunday "We have to take another picture of the belly, it's been a while" then going to sleep that night I reminded him that we forgot again and he said "oh well, we have time" Then I woke up at 3:47 with a hard contraction. They had never woken me up before, not even with Bradley. I was able to get back to sleep in between several hard contractions, but I definitely thought it might be something. My alarm went off at 5:45 to go to work and I sat there debating what to do. I decided to take a shower to see if they got worse (like they did with Bradley) but they didn't, they just stayed the same, so I started to think it was nothing serious and went about getting ready for work. When I went downstairs at 6:30 to eat breakfast I decided to start timing them and they were already 5 minutes apart lasting 45-60 seconds each, very consistently. So I called work and left a message saying I was going to be late, I was having contractions, but I might be in later. I went upstairs and layed in bed next to a sleeping Kevin and kept timing them. At about 7:30 Kevin rolled over, noticed me laying there staring at him, realized the time and that I wasn't at work and was confused. He said "What are you doing here" and I said "Trying to decide if I'm going into labor" and he was like "Why didn't you wake me!!?" :) I was confused because the contractions were consistent and spaced like when they tell you to go to the hospital but they weren't THAT bad yet, so I didn't feel like they were real labor. But I called the Dr to ask them what I should do and when I told them how long I'd been having them that far apart she said definitely go to the hospital. So when I was packing my bag and faxing over my pre-registration (things I meant to do weeks ago), they started to get worse! We waited for Bill to come watch Bradley and took off. We got to the hospital around 9, got checked in, and I let them know right away I wanted an epidural ASAP. She checked me at about 9:30 and I was 3 1/2 so she said as soon as she heard from my Dr they could give it to me - which took FOREVER! Finally at 11:30 the epidural guy came and I was SO excited I was a handful of contractions away from being free from pain - or so I thought! He did the whole epidural, they got me all settled, but the pain was not going away. He kept saying "That's weird, it went in fine" and "This has never happened to me in 5 years!" which didn't make me feel any better. He put a TON of medicine in and still nothing was happening. I kept saying "Just do it over!" but he wanted to make absolute sure that it wasn't working before he stuck me again, but finally he decided to take it out and start all over. After an hour of this he finally got the new one in and it started to work around 12:30 and they checked me again and I was 5 1/2. A little bit later we all noticed that Baby's heart rate was too high, it went above the line and was not coming down and the nurses kept coming in and watching it. It freaked me out! After 20 minutes of it not coming down they called the Dr in and she broke my water to see if that would help - luckily it did - RIGHT away! The heart rate came down and stayed normal after that. Then everything progressed really well. My only complaint is that about 8 cm the epidural started to wear off and I could feel everything! We called the guy back up to give me more meds but it wasn't helping and he said I was too close to pushing to do anything about it. So unfortunately, I was stuck with the pain. However, I do think that it helped me with the pushing because it went really fast, I only pushed for 12 minutes and "IT'S A GIRL!" She is simply amazing. She was born at 4:50 pm, weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces, 19 inches long - and she had HAIR! Well, not compared to some other babies, but compared to Bradley and what I was expecting - she definitely had hair! :) She was so amazing, as soon as they layed her on me she had big eyes, wide open, and she just stared at me the whole time. And Bradley is such a sweetheart - no surprise there! He LOVES her. He wanted to kiss her and cuddle her from the beginning. Here are some pictures as we were coming home from the hospital. Other than the heart rate being too high for that short period of time, and the epidural problems this time :) I still think it went great! Thank God! :) And now we're so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl, Gracelyn Olivia Kerr, in our lives!!!