The Big Day

On Monday morning May 4th I went into the hospital and the nurse started my IV around 7:45am and I started to feel lightheaded. She came back about an hour later and broke my water. I was feeling pretty good most of the morning. I started to get stronger contractions as the day went on. I was trying hard not to take any pain medications but caved in when I was about 4 cm dialated. The nurse gave me some pain killers through my IV. The pain was becoming more and more intense. When I hit about 6 cm I couldn't take the pain any longer and was begging for the epidural. I was starting to break down into tears and after the doctor came in to administer the drug I felt a whole lot better. My whole body went numb literally. I jumped when he gave me the numbing medication for the epidural and had to hold even stiller the second time around. This did cause the contractions to slow down. When it was finally time to push around 9pm I could barely feel the sensation. The doctors and Frank could see when I was about to have an contraction and coached me though this part. I pushed for about an hour and was relieved when it was all over. It was hard to hold my breath for that long and Frank started slowing down the count right towards the end. The doctor told me I did such a good job pushing that I should teach a class on how to have a baby. As soon as baby Savannah was born they layed her on my chest. My first thought was that she was so small and beautiful. I thought she looked just like a "Nichols" when she was born. It's funny I actually have a picture of ME as a newborn that looks just like the baby.