Labor and Delivery

Well, we ended up getting to the hospital at about 8 or 8:30am. I was having pretty regular contractions and they were pretty painful. Brian and I had a quick bite to eat in the morning before we left the house. I will soon find out that this was not nearly enough to hold me over the rest of the day. When we got to the hospital I had to sit in the waiting room for a while and wait for a room. It was a full moon that night so labor and delivery were very busy!! It wasn't long that we waited- maybe 30 minutes or so. Then I got checked out and was dialated 5cm so I got admitted and relocated to my new home for the next 12 hours or so. As we were walking to the room they asked if I wanted an epidural. Of course, my answer was YES! as soon as you get a chance. They had 2 emergency c-sections that apparently took precedence over me. (hmph...) So I had to wait a while. I'm sure I probably waited a few hours but it wasn't too bad. The pain was there but it wasn't completely unbearable. In the meantime Brian and I just sat in the room and watched TV and I got checked out every so often to make sure I was doing ok. In the meantime they had put in my IV and started giving me fluids. Eventually I got my epidural- I hate needles and was a bit nervous about this. But it wasn't too bad. Brian was my support and watched the whole thing- he says the needle wasn't as big as he thought it was going to be. It took a little while for the epidural to kick in but once it did life was great. My left side was completely numb and I still could feel things on my right side so they eventually kicked it up a notch and I couldn't feel anything from that point on. I couldn't move my legs at all- it was kind of funny. We continued to wait and wait being checked periodically by different people to see how far dialated I was. Waiting was the worst and I was getting really hungry! I could only eat so many popsicles and they really don't fill you up. Brian left for a little while to go get something to eat- no point in both of us suffering! And we just continued to wait- watching TV doing pretty much nothing. I think we both fell asleep too at some point in time. By 5:30 I was dialated 9cm and was in Stage 1. So they wanted to start preparing me for the real labor. Really I think this was just because a shift change was coming up at 6:45. At about 6pm my room all of the sudden filled with people. My two doctors the commander that was taking care of me the whole time and a bunch of other people. I started pushing at about 6pm and little Nathan arrived into the world at 6:24pm. It was truly such an amazing experience. During the pushing I couldn't feel any contractions so they had to look at the monitor to tell me when to push. Brian was awesome and counted for me and I just concentrated on pushing. Luckily, it didn't take long and I honestly didn't feel a thing. I don't think I really even knew that he was out until they laid him on my belly. Brian cut the cord and then Nate was cleaned off while I was holding him. It was so amazing. I, of course, had tears of joy. It was great!! Nathan Brian Weiblinger had finally shown his face to the world at 6:24pm on August 7th, 2009 weighing in at 7lbs. 3.2oz and 20.5 inches long!! :) He is absolutely perfect!!