A Birth Story: Whitten Elsie part 1

Where do I begin?  I anticipated this day for 9 months, and now it has come and gone.  It makes me cry just thinking about it being over.  But what doesn't make me cry now a days?  Her being here is the greatest thing in the world.  I can't imagine my life without her in it.  I just miss feeling her kick my belly, and move and shake it.  Did I mention the hiccups....they were precious when she was in my belly.  Now.... not so much.  Ok, on to the birth story of my sweet baby girl

We were informed on Monday, February 13th that our baby girl was going to be brought into the world on Friday, February 17th.  We were both so excited, but so nervous.  We ran around like crazy that week trying to get everything finished around the house and in the nursery.  Thursday night was a little crazy. I don't know what happened to me, but I absolutely broke down.  Trammel was trying to tell me everything was going to be alright, but I just couldn't stop crying.  I could only think about how we weren't ready to be parents.  Then, I got sad because she was not going to be in my belly any more.  It was a rough night.  I cried pretty much all night about one thing or the other.  It was intense.  All of these emotions just took over. I eventually tried to go to sleep around 9:30.  Friday morning my alarm went off at 3:30 am.  I was feeling much better.  I got up and took a shower.  I made sure I had everything I needed.  Trammel packed up the car, and we were on our way... on our way to meet our sweet little girl. 



4:15 am.  Right before we left for the hospital. 37 Weeks!

We arrived at the hospital at 4:30.  We checked in and were in a room by 5:30.  The nurse came in and checked my progression.  I was at 2 cm. All I could think about was how it was going to be a long, painful day.  My doctor, Dr. Dunn, came in around 6:45.  She decided to go ahead and break my water and scrape my membranes.  I didn't ask what this entailed, but I probably should have.  It was the most painful part of my whole day. I cried.  My contractions started almost immediately.  I was having strong pains every 3-5 minutes.  It was intense.  I cried over these too.  Dr. Dunn told me that I could ask for an epidural as soon as I wanted one, but I thought I could tough it out for a little while.  WRONG.... after an hour of painful contractions I called my nurse and cried asked for an epidural at 7:45.  Around 8:30 the doctor came in to give me my epidural.  This was not as painful as I had heard.  It was definitely not as painful as having my water broken and membranes swept.  However, it was the most uncomfortable part of my day.  The doctor whipped me around like a rag doll.  He was talking to the nurse the whole time about another patient.  He never even acknowledged me.  He just flipped me over, took off my clothes, and taped me up.  Then he stuck me in the back, while I was having contractions.  When it was all over, he left.  I was thankful for him (REALLY thankful!), but it was just a little impersonable.  The nurse checkd me at 8:45, and I was at 3 cm.  Still such a long way to go. My epidural kicked in around 9:30, and Trammel and I got to enjoy about an hour of just talking about our baby girl.  I asked our doctor about what time she thought Elsie would join us. She told me around 3 or 4.  This seemed like forever away! I just couldn't wait....