Our Crazy-Filled Life: Stella Louise

Saturday evening I was having contractions, which was nothing new. But at about 2:30 I woke up because they were getting much stronger. I labored at home until 6am. By then the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart, they were pretty painful, and I was getting really uncomfortable. So I woke Josh up and after Grammy Sandy came in to stay with the boys we were off.

We got to the hospital and found out I was dilated to 3cm, which was a step up from 1cm when we'd gone in Tuesday. So they kept me. It didn't take long for me to want an epidural, but unfortunately my lab work wasn't back yet. Dr. Hancock came in to check me and I was already almost 5cm, so he decided to go ahead and break my water. I wasn't too happy that he didn't ask me about it first, because as I kind of suspected it only took about 30 minutes before I really wanted the epidural.

I got my epidural around 8:15, so after that I was feeling pretty darn good. Josh and I actually dozed off and on until about 10:30 or so. My nurse checked me about then and I was fully dilated. But Dr. Hancock was doing another delivery. I was surprised at how easy everything went after that. I only pushed with contractions for about 45 minutes and then Dr. Hancock was holding Stella Louise, cleaning her off.

I have to say, after having 2 c-sections I am actually very thankful and feel blessed that I was able to successfully deliver Stella vaginally. I'm now almost a week post-delivery and can't believe how amazing I feel. I did end up having a small episiotomy, but that hasn't been too bad. Much easier than the recovery from a c-section.

Probably THE best moment in my life, was when I actually got to watch as Stella was born and have her placed on my belly immediately. I didn't get to experience that with the boys, and now I just feel thankful that I did get that experience with at least one of our kids.