Here's a Little Story...

so my due date was june 30, but no baby arrived. my doctor was on vacation until july 5th. the plan was if there was still no baby when she came back, we would induce labor on the 6th. i was preparing for her arrival every day by cleaning the house over and over again, organizing and reorganizing all the baby items, and almost daily trips to babys r us. it was so much fun!
friday, the 3rd my dad arrived at my grandparents' house to spend the holiday weekend with us. we spent the day catching up and had a wonderful dinner. grandma made cornish game hens, squash, green beans, one of her unique salads, and oatmeal cookies and ice cream for dessert. my dad still didn't know the sex of the baby. he wanted to wait because he said it would be like christmas morning. he almost made it, but my grandpa accidentally spoiled it when he asked my dad if he was enjoying talking to his daughter and granddaughter. oh well...

The Big Day
saturday morning i awoke at 4am like usual to use the bathroom probably for the second or third time. i was surprised to see a little "bloody show" or part of my mucous plug. i was told in my childbirth class that the mp could appear as early as a couple weeks before your actual delivery so i thought i still had a few days at least. on my way back to bed i saw a wet spot on the carpet...after a few trips to the bathroom and the "toilet test", i determined that my water broke! i woke israel up and told him we need to pack our bags and get ready for the hospital. i think i told him 3 times before it actually registered. i wasn't having any contractions so we weren't in a hurry. after about an hour i called the on call doctor. she told me to wait at home, walk around and see if we could get things moving. if nothing happened we should come to the hospital by 10am. we made all our phone calls to parents and friends, took a walk down the street and back, did a load of laundry, and took a nap. by 9am i only had about 3 contractions that i could feel. but we packed up the car and off we went to the hospital.

once we arrived, i was admitted and in bed by 10:30am. the nurse said i was having contractions, but i still couldn't feel anything! i was still 0cm dilated, so at 11:30am the nurse gave me cervidal. it looks like a long strip of paper that has medicine on the end. they put it in next to your cervix to help soften it. wow! does it work! i started having stronger and stronger contractions. all i could do was lay on my side and focus on my breathing and squeezing israel's hand. they removed the strip when i was at 3cm and my labor continued on its own.

mary and my mom arrived about 1:15pm and brought israel lunch. they passed the time by watching i love lucy on dvd and taking turns holding my hand. the next time i looked at the clock it was 3:30pm. before i knew it four hours had passed since my contractions started! the nurse came in and asked if i was ready for the epidural. the anesthesiologist was ready to go home for the holiday and another one wouldn't be there until 7pm. so i guess it was now or never. it actually wasn't as painful as i thought it was going to be. i think it even hurt less than having the iv put in. the nurse checked my cervix again at 4:30 and i was 5cm. after about 15 minutes i couldn't feel anything. it was wonderful!

israel and mary had been keeping everyone updated. my dad was on his way to the hospital and arrived at the same time as my friends jon and danielle. then my brother-in-law david and his girlfriend suzy came followed by my mother and father-in-law and sister-in-laws diana and becky. we all talked and laughed and had a really good time.

by 6pm i had reached 10cm! i couldn't feel any pressure so she let me labor down until about 7pm. then she did two practice pushes with me. she could see the top of the baby's head so she called for the doctor to get there right away. everyone went downstairs to the waiting area. israel, my mom, and mary all stayed in the room with me. mary even videotaped everything! once dr. silberstein arrived i was ready to push! i still couldn't feel anything except a little pressure. at 8:10pm i pushed for the 3rd time. at 8:30pm our new baby girl was born! they put her right on my chest and i couldn't stop crying. it was unbelievable that this little person was actually real! after measuring and weighing her (7lbs 1oz and 19.5in long), the nurse handed her to me again. she was so beautiful...she looked exactly like israel.

all of the girls came up from the waiting room first to see evie, followed by all the guys. everyone was instantly in love with this new little baby. we spent a few minutes chatting and taking pictures until they had to leave. we packed up our things and the nurse took us downstairs to our room. while they took evie away to have her first bath, israel and i got a few minutes of sleep. they brought her back about 11:30pm. that first night was spent staring at her in her little bassinet making sure she was ok. we had a bunch of visitors the next day including my dad before he went back to arizona.







monday the baby and i were discharged and returned home. israel's family was there waiting to welcome us home. the perryman family brought us a pasta dinner that night. we were so happy to be in our home!

the rest of the week was very challenging, from having too many visitors, feeding every two hours, and getting almost no sleep, we were both exhausted. thank god we had our moms there to help us. israel's mom had a whole week off from work and my mom was taking half days. we were very blessed the first week to have so many people at the house cleaning, cooking, bringing dinner, and helping in any way they could.