"Hi Baby"

by Christen

On July 9th, 2004 I woke up and went to the bathroom. Shortly after that I asked myself if I was having contractions. It didn't take long for me to be certain I was having contractions. I had taken all the classes on giving birth, read the books and asked my doctor a ton of questions. Yet when I saw the blood I wasn't sure if it was just what the books talked about or more than it should be. So around 1pm I called the hosptial and asked, they said I'd probably better come in just to be sure. My contractions were still at least 8 minutes apart then. I decided to eat really quick before then because I knew you couldn't eat at the hospital.

By the time we actually left for the hospital it was around 6pm. My contractions ranged from around 6-8min apart by then, and I had been told you didn't need to go in until they were 5 minutes apart or less.

When they did the check on me they told me I was 8 cm dialated and I must have a high tolerance for pain. With this assumption in mind they went on planning not to give me an epidural. After a few horrible contractions I made it clear to them I wanted the epidural. By then I was 9 cm and they broke my water. They started an IV and told me if the IV didn't get into me by the time I got to 10 cm I wouldn't get the epidural. I was quite worried, but it worked out so I got my epidural.

After 2 hours of pushing and having the epidural turned down they told me they thought they'd have to use the vacuum. So I threw everyone in the room out, but my husband out and we waited a few minutes before they used the vacuum. 45 minutes later at 12:28am July 10, 2004 my beautiful Courtney Anne was born with a dented head from the vacuum after coming out "sunny side up." My first words to her were "Hi Baby" when they placed her on my chest while they were cutting the cord.