It's been a while.

A lot of things have gone on. I'm not sure where to start. Let's see... I was completely miserable at the end of my pregnancy. I went to the doctor on March 30th and found that I had gained a couple more pounds. I was still dilated to 2 and 50%. My doctor decided on inducing me April 11th at 9 am. I would be 39 weeks and one day. So the end was near, yet it still seemed so far away. Anyone who has been pregnant knows how slowly the last few weeks drag. On April 2nd, I woke up with extremely bad lower back pain and had been contracting irregularly since the night before. So off to the hospital we went to see if anything was going on. As it turned out, I was contracting, but not good enough for them to keep me after all, I was still only 37 weeks. I turned 38 weeks on the next day. So we came home, I felt stupid and decided it was just a big waste of time for everyone involved. Saturday the 4th I was still contracting irregular, but had felt a continuous wetness down below. I waited for quite a while before calling the doctor then my husband who was at work. Off to the hospital again. No, my bag was not leaking, but I was dilated to 3 and contracting off and on. The doctor however decided to send me home again. Talk about a let down. I tried not to let it bother me, but was extremely disappointed. I had a doctor's appointment Monday. I was hoping she would send me to the hospital this time, but figured I would be going home again, so I didn't get my hopes up too high. Before I left for my appointment, I put on my mother's necklace. I'm not sure what possessed me to do it, I just felt like I needed her with me in some way. I had to wait longer than usual to see the doctor and I was getting a little nervous because as it was I was cutting it close to when I had to get my daughter from school. My mother-in-law had my two boys. I went and weighed in and discovered I had lost 2 pounds, so that made my total weight gain for the pregnancy 9 pounds. Doctor came in measured me, we listened to the baby's heartbeat, then she checked me. I was dilated to 4! Woohoo! She was sending me straight to the hospital because she didn't want me to give birth at home. I was very thankful for that. She also stripped my membranes. I have heard horror stories about how bad it hurts, but I didn't find it that bad. So I called my husband at work and told him that she was sending me to the hospital. He asked what for and I told him to have the baby. LMAO I think after the first two false starts, he was a little leery. I started contracting right after she did her thing, but they weren't too bad. I of course had to drive myself to the hospital because I was only 10 minutes from the hospital and anyone else who could have driven me was at least 20-30 minutes from me. It made no sense not to drive myself especially since I wasn't in any pain. It made for some funny conversations on the way to the hospital. I had to call some people to let them know I was going in and most of the responses were shocked I was driving myself. My husband called my dad who told him to not let me do anything until he got there because he had some shopping to do before he came to the hospital. Just like a man thinking he can tell someone when not to give birth.  My friend picked up my daughter from school and kept her for a few hours. So I get to the hospital at about 2, get checked in, into a very sexy ugly gown and got hooked up to the monitors. I was contracting about every 2-3 minutes, but still they weren't too bad. By the time I was getting hooked up to the monitors, my husband had arrived . My labor started to slow down at around 3:30, so they decided to give me a slow drip of pitocin, better known as the the drug that causes super painful contractions. LOL I also got my epidural about 4. I think it might have been the anaesthesiologist's first day. She stuck me, not once, but twice. All the while I was having some strong contractions, had to sit hunched over with the baby's butt in my rib cage. Not fun. So she started the medicine and immediately I had such a bad headache that I thought the top of my head was going to blow off. I should have guessed then that I was in for quite a time with this.  So I laid down  and the nurse literally put me on my head. She tilted my feet for far up that I thought that I was standing on my head. Thankfully, that did the trick and the pain subsided. The right side of my body was feeling no pain, but the left wasn't that lucky. I must say that it is an odd sensation to be having contractions, but only feel them on one side of your body. So I laid on my left side in an attempt to "level" out the medicine. It helped, but not completely. I was afraid to say anything though because I did not want her sticking me again. So I continued to labor and progress. My father had arrived around 5 or so. We just sat or I should I laid around, watched tv and talked. My doctor came in at 8, checked me, I was at about 5 and she broke my water. I was told that she was going to assist in a c-section, but since I had the epidural I would not feel the need to push. I thought to myself that she was crazy because I have always felt the need to push even with an epidural that worked completely. She was the doctor so I didn't complain they also decided to turn off my pitocin at that time.  At about 8:15, I started feeling pressure so I paged the nurse, she came in and checked me and I was at 7.   I asked my nurse how long c-sections take and she said about 45 minutes and I said good, because I didn't think it would be much longer. By 8:45 I was feeling every contraction and they were getting stronger. I rolled to my side told my husband to page the nurse because the baby's heart alarm went off, I was in a ton of pain and I knew the baby was coming. The nurse followed by another nurse came in. She checked me and I was fully dilated. So here I was ready to push and my doctor was with a different patient! I really didn't care though because of the pain, I just wanted the baby out. So they told me if I had to push, just to push. I vaguely remembering her calling the nursery for another nurse for the baby and paging the doctor. At 9:02 my doctor rushed into the room, I started pushing and my daughter was born at 9:08. Lauren Ida weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and 19 1/2in long. She has quite a bit of brown hair and dark blue eyes. I of course am totally in love. Her middle name was my mom's first name. I had planned that long before my mom got ill. My grandmother was Ida, she named my mom Ida, so it only seemed right that my daughter would carry on that name. I never took my mom's necklace off while I was in the hospital. I know she was there with us even though we couldn't see her. Well, that is it for today. I have some more stories, but need to go feed my daughter. She doesn't understand the whole blog thing. I am putting up the last picture of my belly before it was gone. I took it two days before she was born.