Quick update – Katie is here!

Just wanted to write a short post to announce that Katie Grace arrived after an extremely quick labor and delivery on December 14th!  She was 5 lbs, 4 oz at birth and 18 inches long, born at 2:18 p.m. And totally cute. I love her!

We checked in for the induction at 8 a.m., and by 8:45, started the pitocin. My contractions were irregular but manageable for about two hours. I was still 5 cm dilated. Sometime around 10:30, I had a sharp stabbing pain that radiated from my front to back on my left side. I’m still not sure quite what it was – thinking maybe the baby was laying on a nerve or something, but it was PAINFUL. We started discussing the epidural and by 11ish or so, the nice epidural man came in and I got the good stuff. It was awesome. Of all the things I’ve heard that can go wrong with an epidural, mine was pretty good. I could still move my legs, although they were numb. I could still feel the pressure of the contractions although they weren’t painful at all.

Around 1 p.m., my doctor came in and broke my water. I was still between 5-6 cm dilated so no progress on that front. We joked that I would be having the baby within the hour although I’m not sure anyone believed it. My doctor and nurse both told me that if I started to feel pressure, to tell them. Well, right away things felt really different…. definite pressure! I debated whether or not to call the nurse, but she came back after about 15 minutes anyway and said “something’s going on, isn’t it?” Yep. Time to push. In 15 minutes, I’d dilated to a 10 and it was baby time.

I practice pushed for a bit and really pushed for about half an hour. By 2:18, she arrived! She is healthy and beautiful and sleeps like a champ (so far – she’s only 5 days old, I suppose!)