The delivery

After the shower i continued to go to school, trying to stick with the plan of delivery very close to the due date (just before springbreak). Then a few days later i started getting pretty tired of being pregnant and was just ready to have the baby asap (all the late night bathroom trips, awkward movements, baby sleeping in my rib cage was killing me). By the 39th week everyone kept asking me if i was having any contractions, did the baby "drop", what if the baby comes late...others were saying i should be at home resting not at school and definitely not driving. But I felt healthy and not too concerned about having contractions while driving. Then I started worrying about my baby being born on feb 29th. Then i kept asking my sisters and sister-in-law what will the contractions feel like, does your water really break like you see on tv, what`s the mucus plug look like?

It must`ve been all that shopping on friday because in the middle of the night like 330am the mucus plug came out and i was calling people (my mom, my doctor) thinking i was going into labor any second now. Apparently it`s still hard to predict when labor will start. Then just before midnight my water broke...just like on tv. my fiance kept asking me what to do and i turned the shower on and told him to get me something to wear...i definitely didnt tell him to call 911 but there i was still in the shower and i hear an ambulance (and my boyfriend telling me to get out of the shower because he thought the baby might drop out ;-). I ended up at the hospital with the most randomest outfit and no socks nor underwear because of him. I also ended up at a random hospital (northeastern) instead of jefferson because we didnt drive ourselves and the ambulance takes you to the closest maternity ward. i didnt start having any contractions until about 45 minutes later and they werent that bad and i could see them on the monitor and prepare myself for the big ones...by 5:30am though i didnt think i could take those big contractions anymore. i dealt with the iv, the cervix checking, the sensors put inside me to monitor the baby`s heart beat but when they said i was only 5 cm dilated and it might take 4-5hrs to get to 10cm i said i wanted an epidural. Of course it`s not like you`re instantly medicated i had to go through several more contractions before the epidural and i also had to get a cathether put inside me (which they did not tell me was necessary until after the epidural). The epidural worked but if only i had the hindsight to realize i would be ready to push in not 5hrs but in 1hr, I would not have gotten it. At 6:15am just before the epidural i was 5.5cm dilated and at 7:20 i told my mom i felt like i had to push. No one believed i jumped to 10cm that fast, 2 nurses checked to make sure...and then i was trying to "hold it in". They moved me to this delivery room and i started pushing around 8:05 (i kept my eyes on the clock and everywhere but below the whole labor/delivery) and when they said we can have this baby out in 2 pushes i was ready. 9 minutes later I heard her crying. Amazing. Truly amazing. My fiance cut the ambilical cord and she looked so big i couldnt believe she was inside of me for 40 weeks, and that i just pushed out a 19.5in long baby. My baby...6lbs 6oz Patricia Mackenzie. One week later and I`m still a little awe struck. I`m a mommy. Me.