Before the labor...

Mom and Dad Cook came to Atlanta for the baby's arrival. We had a great time shopping... well Mom and I did, while Taylor and Dad would walk the mall and have good, deep discussions. We had a fun time together.

Then I went to my doctors appointment, being 40 weeks and 3 days. They checked my fluids just to make sure I would be fine on waiting and doing it naturally without being induced. Sadly, the fluids were very low - 5.9. 10-20 is normal and 5-10 is "riskyingly low" as the doctor put it. So, she said that I should admit myself into the hospital, get my water broke, and get the baby out that night.

So, this is a picture of me right before going to the hospital...


So, I went home, called Taylor and we were off to the hospital. I was a bit upset because I wanted to just wait for the baby to come normally and have it happen naturally, but all those hopes went out the window. So, we went to the hospital at 5... and waited in the waiting room for about 4.5 hours. That was a bit tiring, but we finally got in and they asked a whole slew of questions, hooked me up to all the monitors and IV and blood pressure cuff. I wasn't particularly happy about all of that, but they wanted to keep the babies heart monitored most of the time because her heart beat would drop when I would have a contraction. After a little persuasion they let me walk around for about 40 minutes which really helped with the pain, but then they strapped me to the bed again.

At midnight the doctor came and said that I had been having contractions but they needed to speed things along so they broke my water and then the real pain began. Luckily, the doctor accepted my request to not be given pitocin. So, for the next 5 hours I was strapped to the bed trying to deal with the contractions. When I would get up to go to the bathroom and would have a contraction - what a difference on the pain scale! It wasn't nearly as bad. But then they would strap me back down. So, after 5 hours of that and exhaustion I gave in to the epidural and wow... that felt amazing. I will not lie. I fell asleep and so did Taylor.

Around 7, the doctor walked in, and said "OK, lets get this baby out, she's ready." 20 minutes later she was out and healthy. There were a few scares when her heart beat would drop really low during a contraction, but she came out fine. Feb. 19th, @ 7:19am, 7.7 lbs, 19 inches and the cutest thing since... ever! :)