Best Day of My Life!

May 9th 2013. Greatest day of my life...

I was scheduled to be induced on May 9th 2013 because my due date was May 6th 2013. So I wasn't too far over due. I couldn't sleep the night before because I was SO excited to meet my baby boy! I had to be up at 5 AM so I could be at the hospital at 7 AM. I was actually very excited to be induced because that allowed my parents to come and be here when I had the baby. I didn't really know what to expect going to the hospital though, so that made me a little nervous but I was also very excited to go through the birthing experience. Once the nurse got me all hooked up to an IV and started pumping me with the Pitocin, I got super nervous and excited. I had not had any practice contractions so I had no idea what one felt like but once I started having them it felt natural and normal.

 I walked around for about 10 minutes and then the doctor came in to break my water. After I had been laboring for a couple hours I decided that I was ready to have an epidural at about 5cm dilated. The anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural and it took forever because you have to stay perfectly still when he puts the needle in your back all while you're having contractions. After it had been about a half an hour I told the nurse that I didn't feel numb and I could still feel all the pain. She didn't believe me so she got a bag of ice to put on my body to see if I could feel if it was cold or not. I could feel the cold bag all over my body so then she decided to call the anesthesiologist back because the epidural had fallen out. After about another hour  the anesthesiologist finally came back to my room. I had to again sit through him putting the needle in my back while having severe contractions. The nurse and anesthesiologist told me that since I was already 7 cm along and moving so fast that the epidural would not kick in before I started pushing.

 After going through the pain of having two epidurals I ended up not getting any pain relief because as soon as I had the epidural the doctor came in and I delivered the baby. My mom and Jeff were perfect during the whole thing, they really helped me concentrate on the breathing during each contraction and they were even spoon feeding me broth and Jell-O and ice cubes and everything to make me feel better. I dilated really quick and I was only in labor for  6 1/2 hours when I was expecting to be in labor for a long time, so that was a big plus to the whole labor experience for me.

My baby boy Declan Quincy Wayne Stumpf was born at 4:37 PM. He was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 inches long. He is a healthy perfect little boy! I LOVE being a mom! It is the greatest thing that has happened to me.