Eileen is Born!

Eileen was born on November 22, 2010 at 9:19 pm.

I didn't have a lot of fun being pregnant, but the birth was a great experience.

No, I'm not going to share gross details that would scare everyone off.  I promise.

Dr. Powell and I decided to induce labor on November 22, when I was 39 weeks pregnant.  David and I arrived at Monroe County Hospital at 6:30 am, and by 6:45 am, they had begun my pitocin drip.

I made it until noon without any pain relief.  At noon, things were beginning to get intense, so my labor and delivery nurse gave me something to reduce the intensity of my contractions.  David was a nervous wreck and was making me antsy, so I sent him, his dad, and my dad to play basketball for an hour.  When he came back, my contractions were more manageable and I was in a much better mood.

I made it fine until about 2pm, and then things got kind of rough.  So I asked for an epidural.

I'll go ahead and say it: I am not one bit ashamed of choosing to have an epidural.  I know that some women go through labor and delivery "naturally", and good for them.  They're really, really tough.  However, enduring excruciating pain is really not my thing.

Also, I had a lot of visitors throughout my labor, and I wanted to be pleasant.  My in-laws are very nice people and I was afraid that unbearable pain might have caused me to cuss like a sailor in their presence.  I would have been terribly ashamed of doing something like that.

By 3pm I had my epidural and I was pretty happy.  I was pain-free and sat around and visited, all while my labor progressed.  My sister Amy was kind enough to look at the contraction monitor to tell me when I was having contractions, how far apart they were, and how long they lasted.

I had lots of visitors.  I actually enjoyed myself.

My dad, David, me, my sister Amy, and my mom

David, me, David's mom and dad

David and me

David's grandparents (the Herrings) drove up from Mobile

At 7:30 pm, Dr. Powell informed me that I hadn't "progressed" since 6:00 pm, even though I was receiving the maximum amount of pitocin.

If you don't know what I mean by "progressed", ask a woman who has had a baby.  I will not give a lesson on the mechanics of having a baby at this time.

At 8:00, I still hadn't progressed.  Dr. Powell recommended that if no progression had been made by 9:00, then we should do a c-section.  

9:00 pm.  No progression.  I was going to c-section!  I was so tired that I didn't care one bit.  I came to have a healthy baby and I really didn't care how she got into the world.

Note to self: they do not allow you to eat or drink once you start labor for a reason- it makes you very, very sick.  They only give you ice chips.  Letting your ice chips melt so you can drink the water is cheating and it will make you throw up.  And that's embarrassing.

David and I got scrubbed up:

And I was wheeled to the operating room (I wasn't nervous at the time... probably due to the morphine in my IV drip)

My mom sure looked nervous:

And this is right before I realized that I was about to actually have surgery.  There was a moment where I was trying to figure out how to negotiate with Dr. Powell so that I could just leave the baby in my tummy.

But everything went perfectly.  In the end, David and I were blessed with a beautiful, perfectly healthy little girl:

Eileen was very alert from the moment she was born.  She did not come out crying; rather, she was wide-eyed and looking around at everyone.  The doctor and nurses said that she was definitely the child of two lawyers- looking around to make sure nobody was messing up.

David with Eileen right after she was born.

Our first family photo

David took Eileen out to show her to our families

Dr. Powell checking the baby out

Eileen was 6 lb, 9 oz and 20 1/4 inches long

And she has red hair!

Eileen also had a lot of admirers:

David's grandparents (the Steeles), David's brother Thomas, and my parents looked at the new baby in the nursery.

Then everyone went into the nursery to check out the new baby:

My parents seeing Eileen.

David's parents with Eileen.

My sister Amy touching her niece.

The ability for our families to go into the nursery to see the baby was one excellent perk of having our baby at MCH.  Eileen was the only baby born that day and the nurses in labor and delivery allowed our families to be a part of things as much as they wanted to be.  

Eileen's birth was a great experience for us all.  And everyone at Monroe County Hospital was wonderful- David and I are so glad we chose to have Eileen there!