My labor story

On Monday, November 3rd I went in to the doctor's office for my weekly check up. I had an ultrasound first to check the baby's growth due to the fact that I had been measuring small. The ultrasound showed that the baby weighed only 6 pounds 2 ounces and when plotted on a growth chart from my previous ultrasounds, the growth seemed to have stopped. This was concerning enough to my doctor that she wanted me to get induced the next morning for fear that my placenta had stopped working efficiently and that the baby was no longer receiving enough nutrients from me. She assured me that the baby was fine, but it was still a bit stressful and emotional for me. During my exam that morning the doctor did a procedure called 'stripping the membranes' which separates my amniotic sac from the cervix in hopes to get the labor process going. It worked. I started having mild contractions Monday afternoon and by about 7 in the evening they were strong enough to clock. James and I had time to prepare for the birth and everything that needs doing. My parents picked Casey up and brought her to their house since we would be going into the hospital at 6:30 the next morning. I was only able to sleep from about midnight to 2am when the contractions became too strong to sleep through. So I got up and wandered around the house, packed last minute things and read my book until 6am when James got up. We headed to the hospital. At this time the contractions were coming every 4-6 minutes apart. They were strong but not brutal. I was in my hospital room and lovely 'johnnie' gown by 7 am. The doctor came in and broke my water at 7:30 am. Immediately after he did this my contractions ramped up in intensity and frequency. James left after they broke my water and went back to school to teach first period. We figured we would have many hours of boring, tv watching labor to come before the baby arrived. We were wrong. Luckily my mom came to be with me until James returned. The contractions started coming every two minutes and lasted for a minute, so I had one minute of pain and one minute of rest. The anesthesiologist was tied up in a c-section and did not administer my epidural until close to 9am, which turned out not to take anyways. Somewhere shortly after I told the nurse the baby is coming and she called for the doctor and I told my mom to call James and make sure he got up there. He was parking the car and made it back just in time. Once my doctor and James arrived I pushed for only 5 minutes and our second daughter was born at 9:29am, Tuesday November 4th. She weighed 7 pounds one ounce and is 19 1/2 inches long. She is perfectly healthy and the concern was for naught.