I can honestly say that I didn’t think about Labor and Delivery much while I was pregnant. I knew any pain I would have would be short lived and completely worth it once I saw my baby girl.

So where do I begin… lets start with Friday.

Around 4am Friday morning I woke up to some new pains. I had been experiencing contractions for weeks and these were just a little different. After about 6 hours, of repetitiveness, I told Drew we needed to go to the hospital. We got checked in, I got hooked up to the machines and found out that I was still at the same progression as I was at my last Doctors Appointment. So we got released. We went home and I relaxed and the pains seemed to linger, but they were not as strong.

Then 1 am Saturday came I woke up in pain. The pains I felt Friday night were a cake walk compared to these. I didn’t want to be that Pregnant girl in the ER multiple times, so I waited and waited until I could no longer bare it any longer. Soo yep round two at the hospital. I just knew that I had to of progressed more and when they told me I was still the same, I  was so disappointed. I just knew I was having prelabor contractions and the pain was getting unbearable, but they still sent us back home. That afternoon the pains started getting even more intense. I am talking gritting your teeth, not being able to breath pain. I found myself breathing thru them and when they got to be 7 minutes apart, I just knew this was it and around 7pm we headed back to the hospital.

We got to the hospital, attached to all the machines and once again…. I was still the same. I did not cry very much my entire pregnancy, but this pain (and news) had me in tears. They had me lay there for an hour to monitor me and the pain got worse and worse which led to me getting sick. When the nurse came back in to check me after an hour, I had FINALLY progressed and hit the “magic” number to be admitted. hallelujah

We were moved to the birthing suite and I was hooked up to IV for some medicine to help my nausea. The contractions were getting more and more intense as I waited for my epidural. This was the worst part of the experience. My contractions started to come 2-4 minutes apart and boy was I in some pain. At this point I had been having contractions for over 18 hours and had not slept in basically two days. Needless to say, my body was plum worn out. My mom and sister (and of course Drew) were there to help me breath through them. About an hour and half goes by and finally my epidural came.

Getting an epidural was a piece of cake compared to what I had been going thru the last hour. Once the medicine took, I was a new person. Drew started to calm down at this point too. We talk about it now and he just couldn’t stand seeing me in so much pain.  It was about 11pm at this point. Sometimes epidurals can slow down your progress, but luckily that did not happen to me. I progressed pretty consistently and before we knew it, It was 3:00 and it was almost go time! Everyone left my suite and the nurse started to prepare the room for delivery. My doctor arrived about 45 min later and it took me 10 minutes to bring Olivia into the world. I was joking with the nurses in between pushes and making sure my weak stomach husband didn’t pass out   🙂

Seeing her for the first time and seeing Drew’s reaction is something I will NEVER EVER FORGET. We were both in tears and so thankful she was healthy. The entire nursing team was so fantastic and gave us so much time to bond as a family of three. I immediately nursed our new angel and loved having that moment with her. After a bit of time, we invited family back in and let them meet Olivia for the first time.

As I type this, I am staring at our sweet baby girl. I can’t believe she is ours! I feel so incredibly blessed to be given this gift. The amount of joy she brings me is indescribable. She is just everything. I knew I was put on this earth to be a mom and thank our good lord daily for making it happen.