Birth was Definitely Not What I Expected

I was due November 13th and was absolutely convinced I would have my daughter by late October. Needless to say, I was wrong and when November 13th came and went, I was just a little irritated.

Thankfully, I had the most wonderful doctor who decided to schedule me for an induction on November 18th so that I could be home for Thanksgiving. I waited ALL DAY, and trust me it was the longest day ever and finally got the call at a little before 7 p.m. that I could come into the hospital.

My husband came home and I was in tears I was so excited. We got to the hospital at about 8 p.m. and everything was so surreal. As I am filling out the paperwork the door opens and in walks my Aunt Donna, Uncle Tony, and my cousins who came all the way up from Florida to be there when my daughter arrived!

At about 10 pm the gave me pitocin and they broke my water. Just to warn all of you soon to be mothers, it's probably the GROSSEST thing ever. And, nobody warned me that once your water breaks, there is pretty much no end to it. Here I am nervous as can be thinking something is wrong.

At a little after midnight I started feeling contractions! Nothing too major, seriously no worse than any menstrual cramps I ever had. I think it was 1:15 a.m. when I got my epidural, which I almost didn't get because I was so scared of the needle. Not to mention they made everyone, including my hubby, leave the room which made me even more nervous.

I was so excited I couldn't sleep. I was on pure adrenaline watching TVLand and just chatting with the small group of loved ones who were with me in the room. At about 6:30 a.m. my doctor came in and said it looked like I was ready to start pushing! According to everyone in the room, including my doctor and the nurse I did such an amazing job. I did jokingly ask for the vacuum at one point because I was just so tired.

At 7:11 a.m. our daughter Drew was born. It was so wonderful. I cried as soon as I heard her cry. My husband cut the umbilical cord, even though initially he had said he didn't want to. I held her for the first time and there are no proper words to explain how wonderful everything was. She was so perfect.

It's so weird to think about how scared I was when I was younger. I used to insist that I never wanted children because I was so scared of the birth process, but based on my experience, I would have to say it's not anywhere near as horrible as I imagined it to be. As a matter of fact, I told the nurse that came to take my blood before I left the hospital that Wednesday that I would prefer to give birth again over getting my blood drawn and I was pretty darn serious!