On Thursday morning the 16th I woke up with cramps/contractions. I laid there in the early morning hours thinking this must be it. This was how it started with Ryan and then bam! He was here! I got up and got ready around 7 am and while getting ready I noticed that the contractions had stopped. I did have other labor symptoms though, so I was certain that it would be soon. I had my 41 week check in that afternoon at 4, so I decided to just go about my day. I was super tired that day and even napped that afternoon. I never nap! I still had contractions, but they weren't that strong.
I went to the Dr. and I was dilated to a 5. She told me that I would be having my baby that night! I decided to go home and eat and say my goodbyes to Harper and Ryan. I grabbed us all McDonald's on the way home.
At this point I was getting nervous and excited. I waited for Jacob to get home and then we headed up to the hospital around 7 pm. I got checked in and right away they wanted me to do the epidural. I wasn't so sure I wanted to do it yet because I was afraid that it would slow labor. I was at 7 and figured that this would all be over soon. I was wrong. I can't remember how much later it was, but eventually I got the epidural. I wasn't in too much pain, but I didn't want to wait to long like I did with Ryan. After I got the epidural twice! (the first one did not work) I did not feel well. I remember asking the nurse to turn it down, but she was not very nice and quite frankly I could tell that she did not want to be there and wanted to get my labor over with ASAP. Ugh. Well, I told Jacob to get her because I was going to pass out. The Dr. came in asap and gave me some blood pressure medication. The epidural had made it drop too low. It was a scary moment. I remember focusing on not passing out, but at the same time thinking oh crap! I'm going to pass out and wake up with a c-section! Thankfully I recovered quickly.
The night drug on and my Dr. ordered pitocin and broke my water. I did not want either of these things. Once again I felt like they were both just trying to speed up my labor. I was laying there for an hour before I told Jacob to go get the nurse to check me. I was at a a 7 earlier and on pitocin for an hour I mean come on! The epidural wore off and I was feeling my contractions. They were manageable, but I could tell it would not be good if labor went on much longer. Sure enough I was ready to push. I felt like everyone was taking their sweet time getting their stuff together and I was ready to push! I pushed for about 20 minutes I think, maybe 10 pushes. I pushed more for Aria then with the others. I remember thinking, holy moly is this going to work? Is she even make progress down there. Then ahh! She was out on my chest and she was perfect! This is where the epidural was great. I was able to enjoy Aria while being taken care of and wrapped up.
Aria Grace was born 3-17-17 at 1 am weighing 8.1 oz 20 inches long
